Practise judging whether a measure captures the intended construct and whether findings transfer to everyday settings or populations, using procedural evidence.
Dr Chand is going to measure how much adults want to participate in social activities, such as team sports or attending a festival.
For one of the ways of collecting data you suggested in part (a):
Explain one way this method of collecting data is valid.
'Explain one way this method of collecting data is valid.
Strength = 1
Detail = 1
Questionnaire:
Can be done online/through the post (strength);
- Therefore, if they are embarrassed about not joining in, they may be more honest (detail);
- unlike interviews which may be face to face and subject to social desirability bias (leading to less honest answers) (comparative detail)
Interview:
Can explain the nature of the question if the participant does not understand (strength);
- whereas a questionnaire can only help with general printed instructions (leading to answers not related to the aim) (comparative detail)
- means that the response given will be directly related to the question asked/the information the researcher wants to find out (detail).
Closed Q:
Quantitative data is achieved so easy to analyse/is more objective; (strength)
- Can just produce a score that can be averaged/comparisons can be made between different groups i.e. ages (detail)
- meaning it is not subject to researcher bias or interpretation (lowering validity); (detail)
Open Q:
Allows opportunity to give individual/detailed responses; (strength)
- So, people with different reasons/feelings can express themselves more allowing a greater insight into their feelings; (detail)
Explain one way this method of collecting data is not valid.
Explain one way this method of collecting data is not valid.
Weakness = 1
Detail = 1
Questionnaire:
Ps may not understand the questions being asked (weakness);
- Whereas an interviewer would be able to explain (comparative detail)
- meaning that the responses given may not be directly related to the question asked (general detail);
Interview:
If the interview is face to face the Ps might lie/may give socially desirable answers (weakness);
- e.g. as they many want to appear more sociable as they feel this is more socially acceptable;
- Closed Q:
Limits responses (to a number/to fixed choices); (weakness)
- Ps may want to say 'in situation X I would be willing'; (detail)
- Meaning that the questionnaire answers may not have the choice that is more relevant to the desired answer for the participant (detail)
Open Q:
The scoring of a response is subject to the interpretation by researcher; (weakness)
- Comments may imply willingness and therefore they may give it a higher score, but that is not what the participant meant; (detail)