The Applicability of Survey Research Design using Vignettes : Cases of “Women’s Ideal Life Courses” and “Status Evaluation of Married Women”

The survey research design using “vignette(s)”, the description of fictitious situations, have been applied mostly to the subjects related to policy. Focusing on the merits of vignette to provide concreteness (reality) by description of a situation and to control the factors affecting responses, this paper explores the applicability of vignette survey to sociological subjects which treat one’s choice of behavior and/or one’s attitude. Two cases of survey are introduced to compare with the findings from previous studies; one is on women’s ideal life courses, another is on status evaluation of married women, both of which are conducted for female students in a university. The survey of “ideal life course” shows that each respondent’s choice of work, which has been set to make single choice in a general survey design, is variable with family environments differed such as child’s age or husband’s income. Additionally, the effects of factors on the degree of division of household labor are examined and compared. The survey of “status evaluation” is designed to make respondents compare and evaluate fictitious married women in various situations, while in the design of previous studies they have evaluated only respondents’ own situation. It is found that a married woman’s status is measured not only by the status of her own but also by those of family members, which contributes to examine hypothetical models on women’s status. Finally, several points to be kept into mind in conducting vignette surveys are also discussed