ISSP Administrative Modes Working Group

In 1996-1997, seven ISSP countries co-operated on a research project to investigate the extent to which modes used to implement ISSP surveys might affect results. It is sometimes argued, for example, that sensitive questions are more readily answered in self-completion formats or in telephone studies than they are in face-to-face studies. (This has led to various techniques being developed to handle sensitive questions in face-to-face situations.) Currently, the only modes permitted in the ISSP are face-to-face and self-completion. According to the rules, the questionnaire should always be presented in a self-completion format. Interviewer formats which would otherwise be used in some countries are extremely compact in form and radically different from formats given to respondents to read.

The countries involved in the experiment were Canada, Germany, Hungary, Norway, New Zealand, the Philippines, Slovenia and the USA. With the exception of New Zealand, each country fielded the 1996 Role of Government in two different modes - their normal mode (face-to-face or some form of self-completion) and another mode. The modes chosen in different countries depended on what they normally used and what alternative modes could be operationalised.

The ISSP mode experiment provides cross-cultural information about modes at different levels. First, it provides data about design effects from an academic survey not designed for experimental purposes. The survey covers important topics and dimensions in political research, such as political efficacy, political participation, civil rights, the role of government, etc. Second, the principal investigators who conducted the experiment answered a detailed methodological questionnaire which provides information about how adaptation from mode to mode was carried out. For more information on the project and its current status, contact Knut Kalgraff Skjåk.

© GESIS Janet Harkness 03.12.1999