Surveys and Interviews PDF

Non-experimental Designs: Surveys and Interviews  Survey  Useful way of obtaining information about people’s opinions, attitudes, preferences, and behaviors simply by asking  Can be in the form of:  Written questionnaires  Face-to-face inte...

Non-experimental Designs: Surveys and Interviews  Survey  Useful way of obtaining information about people’s opinions, attitudes, preferences, and behaviors simply by asking  Can be in the form of:  Written questionnaires  Face-to-face interviews  Mail / Computer / Internet / Telephone Surveys  Focus Group Discussions  Survey Advantages Useful for collecting data on sensitive topics Useful for making inferences about behavior Used in conjunction with many kinds of research designs in the field and in the laboratory. Can gather large amounts of info in a shorter period of time  Survey  Important Points for Consideration  Open-ended (open questions) or closed questions (structured questions)  Levels of Measurement – the kind of scale used to measure a response.  Response Styles – the tendencies to respond to questions or test items in specific ways, regardless of the content. Willingness to answer Position preference (arrangement of answers) Manifest content – the plain meaning of the words that actually appear on the page Yea-saying or Nay-saying  Survey  Important Points for Consideration  Reliability - extent to which the survey is consistent and repeatable  responses to similar questions should be consistent  similar responses across different survey-givers  similar responses if it is given to the same person more than once  Validity - extent to which a survey actually measures the intended topic  Survey Sampling Random Nonrandom  SAMPLING What is a “Population”? What is a “sample”? Different samples produce different data How accurately we can generalize our findings from a given sample to a population depends on its representativeness The extent on which we can generalize our findings depends on how closely our sample mirrors the characteristic of the population Probability vs Nonprobability Sampling Probability sampling Nonprobability sampling The entire population is The population is not known completely known Each individual in the Individual probabilities population has a specifiable cannot be known probability of selection Selection is based on Sampling is done using a factors such as common random process based on sense or ease with an effort the probabilities to maintain representativeness and avoid bias.  Probability Sampling  Simple random sampling-each individual in the population has an equal and independent chance of selection.  Systematic random sampling-sampling is obtained by selecting every nth participant from a list containing the total population after a random start  Stratified random sampling-used when the population contains specific subgroups to be included in the sample.  Cluster random sampling-random selection of groups instead of individuals from a population.  Non-probability sampling  Quota sampling-a type of convenience sampling involving identifying specific subgroups to be included in the sample and then establishing quotas for individuals to be sampled from each group.  Convenience sampling-individuals are selected on the basis of their availability and willingness to respond, that is, because they are easy to get.  Purposive sampling-samples are selected because the individuals reflect a specific purpose of the study  Snowball sampling-individuals in the sample are referred to by other individuals in the study. A researcher locates one or a few people who fit the sample criterion and asks these people to locate or lead him to additional individuals.  Interviews  Face-to-face/one-on-one  FGD (Focus Group Discussion  often used by qualitative researchers to explore on people’s experiences, attitudes, or opinions. Disadvantage:  Time consuming  Expensive  Interviewers must be highly trained in the skills and techniques required for interviewing  Requirements of an Interviewer  Ability to listen  Clear, logical mind  A good memory  Curiosity  Establish a good rapport  Sense of tranquility  Humour  Asks relevant questions  Efficient and careful in preparing the interview Structured vs Unstructured Interview  Structured interview -same questions are asked -data obtained can be quantified  Unstructured Interview -free-flowing -information obtained may not be usable for content analysis or statistical analysis