Collecting data

Home      Courses I teach     Social Work Program

SW487 Syllabus

Collecting the Data

Chapter Nine

Ways of collecting the data

•Consider neutrality, applicability and pragmatics

•Structured and semistructured interviews

•Questionnaires

•Mail to individuals

•Face to face/telephone

•Administer to groups

Designing questionnaires

•Neutral questions

•Like items together or mix

•Reverse items to avoid response set?

•As short as possible

•No double barreled questions

•No double negatives

•Mostly closed questions, some open ended questions?

•Instructions

•Explanation

•Visually appealing, lots of space. Clear font.

•Cover letter

•Informed consent?

•Anonymity - researcher can't match response to subject

•Confidentiality - researcher knows, but protects subject's identity

•Standardize instructions

•Depth of explanation

•Return date and instructions

•Contact person (principle investigator)

Response Categories

•Likert Scales
bullet•Anchored ( 1 - Agree, 2 - Neutral)
bullet•Continuum (1-10)
bullet•Neutral category?
bullet•Does not apply category?
bullet•Use the same scale
bullet•Assure variation in response, at least five, prefer seven
bullet•Evenly balanced

Common types of Likert Scales

•Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale

bullet•All in all, I'm inclined to feel that I'm a failure:
bullet•–5 Almost always true
bullet•–4 Often true
bullet•–3 Sometimes true
bullet•–2 Seldom true
bullet•-1 Never true
bullet 
bulletStudent Evaluation of Instruction
bullet•Overall, I rate the quality of the course as:
bullet•–Excellent
bullet•– Good
bullet•– Average
bullet•– Fair
bullet•– Poor
       
bullet•Market Survey
bullet•In rating this product, I
bullet•–Dislike Completely
bullet•–Dislike Somewhat
bullet•–Dislike a little
bullet•–Like a little
bullet•–Like Somewhat
bullet•–Like Completely
bullet•Performance assessment
bullet•Overall, my supervisor lets employees know what is expected
bullet•–Never
bullet•–Seldom
bullet•–Sometimes
bullet•–Often
bullet•–Always
bullet•Attitude Index
bullet•Overall, I think big business has too much power
bullet•–Strongly Agree
bullet•–Agree
bullet•–(Neither Agree nor Disagree)
bullet•–Strongly Disagree
bullet•–Disagree
bullet•Other Types of Scales
bullet•Target Problem Scales, p. 176, recording frequency and severity
bullet•Goal Attainment Scaling, p.177
bullet•Id the problem
bullet•–Specify change
bullet•–Set goals/expected outcome
bullet•–Score outcomes
bullet•–0 is expected outcome, +1,2 greater than expected; -1,2 less than expected
bullet