Monday, August 4, 2014

Lecture notes on surveys

• tool for measuring attitudes and orientations  in a large population
• best method available to collect original data for describing a population too large to observe directly

• Respondents – those who participate in surveys – they must be competent and willing to answer

2 types of sampling methods
Non-probability sampling – for obtaining information about specific groups
• > available subjects
• > purposive/judgemental sampling
• > snowball sampling
• > quota sampling – in cells

Probability sampling
• primary method of selecting large, representative samples
• Provide useful descriptions of the total population
• Sample of individuals from a population containing essentially the same variations that exist in the population
Terms to remember
Representativeness – if the aggregate characteristics of the sample closely approximate those same aggregate characteristics in the population
Population – aggregation of elements from which the sample is selected
Sample – selected element or respondent
Sampling bias – those selected are not typical or representative of the larger population they have been chosen from
Sampling designs
Simple random sampling – assigning a number to each element in the list
Systematic sampling – every kth element in the total list is systematically chosen
Stratified sampling – appropriate numbers of elements are drawn from homogenous subsets of the population
Cluster sampling – initial sampling of groups of elements (clusters), followed by the selection of elements within each of the selected clusters – can be multi-stage

Sampling error – the degree of error to be expected for a given sample design
Confidence level – accuracy of our sample statistics fall within specified interval from the parameter (e.g. 95%, 99%, 90%)
Questionnaire
• Instrument designed to elicit information useful for analysis
• Operationalization – measurement
•  > validity – what we intend to measure
•  > reliability – extent to which measures give consistent results
• Open-ended questions – respondents provide answers
• Close-ended questions – respondents elect an answer from the list of options
Tips
• Make items clear – “Do you agree with the peace agreement?”
• Avoid double-barreled questions – “Do you think that K-12 will make our students globally competitive and our education standards globally at par?”
• Make relevant questions
• NO difficult words
• NO negative questions – “Do you NOT agree..”
NO questions with possibly different standards – “Do you think that students today are liberal?”
NO leading questions – “Due to changing times, do you agree that government policies must adapt to the changes?”
NO assuming questions – “How often do you go out with your gf/bf?”

Exercises: Improve the response options
Answers should match the questions and set of options – “Are you satisfied with Ateneo education?” “barely, sometimes, often, very”
Answers should be mutually exclusive – “How often do you study?” “everyday, everynight, every weekend, once a week, more than once a week, monthly, never”

Designing a questionnaire
Start with easy questions
Place questions that are related in one block
Design should be logical
Introduce difficult and sensitive questions carefully
Do not raise those in the beginning nor end
Instructions must be clear and consistent

References:
Babbie, E. (2001). The practice of social research. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Sterkens, C. (2010). Class handouts on quantitative methods. Radboud University Nijmegen

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Lecture notes on human inquiry and research process

- Human inquiry is about knowing and learning things about the world around us; about predicting future circumstances conditioned by present ones

- Science has a special way/method of knowing and learning - conscious, deliberate, rigorous and systematic undertaking through research

- Sources of what we know: tradition, authority, and common sense can provide information and solve problems; the knowledge we get from these sources sometimes not true

- Idea refers to how and why something can plausibly work

- Model refers to a representation of how something works

- Approach/perspective refers to a point of view or way of looking at something

- Research is about "finding out" through observation and interpretation

- Three types of research: exploratory, descriptive (who, where, when and what), explanatory (how and why)

- Aims of research: understand the social patterns of behavior and probe deeply into the idiosyncrasies of a particular case

- Unit of analysis - object of observation
       - individuals
       - groups (families, gangs, ethnic, religious groups)
       - organizations (barangays, towns, cities, colleges, army)
       - social artifacts (product of people or their behavior) poems,                                          jokes, discourses, books

- Research process: interest, idea, theory (explanation), conceptualization, operationalization (measurement), choice of research method, population and sampling, observation, data-processing, analysis, and reporting

Inductive - the process from data to ideas
Deductive - from ideas to data

Modes of observation: experiments, survey, qualitative field research

Reference:
Babbie, E. (2001). The practice of social research. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.