3. METHODOLOGY
3.4 Selection
3.4.4 Criteria for selection of advertisements
Using the sampling strategy described above, weeks of the year were selected for inclusion. A number of broad, over-inclusive requirements were devised for selection purposes. The selection criteria developed provided a checklist for the selection or rejection of an advertisement in the data set. The inclusion of advertisements in the sample was at times difficult to judge, but careful consideration of the criteria for selection successfully guided the selection process.
The criteria for selection were:
1. a requirement that graduates were broadly educated in the
behavioural/human/social sciences (in the absence of specific reference to the historical registration categories in psychology) such as a call for graduates with an appropriate bachelors degree,
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2. a specification of a professional registration such as psychologist or psychometrist,
3. or a reference to tasks traditionally completed by graduates with a major in psychology, for example, counselling, psychometrics or change management.
A pitfall of the selection strategy was the non-inclusion of job advertisements not requiring training in psychology or an education in the social sciences. Although this would have created a useful measure against which the demand for psychological skills could be set against other qualifications, this was not the scope of the survey.
Rather, the intention to survey trends within psychology, as opposed to the changing demand of psychology skills as compared with other occupations, was the purpose of the research. Advertisements were therefore not selected from newspapers if they fell outside of the pre-determined selection criteria.
Examples of advertisements not included for selection included occupations requiring education and training in the physical, natural or business sciences. These included posts for engineers, quantity surveyors or accountants. For example, advertisements that called for an industrial psychologist with a B.Comm. (Bachelor of Commerce) degree was rejected on the grounds that the degree excluded behavioural/human/
social science graduates despite referring to tasks (skills) traditionally fulfilled by graduates with a major in psychology. Alternatively, an advertisement that called for an industrial psychologist with an appropriate bachelors degree, was selected for inclusion on the basis that it was broadly applicable to graduates in the
behavioural/human/social science and referred to tasks (skills) traditionally completed by such graduates.
Jobs more directly aligned with training in research, academic teaching posts of various kinds and senior research positions were selected. Positions advertised for the public service such as directorships, deputy directorships and assistant directorships were also selected. At the bottom of the career range, positions for research
assistants and project officers in various contexts were selected if they met the specified criteria. In the private sector there were posts such as Employee Relations Officer, and advertisements for a behavioural science graduate with a qualification in psychology or sociology, who was to work on projects designed to increase the health and effectiveness of the organisation. Finally, positions were advertised in large donor-funding organisations such as, Research and Development Officer in the
Pretoria office of the European Union, Research Assistant for the Social Law Project at the University of Cape Town, and Research Officer for the Human Sciences Research
Council required to have experience in research methodology, questionnaire design, data analysis and interpretation.
No restriction was placed on career level or work experience requirements for job applicants and the advertisements selected ranged from those for inexperienced, recent graduates to those for senior public service and educational posts. Job advertisements selected included titles such as Regional Coordinator in the
Department of Welfare (Northern Province), Policy Advisor Western Cape Parliament, Education Officer for the National Union of Mine Workers, Lay Counsellors for the Eastern Cape branch of Life Line, Market Researcher for Markinor (Randburg) or Trainee Commissioner for the Centre for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (Johannesburg).
In the years 1998 and 1999, the selection of advertisements was measured for reliability as the use of different selectors in these years may have introduced bias into the selection process. To assess inter-selector reliability of the selection process in 1998, a five per cent sample (20 weeks forSunday Times and 10 weeks for Mail &
Guardian) was checked. The percentage reliability for selection from each newspaper
was: Mail & Guardian 80% and Sunday Times 86%. A second round of selection was
conducted in order to improve the comprehensiveness of the sample. All
advertisements selected in both selection rounds were included in the final sample, ensuring that no applicable advertisements were overlooked. The research assistants each focused on selected years in order to increase detection of repeated
advertisements and, in the later coding procedure, repeats were tagged, thereby avoiding the coding of advertisements more than once. The combination of the two selection rounds led to total agreement obtained on the selection of advertisements in 1998.
In 1999, 98% agreement was obtained on the selection of advertisements. A different selection procedure was used as compared with that used by the research team in 1998. In 1999, only two years were due for selection (1997 and 1998) in two newspapers only (Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times) leading to fewer
advertisements being selected as compared with the research efforts on 1998. Two selectors were employed in 1999 as compared with four selectors in 1998 and each selector checked all advertisements selected by the other. Only 40 disagreements were noted out of a total of 1655 newspaper advertisements selected. For the
advertisements where agreement between selectors was not reached, the selection of
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these advertisements were discussed and the advertisements were added or excluded on the basis of the agreement reached between selectors.
The selection of advertisements was undertaken in the Natal Society Library between 1997 and 1999. All selected advertisements were photocopied and assigned a
reference code based on the date of publication of the newspaper, the newspaper from which it was selected, the week in which it appeared and the number of the advertisement in the sequence selected.