RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.5 Methods of data collection
In considering the type of research and data collection methods to be used a choice is to be made between quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative researchers collect facts and study the relationship of one set of facts to another.
They measure, using scientific techniques that are likely to produce quantified and if possible, generalisable conclusions. Researchers adopting a qualitative perspective are more concerned to understand individual‟s perceptions of the world. They seek insight rather than statistical analysis. They doubt whether social „facts‟ exist and question whether a „scientific‟ approach can be used when dealing with human beings. Yet there are times when qualitative researchers draw on quantitative techniques and vice versa (J. Bell, 1997).
The classifying of an approach does not mean that once an approach has been selected the researcher may not move from one to another. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses and each is particularly suitable for a particular context.
The approach adopted and the methods of data collection selected will depend on the nature of the inquiry and the type of information required.
Some research styles are:
Action Research
This is defined by Cohen and Manion as “essentially an on-the-spot procedure designed to deal with a concrete problem located in an immediate situation. This means that the step-by –step process is constantly monitored(ideally, that is) over
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varying periods of time and by a variety of mechanisms(questionnaires, diaries, interviews and case studies for example) so that the ensuing feedback may be translated into modifications, adjustments, directional changes, redefinitions, as necessary, so as tot bring about lasting benefit to the ongoing process itself.”
The task is not finished when the project ends. The participants continue to review, evaluate and improve practice. The practical, problem-solving nature of action research makes this approach attractive to practitioner-researchers who have identified a problem during the course of their work, see the merit of investigating it and if possible, of improving practice. It is appropriate when specific knowledge is required for a specific problem in a specific situation or when a new approach is to be grafted onto an existing system.(Cohen and Manion, 1989:226)
Case Study
It is particularly appropriate for individual researchers because it gives an opportunity for one aspect of a problem to be studied in some depth within a limited time scale.
As in all research, evidence is collected systematically, the relationship between variables is studied and the study is methodically planned. It is concerned principally with the interaction of factors and events. Its strength is that it allows the researcher to concentrate on a specific instance or situation. Methods of collecting information are selected that are appropriate for the task. They can be carried out to follow up and put flesh on the bones of a survey or they can precede a survey and be used to identify key issues that merit investigation. A case study will provide the reader with a three dimensional picture and will illustrate relationships, micro-political issues and patterns of influence in a particular context.
The Ethnographic Style
This was developed by anthropologists who developed an approach which depended heavily on observation and in some case complete or partial integration
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into the society being studied. This enabled the researcher to share the experiences of the subjects being studied. It has since been used in the studies of small groups. This form of research takes time and is therefore often out of the scope of those working to a time deadline. A further problem with this is the question of whether the group being studied is representative of the whole population.
Surveys
The aim of the survey is to obtain information which can be analysed and patterns extracted and comparisons made. Mostly the survey will attempt to obtain information from a representative selection of the population and from that sample will then be able to present the findings as being representative of the population as a whole. Great care is to be taken to ensure that the sample population is truly representative.
Question wording is not easy and needs careful piloting to ensure that all questions mean the same to all respondents. The information can be gathered by means of self –completion questionnaires or by means of questionnaires, schedules or checklists administered by an interviewer. They can be used to provide answers to What? Where? When? And How/ but are not easy to find out Why? Casual relationships can rarely if ever be proved by the survey method. The main emphasis is on fact finding.
Thomas (2003:41) describes a survey as a method of "gathering information about the current status of some target variable within a particular collective, and then reporting a summary of the findings. The summary includes data in quantitative form". Survey questionnaires are used to obtain the following types of information from respondents: biographical particulars, typical behaviour, opinions, beliefs and convictions and attitudes of respondents (Welman & Kruger, 1999; Wisken, 2001). Despite the many benefits of survey questionnaires such as economical feasibility and the amount of data that can be collected, one must be cognizant of the weaknesses associated with survey research which include the possibility of being somewhat artificial and potentially superficial and the fact that it is difficult to gain a full sense of social processes in their natural settings through the use of survey research (Babbie & Mouton, 2001). Babbie and Mouton
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(2001:232) still consider a survey as the best existing method of obtaining data that describe the attitudes and orientations of a population too large to observe directly.
In the quantitative paradigm, the instrument for data collection is a pre- determined and finely tuned technological tool that does not allow for much flexibility, imaginative input and reflexivity (Brannen, 1992). The survey questionnaire is the centrepiece of a quantitative design. The researcher used surveys in the form of questionnaires in the descriptive phase of his research (Punch, 1998).
Questionnaires are highly structured and inflexible data collection instruments whereby each respondent is asked the same set of questions (De Vaus, 1995).
Questionnaires are usually instruments that are self-administered (Oppenheim, 1992). Self-administered questionnaires are frequently used to ask structured and close-ended questions with the questions being determined beforehand and often answered using some sort of scale (Huer & Saenz, 2003). Self-administered questionnaires can take on many forms including the mail questionnaire; the group-administered questionnaire and the household drop-off questionnaire (Oppenheim, 1992; Trochim, 2000).
The choice of questionnaire will be influenced by a variety of factors related to one‟s research and objectives and in particular to the following factors:
characteristics of the respondents.
importance of searching a particular person as a respondent.
importance of respondent‟s answers not being contaminated or distorted.
size of sample.
type of question you need to ask to collect your data.
number of questions you need to ask to collect data (Saunders et al, 2003).
The choice of questionnaire will affect the number of people who respond, with interviewer-administered questionnaires usually having a higher response rate than self-administered questionnaires (Saunders et al., 2003)
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The topic under investigation by the author is of a sensitive nature and, for that reason, the researcher has immersed himself in the literature surrounding the topic of substance use in order to obtain a strong grasp of the pertinent issues that have enabled him to ask relevant questions in a culturally sensitive manner (Huer &
Saenz, 2003)
The Experimental Method
It is relatively easy to plan experiments which deal with measurable phenomena.
The principle is that if two identical groups are selected, one of which is given special treatment and the other is not, then any differences between the two groups at the end of the experiment may be attributed to the difference in treatment. A casual relationship has been established. In claiming these casual relationships great care will need to be taken to ensure that all possible causes have been considered.
A survey questionnaire was considered appropriate for the purposes of this research and was designed using the information from the literature research to guide its creation.
The author of this report distributed questionnaires to male youth offenders and asked them to complete the questionnaires and return them to him once completed. This form of survey questionnaire is known as the unsupervised, self- administered questionnaire (Bourque & Fielder, 1995; Saunders et al, 2003). This form of questionnaire was useful for the researcher to distribute a large number of questionnaires easily and quickly without having to supervise the completion of each. This allowed for the possibility of a large sample. The author had to make use of an interpreter to cater for all three official languages (English, Afrikaans and Xhosa).
The first part of the questionnaire is a replica of the World Health Organization
Questionnaire, developed to assess drug abuse, created by Smart et al, (1980).
This questionnaire was designed by a team of experts from various parts of the world who came together to decide on the core data items for a drug-use questionnaire. The object was for these experts to develop a broadly acceptable
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methodology that would be practical for use in various age groups and socio- cultural settings (Smart et al, 1990). The questionnaire was tested in seven countries in a variety of languages and settings in order to determine its general effectiveness, reliability and validity and based on this experience, the questionnaire was finalized (Smart et al, 1990). The researchers provided evidence on the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, which they hoped would generate some confidence in the use of this questionnaire in international studies (Smart et al, 1990). The questionnaire was found to have test-retest reliability in three countries (centres) and it gave generally valid results in one centre where special validity checks were also used. The test-retest reliability studies suggested generally high reliability of answers to drug-use questions (Smart et al, 1990). The authors further found that the questionnaire worked well with groups and suggested that the final revised questionnaire (which was used in the current study), could be used in research that involved the assessment of the prevalence of drug use in the populations studied at a particular point in time (Smart et al, 1990).
The first aim of the project was to develop instruments and methods to meet the priority data-collecting needs for developing countries with serious problems of drug-use and abuse (Smart et al, 1990). For this reason the author felt that this questionnaire would be useful in studying substance use among male youth offenders in South Africa, as South Africa is a developing country. Developing countries, like South Africa, cover approximately two-thirds of the world‟s area and have approximately three-quarters of the world‟s population. These countries have large populations, but considerably few resources and hence many are in critical need of substance-abuse prevention, treatment policies and programmes based on epidemiological data that this research is collecting (Saxena &
Donoghoe, 2000).
The questionnaires were unsupervised, self-administered and contained mainly fixed alternative questions. The anonymous self-administered questionnaire is popular for the following reasons:
it is inexpensive.
it requires no interviewers, since respondents complete the questionnaire themselves and hence avoids interviewer bias.
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the data that it yields may be processed relatively inexpensively and efficiently because the questions asked are usually straightforward and their answers easily interpreted.
provides the possibility of anonymity and privacy to encourage candid responses on sensitive issues (Babbie & Mouton, 2001; Johnston, 2000).
The close-ended questions in the questionnaire were used for statistical analysis and provided quantitative data. Quantitative data is data that can be converted into discreet units that can be compared to other units using statistical methods of analysis (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). The purpose of quantitative data is to establish general trends in opinions, values and perceptions (Jones, 1988). The aim of the data is generalisability (Jones, 1988). Quantitative data looks for and isolates relationships that are found in an organizational system (Jones, 1988).
Open-ended questions were added to provide a qualitative aspect to the research which would further assist the author as it was considered appropriate to obtain an understanding of the respondent which would not be possible from purely quantitative research providing a statistical analysis.
In this study, the researcher found it more practical to collect information on non- medical substance use than on abuse and dependency (Smart et al., 1990). If only substance abuse and dependency had been measured in this research, a large population of offenders who are occasional substance users, would have had to be excluded. This group of offenders who are occasional substance users, and who would clearly not be considered as being drug-dependant and might not be abusers, is of central concern in epidemiological surveys of substance use (Smart et al, 1990). In this research the validity of the survey questionnaire has already been established and the sampling was done using purposive sampling, which provided an easy method for the researcher to gain information from the target population.