|
New Boston Housing Authority Telephone Survey (TDI)
due in two weeks Our client is interested in peoples' perceptions of public housing and specifically in perceptions of the New Boston Housing Authority (NBHA). Many people associate "public housing" with gangs, thugs, guns, drugs, crime, and such. While this bad reputation is deserved in some cities and some places, this perception does not match reality in many places and certainly not NBHA. NBHA has a lot of long term residents in its total of 230 apartments. Some have rented with them for 25 years, with many tenants being elderly. We are being asked, then, to assist NBHA in gaining an understanding of local perceptions and finding ways to improve peoples' perceptions or to capitalize on good perceptions if that is what it enjoys. NBHA is especially interested in this issue because it is just now completing renovation of its 40 unit Dogwood Plaza apartments and wants to assure that it attracts people who should be interested in what it has to offer. One possible way to explore this issue is to interview people who live in and near New Boston. These New Boston and surrounding area residents could be asked what comes to mind (cognitive responses, beliefs) when they think of a government housing authority, what comes to mind when they think of apartments owned by a housing authority, reasons (feelings and beliefs) that they might have for wanting or not wanting to rent such apartments, and such. One way to interview people is through telephone depth interviews. Below is a letter that could be sent to this client to propose a TDI study. On the assumption that our client agrees that a telephone survey should be conducted in the manner proposed in this letter, write the script for the TDI. Your survey must include a combination of quantitative measures as well as exploratory qualitative probes. For the sake of a classroom assignment, your quantitative questions must include at least one each of a Likert scale, a semantic differential scale, and a nominal or ordinal scale of styles that were discussed in this course. Do not invent your own kinds of scales. Refer to our New Boston Housing Authority focus group recruiting screener assignment: your telephone survey must be based on the same general research objectives of that study as well as follow the same general issues of quota sampling. In these telephone surveys, however, we would like to interview a total of 100 respondents with 33 living within the immediate area of New Boston, 33 living in the DeKalb area, and 34 living the outlying areas. For a survey of this type, it is appropriate to offer a participation incentive via an honorarium. For this study, indicate to the respondent that the survey is expected to take fifteen minutes and that an honorarium of $25 will be sent if the respondent qualifies to take the survey and completes the survey. Perceptions regarding confidentiality are crucial. Therefore, you must include the following confidentiality statement in your initial offer to conduct the survey: "Your identity will not be shared with anyone. Any lists or other information with your name will be shredded after this project is completed." Note that it is likely that you would not be administering the survey yourself. Therefore, anything is not meant to be read on the phone should be put in bold and capital letters. Be sure to clearly identify branches and skips when needed. Don't forget to identify your survey form with the study number and study title.
Dear Mr. Davis, As a followup to our telephone conversation, here is a proposal to help find answers to the kinds of questions that you had. Our understanding is that you suspect that many people associate "public housing" with gangs, thugs, guns, drugs, crime, and such. You are concerned that this will affect the quantity and quality of people who are interested in applying to live in the Dogwood Plaza apartments. Objectives The present study would be an initial exploration into questions associated with peoples' perceptions of government housing authorities, their perceptions of apartments owned by a housing authority, and their perceptions of the New Boston Housing Authority and of the Dogwood Plaza apartments. We are especially interested in reasons that they might have for wanting or not wanting to live in an apartment at Dogwood Plaza. Methodology Our proposal is to randomly call New Boston, DeKalb, and surrounding area residents. The respondent's location would be determined by asking the zip code as an initial screening question after the introduction. Once past initial screening questions, we would continue to interview the respondent if s/he is willing. The total number of respondents in the study would be 100, including 33 from New Boston, 33 from DeKalb, and 34 from surrounding areas. Question Areas Recommended survey flow is as follows:
Analysis Some of the questions will be quantitative (e.g., attitude scales) and some questions will be qualitative (open ended). We will provide you with a summary of the numerical averages of responses to quantitative questions, and will provide a written summary of the qualitative responses. Where appropriate, these will be broken out by respondent demographics. Timeline Our estimated timeline is as follows: Week 1: Write and edit a telephone questionnaire (in consultation with and approved by you). Weeks 2 and 3: Conduct the telephone surveys. Week 4: Compile and analyze data, write reports. Week 5: Present results to you orally and in written report form. Budget Since the materials that we would consume are part of the normal, reasonable costs for a student, there will be no cost to you for materials. Since this is a student learning project, there also would be no cost to you for time. However, since students cannot be asked to incur the costs of long distance phone calls to outlying areas, you would have to allow these calls to be made from your shop. Mr. Davis, please let me know if you need any additional information. Thanks for considering us in the conduct of your research. Sincerely, [sign your name]
[type your name]
|