Collection of Data – Questionnaires and Instruments & Sampling

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Collection of Data – Questionnaires and Instruments & Sampling

 

  1. Sampling is the process of selecting units such as organizations or people from a targeted population. The results acquired from the selected units will be used to form a general conclusion. Sampling process follows various stages such as defining the population, setting a frame, specifying the sampling method, determining the size, implementing the plan, data collection, and selection of data.

Two types of sampling includes probability and non-probability. Probability is mostly used due to its increased chances of obtaining samples that are representative of the targeted population. Probability sampling methods includes random and stratified sampling. The nonprobability sampling methods includes the quota, purposive, and convenience sampling (Levy, & Lemeshow, 2013).

  1. Mode is one of the central tendency measure that provides the nominal data. In a qualitative data collection, for example, researching on the prevalence of suicide among black-Americans. The mode as a central tendency measure calculates the frequent value of the data set. In this case, a large number of the respondent in the sample said that 57% of black-American men commit suicide. In this case, the mode is 57% (Healey, 2014).
  2. The statistical test of dispersion of a sample data illustrates the stretch or the squeezing of data. Standard deviation is one of the statistical tools used to measure the distribution of the sampled data (Healey, 2014).
  3. Discrete and continuous distribution are the two types that can be used to present sampled data. In continuous distribution, the valuable can take any value. For example, the age of the black-American committing suicide is between the age of 16 and 35. In this case, a black committing suicide can be of any age between the given values.

In contrary, the discrete distribution is where the variable can just take a specified value. For example, the gender of the black American committing suicide will have a discrete distribution because it must be either male or female. Therefore, the number of females who commit suicide can be zero of a specific number, which is same with males (Levy, & Lemeshow, 2013).

  1. There are two types of questions used in preparing a questionnaire. Open-ended and close-ended question. The open-ended questions are included in the questionnaire with the aim of giving the respondent the chance to express their opinions. The questions do not have a set of predetermined opinion for the responded to choose. The second type is the closed ended questions where respondents are restricted to choose from given choices that are premeditated by the interviewer. The questionnaire construction have no rules of the maximum or minimum suggestion of the choices. The interviewer offers a range of choices depending on the nature of the research and the extent of the needed answers. Some of the closed question may have a yes or no choice. Other tests the magnitude of a certain feeling, emotion, or attitude toward a certain element (Doody, & Noonan, 2013).
  2. The most commonly used types of interviews are face-to-face, phone, group, and email interview. Face-to-face interview is where the respondent and the interviewer are in a single location where one asks questions where the other one answers. The phone interview is where the medium of communication between the interviewee and the interviewer is the phone. The email type of interview is where the interviewer send a document to the respondent to answer the questions and send them at a predetermined date or time (Doody, & Noonan, 2013).

 

 

References

Levy, P. S., & Lemeshow, S. (2013). Sampling of populations: methods and applications. John Wiley & Sons.

Healey, J. F. (2014). Statistics: A tool for social research. Cengage Learning.

Doody, O., & Noonan, M. (2013). Preparing and conducting interviews to collect data. Nurse Researcher, 20(5), 28-32.

 
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