Survey research is the method most frequently used by sociologists to study American society and other large societies. Surveys allow sociologists to move from a relatively small sample of individuals who are accessible as carriers of information about themselves and their society to the broad contours of a large population, such as its class structure and dominant values. Surveys conform to the major requirements of the scientific method by allowing a considerable (though by no means perfect) degree of objectivity in approach and allowing tests of the reliability and validity of the information obtained.

Like many other important inventions, a survey is composed of several more or less independent parts: sampling, questioning, and analysis of data. The successful combination of those elements early in the twentieth century gave birth to the method as it is known today. (Converse 1987 provides a history of the modern survey).

Sampling