Part I. Understanding Secularization: 1. The secularization debate 2. Measuring secularization 3. Comparing secularization worldwide Part II. Case Studies of Religion and Politics: 4. The puzzle of secularization in the United States and Western Europe 5. A religious revival in post-communist Europe? 6. Religion and politics in the Muslim world Part III. The Consequences of Secularization: 7. Religion, the Protestant ethic, and moral values 8. Religious organizations and social capital 9. Religious parties and electoral behavior Part IV. Conclusions: 10. Secularization and its consequences 11. Re-examining the theory of existential security 12. Re-examining evidence for the security thesis.

/pdf/sacred-and-secular-religion-and-politics-worldwide-4cxl4gjg3t.pdf

Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide

Psychologists have worried about the distortions introduced into standardized personality measures by social desirability bias. Survey researchers have had similar concerns about the accuracy of survey reports about such topics as illicit drug use, abortion, and sexual behavior. The article reviews the research done by survey methodologists on reporting errors in surveys on sensitive topics, noting parallels and differences from the psychological literature on social desirability. The findings from the survey studies suggest that misreporting about sensitive topics is quite common and that it is largely situational. The extent of misreporting depends on whether the respondent has anything embarrassing to report and on design features of the survey. The survey evidence also indicates that misreporting on sensitive topics is a more or less motivated process in which respondents edit the information they report to avoid embarrassing themselves in the presence of an interviewer or to avoid repercussions from third parties.

https://www.learnlab.org/research/wiki/images/a/a8/Tourangeau_SensitiveQuestions.pdf

Sensitive questions in surveys.

Background One of the main primary data collection instruments in social, health and epidemiological research is the survey questionnaire. Modes of data collection by questionnaire differ in several ways, including the method of contacting respondents, the medium of delivering the questionnaire to respondents, and the administration of the questions. These are likely to have different effects on the quality of the data collected. Methods This paper is based on a narrative review of systematic and non-systematic searches of the literature on the effects of mode of questionnaire administration on data quality. Results Within different modes of questionnaire administration, there were many documented potential, biasing influences on the responses obtained. These were greatest between different types of mode (e.g. self-administered versus interview modes), rather than within modes. It can be difficult to separate out the effects of the different influences, at different levels. Conclusions The biasing effects of mode of questionnaire administration has important implications for research methodology, the validity of the results of research, and for the soundness of public policy developed from evidence using questionnaire-based research. All users of questionnaires need to be aware of these potential effects on their data.

Mode of questionnaire administration can have serious effects on data quality

Although it is well established that self-administered ques- tionnaires tend to yield fewer reports in the socially desirable direction than do interviewer-administered questionnaires, less is known about whether different modes of self-administration vary in their effects on socially desirable responding In addition, most mode comparison stud- ies lack validation data and thus cannot separate the effects of differ- ential nonresponse bias from the effects of differences in measurement error This paper uses survey and record data to examine mode effects on the reporting of potentially sensitive information by a sample of re- cent university graduates Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three modes of data collection—conventional computer-assisted tele- phone interviewing (CATI), interactive voice recognition (IVR), and the Web—and were asked about both desirable and undesirable attributes of their academic experiences University records were used to evaluate the accuracy of the answers and to examine differences in nonresponse bias by mode Web administration increased the level of reporting of sensi- tive information and reporting accuracy relative to conventional CATI, with IVR intermediate between the other two modes Both mode of data collection and the actual status of the respondent influenced whether respondents found an item sensitive

/pdf/social-desirability-bias-in-cati-ivr-and-web-surveys-the-1p7csrjrtz.pdf

Social Desirability Bias in CATI, IVR, and Web Surveys The Effects of Mode and Question Sensitivity

The sociology of religion is experiencing a period of substantial organizational and intellectual growth. Recent theoretical and empirical papers on the sociology of religion appearing in top journals in sociology have generated both interest and controversy. We begin with a selective overview of research on religious beliefs and commitments. Second, we investigate the influence of religion on politics, the family, health and well-being, and on free space and social capital. Finally, we review rational choice theories in the sociology of religion and the controversies surrounding applications of these perspectives.

Recent developments and current controversies in the sociology of religion

Compared to conventional interviewer-administered questions about attendance at religious services, self-administered items and time-use items should minimize social desirability pressures. In fact, they each reduce claims of weekly religious attendance by about one-third. This difference in measurement approach does not generally affect associations between attendance and demographic characteristics. It does, however, alter the observed trend in religious attendance over time : in contrast to the almost constant attendance rate recorded by conventional interviewer-administered items, approaches minimizing social desirability bias reveal that weekly attendance has declined continuously over the past three decades. These results provide support for the hypothesis that America has become more secularized, and they demonstrate the role of mode of administration in reducing measurement error

Linda Stinson

Papers

Data collection mode and social desirability bias in self-reported religious attendance : Church attendance in the United States