Abstract
In the 2008 Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) Pretest, the factorial survey method was tested for the first time for use in the SOEP longitudinal study. In this paper, we describe the construction and application of the vignette module, which has its origins in the field of justice research and is used in particular in the measurement of income justice. We show that the factorial survey method is applicable in large-scale survey research when taking certain constraints into account, and that respondents of varying ages and educational groups are able to deal sufficiently well with answering the questions. The results obtained suggest that older respondents tend to take fewer dimensions into consideration in forming their opinions. Further studies will be needed to determine whether this is evidence that the evaluation tasks were too complex for these respondents and should thus be interpreted as a method effect, or whether it represents a valid substantive result. The results of the study demonstrate convincingly that alongside occupation, education, and performance – factors relating directly to employment – familial aspects such as civil status, the partner's employment status, and number of children constitute important criteria for determining what constitutes a fair income. The factor survey in the 2008 SOEP Pretest offers diverse analytical potential, both from a methodological point of view and in terms of the empirical results obtained. The positive experience with the 2008 SOEP Pretest suggests that the SOEP vignette module can be used effectively in a future wave of the main SOEP survey.
Highlights
Over the last decade there has been a marked increase of studies in academic and nonacademic attitude and decision research which use a comparatively new method: the factorial survey design.1 The factorial survey is an experimental method which confronts respondents with hypothetical descriptions of objects or situations
The use of the factorial survey method is driven by the promise that it allows for a more differentiated measurement compared to classical item based approaches in attitudinal research
The main advantages of the factorial survey design in comparison to item-based measurement are: (1) The vignettes describe a situation more realistically – in everyday life people judge, decide or evaluate on a bundle of information and this is what factorial designs consider in their multidimensional descriptions; and (2) the experimental approach of the design, where respondents rate vignettes in which the dimensions vary independently from each other
Summary
This series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel Study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Conchita D’Ambrosio (Public Economics) Christoph Breuer (Sport Science, DIW Research Professor) Anita I. Drever (Geography) Elke Holst (Gender Studies) Martin Kroh (Political Science and Survey Methodology) Frieder R. Katharina Spieß (Educational Science) Martin Spieß (Survey Methodology, DIW Research Professor).
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