Surveys, a cognitive tool

This paper analyzes the simplification that occurs when studying surveys from a conventional perspective and demonstrates the need to study them from a of cognitive-constructivistperspective.. This implies seeing the surveys like an iceberg, divided in two parts: one visible, in the case of surveys constituted by technical and statistical procedures, and the other concealed, based on the heuristic and socio-political assumptions upon which the former are supported. Henceforth the paper questions the methodologically positivist and politically liberal assumptions upon which surveys are based and explains how pertinent it is to consider different assumptions of a cognitive and constructivist nature. At the same time, the paper introduces some of the consequences of these changes on the procedures as we know them now, changing conventional assumptions in the constructivist direction. Finally the paper considers the type of society that is framed by current assumptions and that which would be framed by the alternatives..