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138 PART II: Descriptive MethodsOVERVIEWKey ConceptAre Americans romantic? Are they romantic compared to the French, whoare renowned for their passion for passion? These were some of the questionsasked in a 2009 survey of American romance—a survey conducted specificallyto compare findings to a French survey regarding love and relationships(Schwartz, 2010).Survey results indicated that Americans are just as “in love” as the French,even more so when considering older respondents. For individuals over age 65,63% of Americans described themselves as “in love,” compared to 46% ofFrench in that age group. When do Americans and French respondents differ?When asked about sex. One question asked, “can true love exist without a radiantsex life?” A majority of Americans (77%) ages 18–65 claimed this was true,whereas only 35% of French claimed true love can exist without such sex.Based on these results, we can describe people’s responses about being in love.Also, we can predict responses about being in love based on age and nationality(French or American). The findings also allow us to predict, knowing whethersomeone is American or French, what he or she may say about true love andsex. But does being French or American cause these attitudes? That is anothermatter entirely.Correlational research provides a basis for making predictions. Relationshipsamong naturally occurring variables are assessed with the goal of identifyingpredictive relationships. As we discussed in Chapter 4, a correlation coefficientis a quantitative index of the direction and magnitude of a predictive relationship.We will discuss correlational research in the context of survey method o-logy later in this chapter.Surveys typically are conducted with samples of people. In this chapter wefirst introduce the basic logic and techniques of sampling—the process of selectinga subset of a population to represent the population as a whole. You willthen learn about the advantages and disadvantages of various survey-researchmethods and survey-research designs. The primary instrument of survey researchis the questionnaire, and so we describe the basics of constructing agood questionnaire. We also discuss an important question that needs to beaddressed in survey research, “Do people really do what they say they do?” Weconclude the chapter by critically examining a broader question, “Just what canwe conclude about causality when a correlation exists between two variables?”USES OF SURVEYS• Survey research is used to assess people’s thoughts, opinions, and feelings.• Surveys can be specific and limited in scope or more global in their goals.• The best way to determine whether results of a survey are biased is toexamine the survey procedures and analyses.We discussed in Chapter 4 how psychologists use observational methodsto infer what people must have been thinking or feeling to have behaved in acertain way. Survey research is designed to deal more directly with the natureof people’s thoughts, opinions, and feelings. On the surface, survey research is