5.1. Survey Research
Evaluate some of the primary considerations, specifically related to counselling contexts, you might need to
take into account in creating an effective survey that minimizes bias and sampling error.
Recognizing sources of bias is important for authors and consumers of scientific literature as
they conduct and read surveys that will impact policy and practice. The survey could produce
suboptimal and erroneous results or become outright harmful.
Survey research within the counselling context can be especially complex when assessing the
efficacy of psychological treatments. Donkin et al. (2012), found this to be true in their
investigation of sampling bias in an internet treatment trail for depression. The researchers
discovered selection bias arising from rigorously defined inclusion and exclusion (only 22.2% of
people prescribed antidepressants would have met the criteria for the study in question, and only
17-25% would meet inclusion criteria for efficacy trails). When explored further, it was found
that those who were included in the study tended to be younger, more educated, Caucasian, and
the illness was likely to be less severe, indicating a selection bias that preferred participants who
were more likely to recover from depression. Self-selection bias also threatened internal and
external validity in the study, since those who did not participate in the survey were more likely
to have poorer psychological health then those who could participate. Researchers could
minimize bias by determining factors associated with consent and participation and develop
regression models or multivariate analysis using the data from participants who met inclusion
and exclusion criteria. Assessing potential variables such as values about research or
psychological attitudes that might have informed consent status and motivation would be helpful
as well.
Donkin, L., Hickie, I. B., Christensen, H., Naismith, S. L., Neal, B., Cockayne, N. L., & Glozier, N. (2012).
Sampling bias in an internet treatment trial for depression. Translational psychiatry, 2(10).