Michael Hader – författare

Sozialwissenschaftliche Methoden wie Befragungen, Beobachtungen und Inhaltsanalysen kommen in der Marktforschung, bei Studien zur Zeitgeschichte, in der Stadtplanung und in der Kommunikationsforschung zum Einsatz. Erst recht werden sie von Soziologen und empirisch arbeitenden Politikwissenschaftlern benötigt. Egal, ob im Rahmen der Evaluation eines Präventionsprogramms oder für die Erhebung des Gesundheitsverhaltens oder für eine Studie zur sozialen Mobilität, die sichere Handhabung des sozialwissenschaftlichen Instrumentariums ist stets die Voraussetzung, um belastbare Ergebnisse zu erzielen. Das Buch stellt wichtige Informationen für die Anwender und Entwickler dieser Instrumente zur Verfügung. Es behandelt die theoretischen Grundlagen der Methoden, die Schritte bei der Konzipierung und Umsetzung eines Projekts, die vielfältigen Varianten der Datenerhebung, die bei der Auswahl der Untersuchungseinheiten einzusetzenden Methoden ebenso wie die Prinzipien, die bei der Auswertung undDokumentation der Befunde zu beachten sind. Mithilfe zahlreicher Beispiele gelingt eine besonders anschauliche Darstellung.

The first part of this book deals with the coverage of landline and mobile phones in Europe. It presents an overview of the coverage and the use of phones as well as the resulting strategies for telephone surveys. The second part addresses the challenge of so-called “mobile‐only” households for survey research. Numerous statisticians present new sampling strategies like dual frame designs and findings of current projects. In dual frame designs, respondents are contacted both via mobile phone and landline. The third part focuses on the usage of mobile phones in the general population, while the fourth part of examines if different modes of data collection (mobile vs. landline) have an impact on the response quality. The last part analyses the first chapter and offers suggestions and advice on how to conduct surveys and polls, in both academic and market research.

Social science methods such as surveys, observations and content analyses are used in market research, studies of contemporary history, urban planning and communication research. They are all the more needed by sociologists and empirically working political scientists. Whether in the context of evaluating a prevention programme or for surveying health behaviour or for a study on social mobility, the confident handling of the social science instruments is always a prerequisite for obtaining reliable results. This book provides important information for users and developers of these instruments. It deals with the theoretical foundations of the methods, the steps in the conception and implementation of a project, the many variants of data collection, the methods to be used in the selection of study units, as well as the principles to be observed in the evaluation and documentation of the findings. With the help of numerous examples, a particularly clear presentation is achieved.

In the fourth, updated edition, river sampling has now been included in the selection process, digital methods are increasingly presented and, against the background of the new data protection regulation, research ethics and data protection are also updated.