Chapter 6

Data Collection
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 Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter students will be able to:
• Understand and distinguish between primary and
secondary data and their characteristics
• Describe secondary data and their sources
• Design and apply Instruments of data collection in
quantitative research
• Design and apply Instruments of data collection in
qualitative research

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6.1 Types and Sources of Data
• There are two types of data: quantitative and qualitative
• Moreover, there are two sources of data: Primary and
secondary.
Often both of them are used together to complement
each other.
• The choice between primary and secondary data mainly
depends upon:
availability of time & money;
degree of accuracy desired
the status of the investigator.

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Types and Sources of Data (continued)
6.1.1 Primary data
It is collected from the original sources and are collected
especially for the task at hand by the researcher.
• Strengths of Primary Data
Gives data in greater details compared to secondary source,
Less possibility of mistake due to errors in transcription
Includes definition of terms and units used
Includes a prescription of the procedure that affect the
accuracy, validity, reliability and representativeness of the
data
Flexible to meet:
o resources requirements
o the scope and objective of the study.
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Types and Sources of Data (continued)

6.1.2 Secondary data

gathered and recorded by someone else prior to (and for
purposes other than) the current needs of the researcher
Usually historical, already assembled
Can be found more quickly and cheaply
Limitations
• Does not meet ones specific needs of the research
• Differences in definitions such as units of measure, and time
period involved.
• Difficult to assess their accuracy because little is known about
the research design
• It is often out-of –date

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Types and Sources of Data (continued)

Sources of Secondary Data

• Internal and Proprietary Data
Performance reports and data bases of functional units
• Common External Sources
Generated by an entity other than the researcher's
organization.
Classifying by the nature of the producer five basic
sources:
obooks and periodicals,
ogovernment sources,
o trade association sources,
omedia sources, and
oJournals.
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6.2. Data Collection: Quantitative Research

6.2.1 The stages of quantitative research

• Theory/hypothesis
• Research design
• Select site and sample
• Devise measures of concepts
• Collect data
• Code and analyse data
• Write up

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

a. The main preoccupations of quantitative researchers

i. Measurement
• can a concept be quantified?
ii. Causality
• explanations of social phenomena
• causal relationships between independent and dependent
variables
iii. Generalization
• can the results be applied to individuals beyond the sample?
• aim to generalize to target population
• requires representative sample (random, probability sample)
iv. Replication
• detailed description of procedures allows other researchers to
replicate study
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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)
b. Criticisms of quantitative research
i. failure to distinguish between objects in the natural world and
social phenomena
ii. artificial and spurious/false sense of precision and accuracy
• presumed connection between concepts and measures
• respondents make different interpretations of questions and
other research tools
iii. lack of ecological validity
• reliance on instruments and measurements
• little relevance to participants’ everyday lives
• variation in the meaning of concepts to each individual
iv. static view of social life
• relationships between variables
• ignores processes of human definition and interpretation
(Blumer, 1956) DestaK 9
Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

6.2.2 Methods/Instruments of Collecting Primary Data in

Quantitative research
Questionnaires
Structured Interviews
6.2.2.1. Questionnaires
• A QUESTIONNAIRE IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE QUESTIONS
IT ASKS
• Respondents may be unaware of the product or topic of
interest, they may confuse the subject with something else, or
• the question may not mean the same thing to everyone
interviewed.

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

a. The Major Decisions in Questionnaire Design

• What should be asked?
• How should each question be phrased?
• In what sequence should the questions be arranged?
• What questionnaire layout will best serve the research
objectives?
• How should the questionnaire be pretested? Does the
questionnaire need to be revised?

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

i. What Should Be Asked?

• Determine the content of the questions by referring to the:
 Problem definition
 Research objectives
 Literature covered
 The communication medium of data collection:
o telephone interview,
o personal interview, or
o self-administered survey
o Web-based
o Mail
• As the questionnaire is being designed, the researcher should be
thinking about the types of statistical analysis that will be conducted.

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

• What should be asked?

Questionnaire relevance
Questionnaire accuracy
Questionnaire Relevance
• no unnecessary data is collected and
• no necessary data is omitted
• the researcher must be specific about data needs, and
there should be a rationale for each item of data to be
collected
• It should enable to provide the solution to the manager's
problem

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)
Questionnaire Accuracy
• Accuracy means that the information is reliable and valid
• Strongly influenced by the researcher's ability to design a
questionnaire that facilitates recall and that will motivate the
respondent to cooperate
• Higher probability of unbiased answers when:
 the subject of the research is interesting
 questions are not lengthy, difficult to answer, or
 questions are not ego-threatening,.
• In developing questionnaires:
 There are no hard and fast rules
 But only guidelines

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Guidelines for Questionnaire Design

• Avoid Complexity: use simple, conversational language
Words used in questionnaires should be readily
understandable to all respondents
• Avoid loaded questions
Loaded questions are slanted with social desirability
• Avoid ambiguity: be as specific as possible
• Avoid double-barreled items
It is a question covering several issues at once

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 Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

• Avoid making assumptions

Example, Should ABC company continue its excellent
gift-wrapping program? (Yes/No)
• Avoid burdensome questions
writing questions about past behavior , which is not
easy to remember

ii. Phrasing Questions

Open-ended questions
Fixed-alternative questions (closed ended questions)

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Open ended questions

• Pose some problem or topic and ask the respondent to answer in
his or her own words.
• most beneficial in exploratory research, especially if the range of
responses is not known.
• Respondents are free to answer with whatever is uppermost in their
thinking.
• Open-ended response questions are especially valuable at the
beginning of an interview.
• Easy to design but difficult to process & analyze
• Open for interviewer bias
Examples
• What things do you like most about your job?
• What names of local banks can you think of offhand?
• What comes to mind when you look at this advertisement
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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Fixed-alternative questions (closed ended questions)

• The fixed-alternative question or "closed question,"
provides respondent a given specific, limited alternative
responses and asked to choose the one closest to his or
her own viewpoint.
Benefits
• require less interviewer skill,
• take less time, and
• are easier for the respondent to answer
Limitations
• Difficult to design
• Limits the freedom of respondents
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For example:
Did you work overtime or at more than one job last
1.
week? Yes____ no______
2. Do you believe that private citizens have the right to
own firearms to defend themselves, their families, and
property from violent criminal attack?
Yes____ no____ Undecided ___

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Types of fixed-alternative questions

• Simple-dichotomy or dichotomous-alternative question
 There are only two alternatives (Yes/No; Agree/Disagree)
• The determinant- choice question
 only one-response from among several possible alternatives
o Please give us some information about your flight. In which section of
the aircraft did you sit?
First class Business class Coach class

• The frequency-determination question

 Asks for an answer about general frequency of occurrence
o How frequently do you watch the TigTV television channel per week?
once two times three times
four times five and above

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• Attitude rating scales
Likert scale (summated rating scale), semantic
differential, numerical scale, constant sum scale, and
Stapel scale
• The checklist question
It provides multiple answers to a single question
Please check which of the following sources of
information about investments you regularly use, if
any

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Reducing complexity by providing fewer alternatives

How satisfied are you with your community?

1. Very satisfied
2. Quite satisfied
3. Somewhat satisfied
4. Slightly satisfied
5. Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
6. Slightly dissatisfied
7. Somewhat dissatisfied
8. Quite dissatisfied
9. Very dissatisfied
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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Revised:
How satisfied are you with the teaching learning process in
the college? Would you say you are
• Very satisfied. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
• Somewhat satisfied. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. …... 2
• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. . .. . ............................. .3
• Somewhat dissatisfied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ….... ..4
• Very dissatisfied. . . . . . . . ……. .. . . . . . . . .. .. .. 5

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

iii. What Is the Best Question Sequence?

• Respondents' cooperation and involvement can be maintained
throughout the questionnaire When the opening questions are:
 interesting,
 simple to comprehend, and
 easy to answer,
• In their attempts to "warm up" respondents toward the
questionnaire, researchers frequently ask demographic or
classification questions at the beginning of the questionnaire.
• Better to go
 From interesting to embarrassing questions
 From simple to complex questions
 From general to specific – deductive questions
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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

iv. What Is The Best Layout?

• Questionnaires should be designed to appear as brief and small as
possible.
• Sometimes it is advisable to use a booklet form questionnaire,
rather than a large number of pages stapled together.
• Have an introduction and instruction parts

v. How Much Pretesting and Revising Is Necessary?

• Pretesting is used to detect weaknesses in instruments.
• Pretests rely on respondent surrogates/substitutes, or actual re-
spondents for the purpose of evaluating and refining a measuring
instrument.
• There are no general principles of good pretesting
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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)
Purposes of Pretesting
• Respondent Interest
 To discover the respondents' reactions to the questions
• Question Transformation
 Respondents tend to modify questions to make them fit their
own frame of reference or simply change them in the direction
of "making sense."
 Probing is necessary to determine how respondents have
transformed the question when this is suspected.
• Continuity and Flow of questions
 Questions should flow from one to another and from one
section to another smoothly

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

• Question Sequence
 starting with stimulating questions and placing sensitive
questions last
 need to be tested first to be sure if they are stimulating
• Length and Timing
 Helps to determine the length of the questionnaire

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 Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

6.2.2.2 Structured Interviews

• Direct communications wherein interviewers in face-to-face
situations ask respondents questions.
• Flexible and two-way conversation between an interviewer
and a respondent.
• Personal interviews may be conducted at the respondent's
home or office or in many other places

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Advantages of Personal Interviews

• The opportunity for immediate Feedback
• Probing Complex Answers- complex questions that cannot
easily be asked in telephone or mail surveys can be
handled by skillful interviewers.
• Personal interviews are appropriate for lengthy Interview
for lengthy questions
• Complements Questionnaires
• Visual Aids Interviewing
• High Participation
• may be door-to-door interviews or Intercept Interviews

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

What is a structured interview?

• useful tool of quantitative research
• standardized interview schedule
• each interviewee gets the same questions, in the same
way, in the same order
• closed, pre-coded or fixed choice questions
• minimizes variation between interviews

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Advantages of structured interviewing

1. Reduces error due to interviewer variability
• differences in responses are due to ‘true variation’, not
inconsistencies in the conduct of interviews
• potential sources of error are reduced by standardization
(question wording, memory, misunderstanding)
• reduces intra-interviewer and inter-interviewer variability
2. Accuracy and ease of data processing
• closed ended, pre-coded or fixed choice questions (limited
choice of possible answers)
• interviewer does not interpret responses before recording
them DestaK 31
Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Telephone interviewing
• quicker and cheaper (no travel required)
• easier to monitor/evaluate
• reduces interviewer effect (no non-verbal cues)
• Problems:
some people do not own a telephone, are not
contactable or are ex-directory
limited time and rapport/relationship?
cannot respond to non-verbal signs of confusion
less satisfying experience for interviewee

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

Conducting structured interviews

• Know your way around the schedule
• Introduce the research
 spoken or written rationale
 identify yourself, your employer, purposes of research and procedure of
interview
 ethical issues:
o anonymity, confidentiality, right to withdraw
 opportunity for interviewee to ask questions
• Building rapport/relationship
 can be difficult if limited time and little opportunity for discussion
(closed questions)
• Asking questions
 keep to the schedule

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

• Clear instructions
 some questions are not relevant to every interviewee; hence,
filter questions help interviewer navigate the schedule
• Recording answers
 write exact words used by interviewee, or use fixed choice
questions
• Question order
 every interviewee must get questions in the same order
 general questions before specific questions
o earlier questions may affect salience/main points of later
ones
 potentially embarrassing or sensitive questions towards the end

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

• Probing/asking
when respondent does not understand question or
gives insufficient answer
non-directive probes: “mmm”, “can you say a bit more
about that?”
repeat fixed choice alternatives
• Prompting/encouraging
interviewer suggests possible answers

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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

• Training and supervision

if researcher hires interviewer(s)
ensure that interviewers know the schedule and follow
standardized procedures
assessment: examine completed forms, tape record a
sample of interviews, call-backs to respondents
• characteristics of interviewers
gender, age, ethnicity, class (rapport)
• leaving the interview
thank the interviewee
debriefing should be minimal
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Data Collection: Quantitative Research (continued)

• Response sets
people may respond in consistent but irrelevant ways:
oAcquiescence (agreeing or disagreeing to all
questions)
oSocial desirability (interviewees reflect on the way
their answers might be perceived)

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6.3 Data Collection: Qualitative Research
6.3.1 The Nature/Features of Qualitative Research
• Inductive view of relationship between theory and research
theories and concepts emerge from the data

6.3.1.1 Research methods used in qualitative research

• ethnography / participation observation
prolonged immersion in the field
• qualitative interviewing
in-depth, semi- or unstructured
• focus groups
• discourse / conversation analysis
• documentary analysis DestaK 38
Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

6.3.1.2 The main steps in qualitative research

• General research question(s)
• Selecting relevant site(s) and subject(s)
• Collection of relevant data
• Interpretation of data
• Conceptual and theoretical framework
Tighter specification of research question(s)
Collection of further data
• Writing up findings/conclusions

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

6.3.1.3 Criticisms of qualitative research

• too subjective
researcher decides what to focus on
• difficult to replicate
unstructured format
• problems of generalization
samples not ‘representative’ of all cases
• lack of transparency
often unclear what researcher actually did

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

6.3.2 Instruments used in Qualitative Research

• Ethnography and participant observation
• Interviewing in qualitative research
• Focus group discussions

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

6.3.2.1 Ethnography and Participant Observation

What is ethnography?
• researcher immersed in the social setting for an extended
period
• participant observation, often with interviews and
documentary methods
• understanding the culture, norms and values of the group

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Sampling in ethnography
• Often a combination of convenience and snowball sampling
• may involve purposive sampling
• researcher has to gather information from whoever is prepared
to divulge/disclose it
Taking field notes
• jot down notes as soon as possible after events
• write up full notes at the end of every day
• be clear - detailed descriptions
• gradually narrow your focus
• types of field notes:
 jotted notes, full field notes
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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Ending an ethnographic study

• problem of knowing when to stop
• practical considerations
end of sabbatical leave
funding runs out
personal/family commitments
deadlines

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

6.3.2.2 Interviewing in Qualitative Research

a. Differences between structured and qualitative interviews
• Qualitative interviews…
are less structured/standardized
take the participant’s viewpoint
are more flexible
seek rich, detailed answers
aim to understand rather than to generalize

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

• Unstructured interview
few, loosely defined topics
open-ended questions to allow free response
conversational style
• Semi-structured interview
list of specific topics to cover (interview guide)
flexible question order and phrasing

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

b. Preparing an interview guide

• memory prompts of topics to be covered
• focus on research questions: ‘what do I need to know
about?’
• logical but flexible order of topics
• record ‘face sheet’ information (name, age, gender,
position etc)
• quiet and private setting
• good quality recording machine

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Kinds of questions
introducing (“Tell me about…”)
follow-up
probing
specifying (“What happened next?”)
odirect
oindirect (“What do most people think about…?”)
structuring (“Let’s move on to…”)
silence
interpreting (“Do you mean that…?”)

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Recording and transcription

• Audio/video-recording and transcribing
 researcher is not distracted by note-taking
 can focus on listening and interpreting
 corrects limitations of memory and intuitive glosses (Heritage,
1984)
 detailed and accurate record of interviewee’s account
Purposive sampling
• strategic: select interviewees who are relevant to research questions
• snowball sampling
 useful when there is no sampling frame
• theoretical sampling
 cannot predict sample size in advance
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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

6.3.2.3 Focus Group Discussions

• Focus group discussion or interview is an unstructured,
free flowing interview with a small group of people.
• Allow people to discuss their true feelings, anxieties, and
frustrations, and to express the depth of their convictions
in their own words
• Relatively brief, easy to execute, quickly analyzed,
flexible, and inexpensive.

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

What is a focus group?

• form of group interview
• several participants and a moderator
• discussion of specific issue
• study interaction between group members
• how are opinions expressed and modified through group
discussions?
Uses of focus groups
• to understand why people hold certain views
participants probe and challenge each other
• to elicit a wide range of views
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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Recording and transcription

• tape record rather than take notes
• need to study not only what people say but who says
what
• record of how the topic was discussed
processes of collectively defining meanings
nuances of language
• can be difficult to distinguish voices
use high quality microphone

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Number of focus groups

• average 5-10 focus groups per study
• continue until theoretical saturation point
• socio-demographic characteristics
use stratifying criteria (age, gender, etc)
larger number of groups needed to represent a diverse
range of viewpoints
• running more groups increases volume of data and
complexity of analysis

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Size of focus groups (Morgan, 1998)

• average 6-10 members per group
• use smaller sized groups when:
the topics is sensitive or controversial
each person will have plenty to say
you want to collect personal, detailed accounts

• user larger groups when:

you want to hear numerous brief suggestions

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Level of moderator involvement

• Try to be unnoticeable in unpleasant way/ and non-
directive
• ask small number of general questions to stimulate
discussion
• intervene if the discussion wanders ‘off track’ or there is
a long silence
• respond to potentially interesting points that are not
picked up by the participants

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Asking questions
• few general questions to provoke a response
Morgan & Spanish (1985): “Who has heart attacks?”
• structured list of specific topics to be covered
Schlesinger et al (1992): five sets of questions about
women’s reactions to violence on TV
• must be open-ended
encourages discussion between participants
allow diversity of views to be heard

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 Beginning and finishing
• Introduction • Closing remarks
thank people for coming  thank people for
introduce yourself and the participating
project  arrange any further
outline format and meetings
procedure
ethical issues
collect demographic
information
name cards

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Group interaction in focus groups (Kitzinger, 1994)

• important but often overlooked

• complementary interactions
consensus emerges
agreement between viewpoints
each participant builds on the previous remark
• argumentative interactions
participants challenge each other
opinions are revised and modified
makes people account for their views
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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Asking the Questions

• Exactly as worded
• Read slowly
• Questions in the proper order
• Ask every question
• Repeat questions that are not understood

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Recording the Response

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Data Collection: Qualitative Research (continued)

Terminating the Interview

• How to close interview and exit household is important
• Re-interviewing may be required
• Debriefing may also be required

6.4 Mixed Methods of Research: Triangulation

• It is the combination of both quantitative and qualitative
methods

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