Research Skills One
Oh, no!
Please, no!
Not statistics!!
Aims of the two first year Research Skills
courses:
Basic grounding in research skills -
designing questionnaires and experiments
data analysis using statistics, Excel and SPSS
writing up studies using standard presentation conventions
Outline of this course (Research Skills One):
Issues in designing questionnaires and experiments.
Descriptive statistics - effective summarising of data.
Statistical tests (correlation, Chi-Square, nonparametric tests for
comparing groups or conditions).
Using SPSS ("Statistical Package for the Social Sciences") for data
analysis and Excel for producing graphs and tables.
Organisation for this course:
One lecture and one practical session every week.
(Lectures: Fridays at 10 am in Chichester Lecture Theatre until
week 12 – December 5th).
Practical sessions - details on Sussex Direct (you are split into
lots of smaller groups).
Course requirements:
Assessment is by a mixture of coursework and
exam:
Coursework –
SONA research participation (4 hours/16 credits this term): 10%
Lab-report 1 10%
Lab-report 2 20%
Exam Unseen exam (in winter assessment period): 60%
Overall pass mark (exam and coursework combined): 40%
Course documentation, handouts, lecture slides:
Go to Study Direct - this course is
“Research Skills One” (C8511)
OR
Type “Graham Hole” into Google
Lecture slides available on Study Direct the day before the
lecture.
Lecture podcasts available on Study Direct the day after the
lecture.
Click on
this link
Everything
you need to
know for this
course
Questionnaire design:
Perhaps now you'll fill in
my questionnaire?
How does the way you collect data affect the data
collected?
How does question wording affect people's answers?
Stages in questionnaire design:
1. Formulate the research question(s) clearly.
2. Identify the population and sample.
3. Design the questionnaire: think about question
wording; questionnaire formatting; mode of
administration; data analysis.
4. Pre-test the questionnaire.
5. Administer the questionnaire, after it has been revised
in the light of (4).
Samples and populations:
Population: a complete set
of things (e.g. all of
humanity).
Sample: a subset from a
population (e.g. first-year
psychology students).
For valid inferences to be made about a population's
characteristics, a sample must be representative of its
parent population (e.g. similar in age, SES, IQ, etc.)
Methods of obtaining questionnaire data:
Cost
Data quality:
Response rate
Respondent
motivation
Interviewer bias
Sample quality:
Postal
questionnaire
Personal
interview
Phone
interview
Internet
questionnaire
Low
High
Moderate
Low
Low
Low
High
High
Moderate
High
Low
Low
None
Moderate
Low
None
Low, unless
high response
rate
High
Moderate to
high,
especially
with random
digit dialling
Moderate, but
improving as
Internet access
widens
Postal
Personal
Questionnaire interview
Phone
interview
Internet
questionnaire
Possible interview
length:
Short
Very long
Long
Short
Ability to clarify
and probe:
None
High
High
None
Anonymity:
High
Low
Low
Low
Dependence on
respondent’s
literacy:
High
None
None
High
Control of context
and question
order:
None
High
High
Depends
Goals of Questionnaire design:
1. To obtain facts about a person.
2. To obtain information about their attitudes and beliefs.
3. To find out what a person has done (behaviours).
Questionnaire wording:
1. Should be exact.
2. Should be simple.
3. Avoid biased or emotive words.
Schuman and Presser (1981): subtle changes of wording
may influence responses.
e.g. “Should the Government allow public speeches by a
Communist?” produced 25% fewer pro-free-speech
responses when allow was replaced with forbid.
4. Make all alternatives clear.
e.g. Payne (1951): "Do you think most manufacturing
companies that lay off workers during slack periods could
arrange things to avoid layoffs and give steady work
throughout the year?"
63% - companies could avoid layoffs.
22% - couldn’t avoid layoffs.
15% - no opinion.
Same question plus phrase "…or do you think layoffs are
unavoidable?"
35% - companies could avoid layoffs.
41% - couldn’t avoid layoffs.
24% - no opinion.
5. Avoid the format: "Some people say x: do you agree or
disagree?"
6. Avoid unwarranted assumptions. e.g. "What is your
occupation?" assumes person has a job.
7. Avoid double-barrelled questions. e.g. "Should immigrants
be repatriated and their possessions confiscated?" is two
questions.
8. Avoid double negatives. e.g. "Are you against a ban on
smoking?"
9. Consider the relative merits of open-ended and
closed-ended questions.
Open-ended: allow unconstrained responses.
e.g. "How do you travel to the University?".
May produce richly detailed responses, but hard and tedious
to score.
Closed-ended: require choice from a limited range of
alternatives.
e.g. "Do you travel to the University by
(a) bus, (b) car, or (c) unicycle (tick one)".
Easy to code, but prone to bias.
Closed-ended questions must have
(a) a balanced response scale;
(b) mutually exclusive categories;
(c) facilities for handling "don't know" and "other"
responses.
Rating scales:
The Likert Scale:
"Criminals should be flogged".
Strongly agree
Agree
Neither agree
nor disagree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
1
2
3
4
5
Can be 5-. 7- or 9-point scale (doesn't make much
difference).
Visual Analogue Scale:
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
Problems with questionnaires about
attitudes:
1. May not have an attitude - "doorstep opinions".
2. Attitudes may be complex and multi-dimensional.
3. Attitudes vary in intensity.
4. Expressed attitudes may depend on question wording,
sequence and interviewer effects.
Problems with questionnaires about
behaviour:
1. Memory limitations e.g. Henry et al's (1994) study of 18 year old's memories for mood at age 9-11;
Chapman and Underwood's (2000) study of drivers' memory for accidents and
near-misses.
Can be counteracted by
(a) asking specific questions;
(b) asking for birth date rather than age;
(c) using a chronological format;
(d) re-interviewing.
2. Response biases due to social desirability or suspicion,
especially for illegal or anti-social activities.
Can be counteracted by ensuring anonymity.
What are the problems with these questions?
1. Do you visit fast food emporia regularly?
2. How many burgers do you eat per month?
3. Some people suggest that fast food is leading to increased tooth decay and an
increase in obesity amongst teenagers in many parts of the U.K. Do you agree?
4. Which of the following methods do you use to travel to your fastfood outlet? (a) Bus (b) Car (c) Bicycle
5. Do your children prefer to eat in KFC or Macdonalds?
What are the problems with these questions?
1. Do you visit fast food emporia regularly?
Over-complex wording. Exactly what does "regularly" mean?
2. How many burgers do you eat per month?
Assumes you eat burgers.
3. Some people suggest that fast food is leading to increased tooth decay and an
increase in obesity amongst teenagers in many parts of the U.K. Do you agree?
Over-long. Includes two separate questions. Implies you should agree with the views
expressed.
4. Which of the following methods do you use to travel to your fastfood outlet? (a) Bus (b) Car (c) Bicycle
Does the questioner want you to choose only one option, or can you choose
more? No option for responding "other". Assumes you go to fast-food outlets.
5. Do your children prefer to eat in KFC or Macdonalds?
Assumes you have children.
Conclusions:
It's hard to design questionnaires properly!
Always be sceptical of survey results -ask yourself
Who were they collected by?
Who were they collected from?
How were the questions worded, exactly?
Remember - “8 out of 10 cats prefer Whiskas" has
become "In tests, 8 out of 10 cats who expressed a
preference, preferred Whiskas".
Useful references (on my website):
Burgess, T.F. (2001). A general introduction to the design of questionnaires
for survey research.
Taylor-Powell, E. (1998). Questionnaire design: asking questions with a
purpose.
Faculty Facts - answers to School Office by TODAY
Win a £25 voucher and bottle of champagne!!
(Lost the sheet? Download it from Study Direct).
Which of these people…
-worked for Walt Disney before becoming
a lecturer?
-is an amateur trapeze artist?
-likes kayaking and printmaking?
-goes birdwatching with Bill Oddie?
-is a Liverpool supporter?
-fell off the stage while presenting at a
Health & Safety conference?
-loves paragliding?