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Learn about the role of fieldworkers in data collection, the importance of training, and the stages of conducting an interview. Discover tips for building rapport, asking questions, probing, recording responses, and terminating the interview.
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Fieldworker An individual responsible for gathering data in the field. Could be: • A personal interviewer • A telephone interviewer calling from central location • An observer counting pedestrians in a shopping mall. • Others involved in data collection process • Cornerstone of fieldwork is the interviewer. • Here focus shall be on personal interviewers
Interviewers • In-house interviewers: hired by the researcher • Field Interviewing Service: A research supplier that specializes in gathering data. Trained interviewers, and supervisors. Edit questionnaires in the field. Certify how the data were collected. • Interviewers need to be healthy, outgoing, and of pleasing appearance i.e. well groomed and well dressed.
In-house training • Fieldworkers must be trained. • Vary from no training to one week training • Briefing session on the particular project is essential. • To ensure that the data collection instrument is administered uniformly.
In training cover these topics: • How to make initial contact – establishing rapport? • How to ask survey questions? • How to probe? • How to record responses? • How to terminate the interview?
Interviewers • In-house interviewers: hired by the researcher • Field Interviewing Service: A research supplier that specializes in gathering data. Trained interviewers, and supervisors. Edit questionnaires in the field. Certify how the data were collected. • Interviewers need to be healthy, outgoing, and of pleasing appearance i.e. well groomed and well dressed.
Role of interviewer • The survey interview is a social relationship. • It is a short term secondary social interaction between two strangers with the explicit purpose. • Interviewer - Interviewee/respondent. • Structured conversation – interviewer asks prearranged questions and records answers. • The role of interviewer is difficult. They obtain cooperation and build rapport, yet remain neutral and objective.
Making initial contact -- Rapport • Convince the respondent • Asslaam-o-Alaykum. My name is ______ and I am working for National Survey Co. We are conducting a survey concerning “women empowerment.” I would like to get a few of your ideas. • Long distance call makes a difference. • Personal interviewer must carry a letter of authority.
Asking the questions • Ask the questions exactly as they are worded. • Read each question very slowly. • Ask the question in the order in which they are presented in questionnaire. • Repeat questions that are misunderstood or misinterpreted. • Information volunteered earlier than the actual question. Record at proper place. But do ask this question.
Probing • Verbal prompts made by the fieldworker. • Probing needed in 2 types of situations: 1. When the respondent is to be motivated to enlarge on, to clarify, or explain the answer. 2. When there is rambling.
Probing tactics • Repetition of the question. • An expectant pause. • Repetition of the respondent’s reply. • Neutral questions or comments.
Recording the responses • Closed ended questions. Tick or circle • Open ended: - Record responses during interview - Use the respondent’s own words. Verbatim - Do not summarize or paraphrase. - Include everything that pertain to question objectives. - Include all your probes.
Terminating the interview • No hasty departure. Secure information. • Respondent’s spontaneous comments at the end. • Answer any question by the respondents. • Leave by observing local customs. “Don’t burn your bridges” • Thank for the cooperation. • Find a place to edit. Record information on face page.
Have integrity and be honest • Cornerstone of professional inquiry, regardless of its purpose.
Have patience and tact. • Apply all rules of human relations – patience, tact, courtesy.
Have attention to accuracy and detail • Inaccuracy and superficiality are ‘sins.’ • Fully understand the answer then record. • Probe if necessary.
Exhibit a real interest in the inquiry at hand, but keep your opinions to yourself • Impartiality is imperative.
Be a good listener • Don’t be too talkative. Let the respondent talk.
Maintain confidentiality • Never quote one respondent’s opinion to another.
Respect other’s rights • It is the goodwill of other to provide information. Applying any coercion is unethical. Cooperation is important and valuable.
Interview Bias • Information should be free of bias • Bias could be introduced by the interviewer, interviewee, or the situation.
Interviewer bias • Poor rapport. Errors made by respondent • Unintentional errors or sloppiness. • Intentional subversion. Alteration of answers, omission/alteration of questions • Respondents appearance, living situation can influences interviewer’s expectations • Failure to probe properly. • Interviewer’s appearance, tone, attitude, reactions could influence the answers
Interviewee bias • Errors made by the respondent – 1. Interviewees can bias the data when they do not come out with their true opinion but provide information that they think what the interviewer expects of them or would like to hear. 2. They do not understand the question, they may feel difficult or hesitant to clarify. 3. Some interviewees may be turned off because of the personal liking, or the dress of the interviewer, or the manner in which questions are put. So they may not provide truthful answers. 4. Some may provide socially undesirable answers.
Situational bias Situational biases in terms of: • Non-participants – Unwillingness or inability to participate. Bias the sample. 2. Trust levels and rapport established by different interviewers. Elicit answers of different degrees of openness. 3. The physical setting of the interview. Respondent may not feel comfortable to be interviewed at work.
Some tips for interviewing • Know the culture of the people in advance. • Appearance – wear acceptable dress. • Pleasantness and flexibility. • Carry the letter of authority. • Establish credibility and rapport. • Familiarity with the questionnaire. • Following the question wording/ question order. • Recording responses exactly. • Probing for responses. • Closing the interview. No false promises. Also don’t burn your bridges. • Do the editing in the first available opportunity.
Sample: • A subset, or some part, of a larger whole. • Larger whole could be anything – bucket of water, a bag of sugar, a group of organizations, a group of students, a group of customers, a group of mid-level managers.
1. Saves cost, labor, and time: • To go for sample study is pragmatic. • In case population is extremely small, then go for total study. Census another word – total enumeration
2. Quality Management: • Professional fieldworkers – a scarce commodity. • Instead of doing on large population with less qualified staff, do a sample study with quality fieldworkers. • Easier to manage small group – quality control. Training, supervision, record keeping.
3. Accurate and Reliable Results • Properly selected samples are accurate. • Homogeneous population – only a small sample needed. Likely to be representative. Blood samples. • Large pop. More non-sampling errors – interviewer mistakes, tabulation errors. Lo quality supervision.
4. No Alternative but Sampling • For quality control testing may require the destruction of the items being tested e. g. Firecrackers, testing the life a bulb, Testing missiles. • This is destructive testing.
5. Determine the Period of Study • Census study requires long time, may be a year. Seasonal variation. For example, Study of unemployment rate over a year. Results refer to which part of the year.
6. Determine the Confidence Level • Calculate the sampling error – help in determining the confidence level in the data. • Sampling type may facilitate the use of powerful statistical tests for analysis.
Sampling Terminology • Number of technical terms used that need explanation.
1. Element: • Unit about which information is collected and is the basis of analysis. Can be a person, a group, a family, an organization, a community.
2. Population: • Theoretically specified aggregation of study elements. • Translating the abstract concept into workable concept. College students. Theoretical explanation. • Pool of all available elements is population.
3. Target Population: • Out of conceptual variations, what exactly is the focus. • Complete group of specific population elements relevant to project. • Call it Survey population – aggregation of elements for selecting a sample. • e.g. study of college students – college students from Govt. institutions, studying social sciences, aged 19 years, and with rural background
4. Sampling: • Process of using a small number of items. Estimate unknown characteristics of population. • Process of selection – Depending upon the type of sample to be used.
5. Sampling Frame: • List of population elements. Listing of all college students meeting the criteria. • Also called as working population – list that can be worked with operationally. Prepare the list of relevant college students.
6. Sampling Unit: • That element or set of elements considered for selection in some stage of sampling. • Sampling can be single stage or multistage. Simple or complex. • In single stage, sampling units are the same as elements. • In multistage, different levels of sampling units may be employed. Sampling of Mohallahs, the of households, and then adults. Primary, secondary, final.
7. Observation Unit: • Unit of data collection from which information is collected. • Unit of observation and unit of analysis can be same or different. [Interview head of household (UoO) and collect information about every member (UoA)]
8. Parameter: • Summary description of a given variable in population (Mean income of families in the city, mean age) • Survey research involves the estimation of population parameters.
9. Statistic: • Summary description of a variable in survey sample. Mean income/age of the sample. • Use it for estimation of population parameters
10. Sampling Error: • Probability samples seldom provide statistics exactly equal to parameters. • Estimation of error to be expected for a given sample.
Stages in the Selection of a Sample Define the target population Select a sampling frame Determine if a probability or non-probability sampling method will be chosen Plan procedure for selecting sampling units Determine sample size Select actual sampling units Conduct fieldwork
