Approach Newsletter - Spring 2010

Welcome to Approach – the newsletter from the social research team at Ipsos MORI Scotland. Now on its fifth edition, the newsletter aims to provide an insight into new research methods and ideas, as well as taking a fresh look at more established ones. We hope that you continue to find Approach an informative and useful source of news, thoughts and comments.

The latest edition features three articles, each of which looks at different aspects of researching people’s behaviour and attitudes. Researching Behaviour Change examines two different models of behaviour change and explains how they can be used to help shape research design. Using Segmentation in Social Research demonstrates how segmentation analysis works and how it can be used to identify the factors that influence respondents’ attitudes and behaviours. We also have a book review of Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, which examines the rational, and often irrational, thought processes that people use in making decisions and the implications this has for researching behaviour.

If you would like to offer feedback or suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future editions of Approach, please email Sara Davidson or call Sara on 0131 226 8673.

Researching behaviour change

Growth in interventions aimed at changing behaviour has fuelled a demand for evaluation across a wide range of policy areas. However, the process of behaviour change is complex and lengthy. So how do you go about measuring success? This article uses two existing models of behaviour change to show how these can help identify realistic and measurable goals and shape research design. Read more link

Using segmentation in social research

Basic approaches to analysing survey data often don’t fully reveal the patterns that exist beneath the surface. However, there are a range of analytical techniques that allow us to delve deeper and identify what is really driving survey findings. This article explores how segmentation can be used to help social research in this respect. Read more link

Book Review: 'Predictably Irrational'

Here we review the book Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, in which he carefully dismantles anything you ever thought you knew about how people think and what influences behaviour. Ariely’s goal is to understand decision-making and why people’s decisions are so often not based on a rational analysis of needs and wants or costs and benefits, but habitual choices, anchored in arbitrary initial decisions, judged relative to alternatives and manipulated by politicians and marketers. Read more link

News and Research Summary

Latest news from Ipsos MORI Scotland including a summary of Election 2010 polling; the launch of the Applied Quantative Methods Network (AQMeN), surveys of Scottlish Local Authority decision makers and the Scottish Public Opinion Monitor. Read more link

Add this page as a favourite.Add to My Ipsos MORI Bookmark and share this page.Bookmark & Share Email this page.Send this page by email Print this page.Print this page

Scottish Public Opinion Monitor

Scottish Public Opinion MonitorOur new opinion monitor offers a cost effective way for you to reach a representative sample of 1,000 adults from across Scotland about issues that matter to you.

Read MoreRead More

curved border.

Latest public opinion in Scotland

Latest public opinion in ScotlandThe results from Ipsos MORI Scotland’s most recent Scottish Public Opinion Monitor have been released, providing an insight into the views of the public across a range of issues.

Read MoreRead More

curved border.

Previous Newsletters