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Survey and Interview Approaches to Studying Occupants

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Exploring Occupant Behavior in Buildings

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Abstract

This chapter provides guidance for survey development related to building occupant research. Many researchers studying occupant behavior have used survey methods to collect self-reported data of occupant behaviors in buildings, either exclusively or in tandem with data gathered in field or laboratory studies. The chapter also serves as a how-to guide for issues such as: (a) how should survey questions be conceptualized, (b) are the questions measuring what was intended, (c) how should questions be written so that participants understand the intent, (d) how can the validity be increased for the survey itself, (e) how does one select the appropriate sample for a survey, and (f) how should one select the appropriate survey tool for data collection? Real examples of occupant behavior survey research and case studies offer lessons learned and precedent for future research efforts. Finally, the last section of the chapter presents a brief discussion of interview methods.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Design and Construction, Washington State University, PO Box 645815, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA

    Julia K. Day

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  1. Julia K. Day
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Correspondence to Julia K. Day .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Building Science Group, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Andreas Wagner

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    William O’Brien

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA

    Bing Dong

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Day, J.K. (2018). Survey and Interview Approaches to Studying Occupants. In: Wagner, A., O’Brien, W., Dong, B. (eds) Exploring Occupant Behavior in Buildings. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61464-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61464-9_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61463-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61464-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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