Survey (human research)
Survey research is often used to assess thoughts, opinions, and feelings. Surveys can be specific and limited, or they can have more global, widespread goals. Psychologists and sociologists often use surveys to analyze behavior, while it is also used to meet the more pragmatic needs of the media, such as, in evaluating political candidates, public health officials, professional organizations, and advertising and marketing directors. A survey consists of a predetermined set of questions that is given to a sample. With a representative sample, that is, one that is representative of the larger population of interest, one can describe the attitudes of the population from which the sample was drawn. Further, one can compare the attitudes of different populations as well as look for changes in attitudes over time. A good sample selection is key as it allows one to generalize the findings from the sample to the population, which is the whole purpose of survey research.
European Survey Research Association
The European Survey Research Association (ESRA) was founded in 2005 to provide coordination in the field of Survey Research in Europe. According to the website, ESRA's main goal is to encourage communication between methodologists and researchers in substantive fields such as sociology, psychology, political science, and other disciplines employing survey data. Its main two activities are the biannual conferences on survey research, and the open access journal Survey Research Methods (SRM).