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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: haqihana who wrote (749152)	9/13/2006 4:10:01 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Re: "What really amazed me about that survey, was that it was done be students of Baylor." Really? That's interesting, I didn't know that. (All I noticed in the news item was 'Gallup polling' <hired to ask the questions across the country I suppose>, and 'Sociologists at Baylor School for Religious Studies' <so I assumed that some of the professors there designed the study, and ran the analysis of data>.) I was looking forward to the more 'in-depth' analysis that the news reports said should be coming out 'next year' or so.... "Seems to me that both "higher power" and "cosmic force" are primarily the same thing." I believe it's proper procedure in polling to ask people what they think... and then record their answers. Not try to TELL THEM what you think they should believe. :-) (So... the only 'right' answer to that question would be: WHATEVER people SAY. :-) Design choice in polling is usually between multiple choice questions <which 'force' answers into boxes the poll designer came up with>, and essay-type questions --- where the respondents write down answers <frequently volunteering stuff, their own ideas & words, etc.> to questions themselves. There are advantages and disadvantages to BOTH styles of questioning. Multiple choice forces people to choose (often come down off of a fence they might be straddling), at the expense of some 'accuracy'... while the write-your-own-answers format of the Essay Question style gets into much more depth about people's true thoughts, but is often messy and more difficult to analyze/catagorize. Often polls use a mix of both question styles to try to overcome some of the shortcomings of question style. "Am always loaded for bear." Glad to hear it. (Hope you are not selling their gall bladders into the Chinese folk medicine market though... that would be a no-no!) <GGG>