An overview of various data collection methods as authored by A. K. Singh.

1. Fundamentals of Research
Methodology
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
A K SINGH

2. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

3. QUESTIONNAIRE AND SCHEDULE
● Used when requiring factual informations from respondents.
Schedule Opinionnaire Interview guide
Series questions filled by the
investigator in a face to face
situation
Information form aiming to
measure attitude or belief
Also called: Attitude scale
List of basic points or topics
to be covered by the
interviewer during an
interview.

4. Wordings in the Questionnaire
● Simplicity in language
X Technical terms or Jargons (In view of the population)
X Complex and long questions
Eg: DO you think that…? Vs Are you in the view of …..?
● Ambiguity: Convey different meaning
“ Do you feel shy when you are in a group?”
“Do you enjoy travelling by bus or car?”
Split-Ballot techniques → Different wordings of the same questions used with equivalent groups to
know the effect of the wordings.
Two independent
questions.
Make the context clear.

5. ● Vague words: introduced only in “why questions”
Eg: generally, fairely
● Embarrassing questions:
Eg: sexual behaviours, stealing, cheating
1. Express views in others.
2. Sentence completion.
● Double negatives: “Do you not approve the idea….?”

6. ● Leading questions: Leads to a specific answer
Eg: “You don’t think… Do you?
● Presuming questions: Assume that they you know or experienced it.
● Hypothetical questions: Coz the answers would not reflect anything concrete
Eg: “What do you do if…?”

7. Characteristics of a Good Questionnaire:
1. Relevant to the respondents with clearly stated significance, objectives and
aim of the questionnaire.
2. Short
3. Simple and Clear with each question dealing with single idea.
4. Objective. Not providing any hint or suggestion.
5. X Embarrassing, Presuming, Hypothetical questions
6. Presented in good order
7. Attractive in appearance. Neatly printed and clearly arranged.

8. Order of Questions:
1. Simple → General (to develop ease with the area)
1. General → Specific (sensitive areas)

9. Functions of Questionnaire:
● Description
Age, sex, marital status, occupation, income, political affliations, religious
affliations.
● Measurement
Attitude, opinion, personality traits

10. Types of Questionnaires
Based on types of response
Based on method of
administration
Face-to-Face
Questionnaire
Mail
Questionnaire
Open Ended
Questionnaire
Fixed Response
Questionnaire

11. Fixed Response Questionnaire
Advantages
● Easily scored and coded. Facilitates statistical calculations.
● No writing from respondents. Useful for those who can’t adequately express
oneself.
● Less effort and time for completion
Disadvantages
● Impossible to provide all alternatives relevant to respondents
● Response set or bias

12. Open-ended Questionnaires
Advantages
● Little or no information known about the subject/population studied.
● Facilitates unanticipated and insightful replies from respondents.
Disadvantages
● Difficulty in self expression
● Time consuming
● Difficult to objectively score or code the responses

13. Mailed Questionnaire
Advantage
● Less costly than interview. Only postal expenditure.
● Access widely scattered population.
Disadvantage
● Low response rate
○ Avoid embarrassing questions
○ Stamped self-addressed reply envelopes
● Objective and purpose to be clearly stated
● Questions to be simple and straightforward.
● Cannot probe
● Inflexible.
● Respondents may read the whole questionnaire before responding
● Unsure who filled the questionnaire
● Behavioural observation not possible.

14. Face-to-Face Administered Questionnaire
Advantages
● Less time consuming as compared to mailed questionnaires.
● Investigator knows well who is completing the questionnaire.
● Ability to answer any query.
● Ability to facilitate probe questions, if any for detailed analysis.
Disadvantages
● Make respondents conscious
● Travel throughout contacting respondents personally.
● Respondents selected based on accessibility, limits representativeness.

15. INTERVIEW
● Social process involving the interviewer and the respondent.
● Interaction plays an important role.
The success of the interview is dependent upon:
1. Accessibility
2. Cognition
3. Motivation

16. INTERVIEW
Formal Interview Informal Interview
Already prepared questions asked in a set of order
by interviewer and answers recorded in a
standardized form.
● Structured or Patterned interview
● Systematic procedure
● Reports more validity
Disadvantages
● Expensive & Time consuming
● Less validity than psychological tests
No predetermined questions or order of
questions. Left to the interviewer to ask the
questions around pointers or areas.
● Unstructured interview
● Get deeper insight into respondent’s
behavior
Disadvantages
● Personal influence or bias
● Requires greater skill
● Difficult to quantify and analyze

17. Major Functions of Interview
● Description
● Exploration
Factors Affecting the Uses of Interview
● Characteristics of interviewer
● Characteristics of interviewee
● Nature of the problem under study

18. ● Characteristics of Interviewer
○ Subjective characteristics: inquisitive minds; ability to attuning; ability to synthesize
○ Objective characteristics: sex; age; clothing; culture; education; manners; race.
● Characteristics of Interviewee
○ Capacity to verbalize
○ Willingness
● Nature of the problem under study

19. Advantages of Interview
● Flexibility and scope to involve probes
● Obtain desired information readily and quickly
● Allow interviewees have themselves interpreted and answered the que
● Desired level of control
● Verbal information checked with non verbal cues
Disadvantages of Interview
● Interviewer variability
● Inter-interviewer variability
● Validity and dependability on the responses
● Time
● Variations inherent to the context
● Recording information

20. Important Sources of Errors in Interview
● Attitude of the interviewer
● Incomprehensibility of the questions
● Lack of warmth during the interview
● Lack of motivation in respondents
● Duration of interview
Selection and Training of interviewers
● Honesty
● Accuracy
● Adaptability
● Interest
● Temperament

21. CONTENT ANALYSIS
A method of systematic examination of communications or of current records or
documents. The analyzer takes the communications or documents prepared by
the respondents and systematically finds out the frequency and proportion of the
appearance of the behaviour.
Sources of data: letters, autobiographies, diaries, reports, printed forms, syllabus,
court decisions, pictures, films, cartoons etc.

22. Purpose of Content Analysis
● To explain and describe the prevailing practices or conditions
● To identify concepts, beliefs, thinking and literary styles of writers
● Locate and explain possible causes to some event or outcome
● Analyze different types of errors in student’s work
● Locate the level of difficulty of presentation of books
● To find out the relative importance of some topics or problems
● To make careful evaluation of bias, prejudice or propaganda in textbook
presentations.

23. Methods of Content Analysis
Berelson’s method (1954)
Specification of the Universe
Define the universe → Divide/categorize subparts → hypothesis for each subpart
Unit of Analysis
1. Words
2. Themes
3. Items
4. Characters
5. Space-and-time
Quantification
Nominal measurement, Ordinal measurement and Rating

24. Evaluations and Limitations of Content Analysis

25. OBSERVATION as a tool of data collection
1. Casual by-product
1. Fundamental Technique
● Watching & listening to the behaviours without manipulating and controlling
it
● Allows some degree of analytical interpretation and discussion
● Selecting → Recording → Encoding Behaviours for empirical aims of
description and development of theory

26. Characteristics of scientific observation
● Natural social context.
● Significant event or occurrences that affect relations among persons.
● Identifies important regularities and recurrences in social life.
* these characteristics make fundamental observations different from casual
observations
Purpose of observation
● Capture and study human behaviours as it actually happens
● Graphic description of real life.
● Exploration

27. Types of Observation
Based on ability of the data to generate useful information
● Systematic Observation - explicit procedures + logic of sci inferences
● Unsystematic Observation - casual obs without specifying any explicit and
objective inferences.
Based on role played by the investigator
● Participant Observation - (disguised/undisguised)
● Non-Participant Observation

28. Participant Observation
Strength
● Ability to record behaviour in realistic manner
● Yield meaningful and convincing conclusions
● Takes several days → information collected would be broad and meaningful
Weakness
● Unstructured → fails to be precise about procedure to accumulate data.
● Time consuming
● Human weaknesses - love, sympathy, hatred etc.

29. Non-Participant Observation
Strength
● Structured → data is more reliable and representative
● Ability to concentrate on specific aspect of social behaviours in a better way
Weakness
● Participants become conscious of being observed.
● Fails to capture the natural context of social settings to the extent participant
observation does.

30. Difference b/w participant and non-participant observations
Participant Observation Non-participant Observation
Active participation YES NO
Structure NO YES
Flexibility YES
Identity (investigator) HIDDEN NO

31. SECONDARY DATA
Data that has been already collected and treated statistically. E.g. Gov documents
Major Features:
● Ready-Made → Saving time
● Form of data and content shaped by others → limits sci value
● Not limited in time and space

32. Sources of secondary data
● Private sources
○ Letters
○ Diaries
○ Bibliography
● Public sources
○ Central and state gov publications
○ Publications done by WHO, UNESCO, UNO etc
○ Reports from municipalities, zilla parisads etc
○ Foreign gov publications
○ Newspapers and journals
○ Internet and website sources
○ Publications by supreme court, high court and lower court

33. Verification of Secondary data:
● Collected at proper time?
● Reliable?
● Timely relevance?
● Use of appropriate statistical tools?
● Any prejudice, bias, negligence, hurry or carelessness?
● Proper standards of accuracy? To what extent?

34. Advantages:
● Saves time and money
● Broaden base from which sci generalizations are done. (Several Cultural
perspective)
● Verifying the findings already obtained in primary data
Disadvantages:
● Lack of accuracy and reliability
● Difficult to comprehend the process of gathering original data
● Knowledge of whereabouts of the sources
● Difficulty to match the purpose of secondary data with current study

35. RATING SCALES - Observer or rater categorizes objects,
events or person on a continuum
Physically
present
Actual Behaviour
(rating - concurrent)
Behaviour
Observation
Remembered Beh. /
Perceived Behaviour
(rating -
retrospective)
Interactions at
the moment
Not physically
present
Symbolically
represented

36. Components of a rating scale:
1. Stimulus variable - trait names/qualities to be rated.
2. Response options - numerical/descriptive categories.
Precautions:
● Traits to be rating clearly defined.
● Intervals and points on the scale clearly defined.
● Overt traits more reliable than covert traits.

37. Problems in Obtaining effective Ratings
● Factors affecting raters’ willingness
○ Not willing to take the pains in rating
○ Rater is too close to the person being rated
● Factors affecting raters’ ability
○ Opportunity to observe the individuals being rated
○ Subjectivity in the trait being rated
○ Vagueness in the meaning of the trait rated
○ Nonuniform standard of references
○ Raters’ personal characteristics

38. Errors in Ratings
1. Halo effect
2. Error of severity
3. Error of leniency
4. Error of central tendency
5. Contrast error
6. Proximity error
7. Logical error

39. Evaluation of Rating Scales

40. Methods of improving effectiveness of rating scales
● Refinement in stimulus variables of the rating scales
Guidelines:
1. Each trait should refer only one type of activity
2. Should not represent a combination of number of traits that vary
independently.
3. Traits to be defined objectively in specific words.
4. Traits judged based on past and present accomplishment and not future
accomplishments.
5. Words like “often”,”always”,”very”,”extremely” should be avoided

41. ● Refinement in response variables of the rating scales
○ Differentiate between two or more desirable or undesirable response options (like forced
choice)
○ Bring uniformity in the judging standards (percentage/graphic scale)
● Improvement of rating procedures
○ Selection of raters
■ Exposure
■ Training
○ Improving the reliability of ratings
■ Pooling the ratings
● Practical limitations: equal qualifications/equal knowledge of the ratees

42. Types of rating scales
Numerical Rating Scale
Subtypes:
1. Observer or Rater is supplied with a sequence of numbers (well defined). His
task is to rate the objects on the given sequence of numbers on the basis of
impression.
2. Description of categories with numerical anchors
3. Description of categories without numerical anchors

44. Graphic Rating Scale
Can be demonstrated in horizontal and vertical manners

45. Percentage Rating - rater to place ratee among % groups/percentiles/quartiles
Used when investigator wants a quick rating with maximum uniformity from rater
to rater.

46. Standard Scale
Intended to bring uniformity of meaning of scale points - reduce bias due to scale
pts
Rater is presented with some standards with pre-established scale values
Man-to-man scale
Portrait matching

47. Scale of cumulated points
Person’s total score is the sum of individual ratings or points assigned to all items
in a scale.
Checklist Method
Large number of specific behavioural
statements and is asked to check the
statements that describe the person in
question.
Guess-who technique
Verbal descriptions of various
roles played by an individual
(children). The rater is asked
to place the individual who
fits the description.

48. Forced-choice Rating Scale
Rater is given a set of attributes as verbal statements for a single item and has to
decide which one/ones represents the ratee most appropriately and accurately.
Two-alternative
forms
Four-alternative
forms

49. Q-sort Technique - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwrCzXw0LZE
Semantic Differential Scale - Attitude measuring device

50. Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale -
Performance evaluation
Use behaviour statements as anchors rather
than generic descriptors
Nominating Technique - sociometry
Nominating other persons in a groups to
understand group structure, social status and
personality traits.