Data Collection for the Topic

¶ … data collection for the topic you are researching (Parent Involvement in Elementary Schools) for your Literature review. Describe each methodology and one way that you will address validity of the methodology.

Two methods of data collection are via questionnaires and field or case-study observations.

The principal advantages of the questionnaire are its simplicity, versatility, and low cost. Questionnaires take into account the individual person, permitting freedom of response and the richness of expression that the laboratory method disallows. On the other hand, questionnaires are vulnerable to bias since respondents, for instance, might proffer a response that is not necessarily true, be affected by factors such as mood, fatigue etc., be disinclined to reveal certain matters, and so forth. Again, questionnaires have to be carefully phrased in such a way that they are comprehensible to the targeted audience and that all bias-evoking nuances are removed.

Questionnaires generally fall into two distinct categories:

(1) Hypothesis generating, where the questionnaire is used for exploratory types of questions in order to examine how people respond to a particular issue. This is, otherwise, known as survey design. (2). Test development and validation where the questionnaire is used as a potential scale to measure a psychological trait. This is called a psychometric diagnostic testing and is used in all forms of instance from neuropsychology to psychiatry to academic testing. Controversial for it is arguable whether the measurements can be used to test reliability or validity. Nevertheless, (aside from observation) no alternate or better tool has been found.

Survey design is one sort of questionnaire. The other example is the sort of test used, for instance by academic testing (such as the GRE) or recruitment for job purposes as Elmer (July 25, 2010) in the Washington Post points out. Rightfully observing that aptitude tests (as do all tests) have their constraints, she advises applicants on how to succeed. As she pointed out some questions can sometimes be culturally insensitive as well as biased. That is one of the potential problems with survey designs / questionnaires.

I will address the validity of the questionnaire by printing it clearly, using wording that the targeted sample will understand, ascertaining that the questions asked are not sensitive, that the length of the questionnaire is kept within reasonable bounds, coding the answers in advance if I am expecting a substantial number of replies, and being prepared to answer questions about survey.

Observations

Observations are possibly the oldest scientific tool around. Likely, too, it is the cheapest method, and, in a manner of speaking (depending on the length of time of the observation), the least time-consuming. Certainly, it is the easiest. Observations are also more direct than questionnaires or experimental method in that they do not require the subjects to respond to written (or verbal) questions, nor attempt to persuade them to do so, nor, likewise, to gather in rarefied situations to respond to stimuli presented (usually) under certain constraints with much preparation done beforehand.

Observation in psychology today is less used than it used to be. It focuses more on the covert, cognitive aspects of human functioning, and, otherwise, assumes the term 'ethology' where it observes behavior in natural settings and aims to exert little or minimum experimental control over the subject/s. Observation has the advantage of the other methods in that it is the only tool that can be used in instances where people cannot give accounts of themselves, for instance with children or with neurotically disturbed adults.