Ethical considerations arise with respect to the four types of potential errors that may occur when designing surveys that use random probability samples. We have already discussed the four types of errors. Coverage error becomes an ethical issue only if particular groups or individuals are deliberately excluded from the population frame so that the survey results are skewed, indicating a position more favorable to that of the survey’s sponsor.
Similarly non-response error becomes an ethical issue only if a particular group or individuals are less likely to respond to a particular survey format and the sponsor knowingly designs the survey in a manner aimed at excluding such groups or individuals.
Sampling error becomes an ethical issue only if the findings are purposely presented without reference to sample size and margin of error so that the sponsor can promote a viewpoint, which might otherwise be truly insignificant. Measurement error may turn in an ethical issue in one of the three ways: A survey sponsor may purposely choose loaded, leading questions that would guide the responses in a particular direction.
(a) Structured and Direct (Surveys Using Questionnaires):
Among the communication methods in use today, surveys involving structured questionnaires are the most extensively used? If you want to know the consumption patterns of a particular product category, reasons for brand choice, the relative influence of different media on a person’s decisions, the natural course would be to ask the people themselves. In order to get comparable information from respondents, formal non-disguised questions are pre-designed in the form of a questionnaire. Administrating the questionnaire may involve participation of an interviewer, who is instructed to ask the questions in the order given on the form and to ask only those questions. The questionnaire method, with or without the participation of an interviewer is such a prevalent and versatile method of data collection that it was felt that various stages of questionnaire planning and execution warranted a detailed explanation. The basic advantages of using questionnaires are versatility and economy. The questionnaire method is versatile enough to be tailored to the needs of most marketing research situations. In addition variables like knowledge, opinions, intentions, motivations and personal habits, which do not lend themselves to observation, can only be elicited through questioning. It is also the only method to get information on past events for which records have not been maintained. Relatively speaking, questioning turns out to be speedier and less costly than observation. Interviewers using questionnaires have a higher degree of control over information gathering activities than do observers, who have to wait for the respondent to perform the action under study. Moreover the lag time between one interview and another is controllable by the interviewer while the observer cannot control the waiting time between two successive observations. The questionnaire method is, however, subject to certain limitations also. Important among them are inability of the respondent to furnish information. Even though they may be willing to share information about themselves, many respondents are actually unable to give accurate information to the questions asked. For example, it might be difficult for you at a point of time to give the exact reason for choosing a brand of soap over another unless you have carefully analyzed these reasons beforehand. Therefore, on questions of buyer motivations quite often-inaccurate information is given which interferes with the reliability of data collected.
Averseness of Respondent to Respond:
The questionnaire-aided interviewer is usually an imposition on the time of the respondent, who is required to answer questions on his personal habits, values, socio economic characteristics and so on to an unknown interviewer. In some cases, respondents refuse to spend the time needed to answer the questions and in quite a few cases, refuse to answer questions in relation to their income or on very personal subjects. These ‘gaps’ in the information collection may affect the overall research process.
Influence of the Questioning Process:
As the situation in which the questionnaire asks respondents’ to relate routine actions is an artificial one, they may furnish information, which is at variance with the truth. Quite often, respondents to give answers that they think will please the interviewer. At times, if the true answer to a question shows them in a bad light or is damaging to the ego, respondents tend to give ‘doctored’ or manufactured responses. Also some respondents tend to give ‘doctored’ or manufactured responses. Also some respondent take at the whole process very lightly and try to amuse, shock or astonish the interviewer /reader through their responses.
(b) Unstructured Direct Interviews:
This method does not involve the use of a formally structured questionnaire. The interviewer is only given general instructions on the type of information sought. He has therefore, a considerable degree of freedom in choosing the questions, as well as the wording and the order, which may seem most appropriate for a given interview. Generally used in exploratory research studies these interviews are useful in obtaining a clearer understanding of the problem and determining the areas to be investigated. This technique is also applied for obtaining information on motives for respondents’ action. When so used, it usually takes the form of a depth interview. Exploring the motive behind a particular purchase the interviewer may continue asking probing questions like “could you explain what you meant by this statement? Why do you feel like that? Do you have any other reason”? And so on, the complete information was obtained.. The restrictions in this case are requirements of the problem, time limitations and the willingness as well as ability of respondents to put their motives into words. The advantage of unstructured direct interview is that since it is free of the restrictions imposed by formal questions, the interview may be conducted in a conversational causal mode, which is more conducive to information gathering. Moreover the vocabulary can be adjusted to ensure rapport and understanding. The flexibility and informality of the direct unstructured interview often provides access to information not usually obtained in structured questionnaire. The possibility that respondents will knowingly or unknowingly furnish wrong responses is, however, still there. The success of the unstructured interview depends upon the skill of the interviewer in formulating and asking questions. The use of highly skilled and competent interviewers adds to the cost per interview. Another factor contributing to costs is that unstructured interviews are much longer than structured ones, and the varied order and form of questions makes editing and tabulating much more complicated.
(c) Structured and Unstructured Indirect Interviews:
In order to overcome the non-response or inaccurate response problem associated with direct questionnaires and unstructured interviews, some techniques have been developed to elicit information in an indirect fashion. Applying the projective techniques developed in the field of psychology, the respondents are asked to describe a non-personal ambiguous situation. The premise is that the description by the respondents would involve a projection of their own personalities, values, motives, needs and desires. The most common among these techniques are word association tests, sentence completion tests and thematic apperception (interpretation of pictorial representation). These techniques have been mostly used in the study of buying motivations and consumption patterns of consumer products, which are similar in performance, price and quality, so that the consumer has little basis of differentiating them except brand and company image. Examples are soaps and detergents, food products, cigarettes, etc.
Since pre-designed sets of words, statements or pictorial representation are used to elicit respondents descriptions, all indirect interviews involve some structuring. The degree however, varies from highly structured ones to relatively unstructured interviews where the interviewer has a high degree of latitude in questioning the respondent to get responses. Some of the commonly used indirect interview techniques are described below to help you to understand these tools of data collection.
Similarly non-response error becomes an ethical issue only if a particular group or individuals are less likely to respond to a particular survey format and the sponsor knowingly designs the survey in a manner aimed at excluding such groups or individuals.
Sampling error becomes an ethical issue only if the findings are purposely presented without reference to sample size and margin of error so that the sponsor can promote a viewpoint, which might otherwise be truly insignificant. Measurement error may turn in an ethical issue in one of the three ways: A survey sponsor may purposely choose loaded, leading questions that would guide the responses in a particular direction.
(a) Structured and Direct (Surveys Using Questionnaires):
Among the communication methods in use today, surveys involving structured questionnaires are the most extensively used? If you want to know the consumption patterns of a particular product category, reasons for brand choice, the relative influence of different media on a person’s decisions, the natural course would be to ask the people themselves. In order to get comparable information from respondents, formal non-disguised questions are pre-designed in the form of a questionnaire. Administrating the questionnaire may involve participation of an interviewer, who is instructed to ask the questions in the order given on the form and to ask only those questions. The questionnaire method, with or without the participation of an interviewer is such a prevalent and versatile method of data collection that it was felt that various stages of questionnaire planning and execution warranted a detailed explanation. The basic advantages of using questionnaires are versatility and economy. The questionnaire method is versatile enough to be tailored to the needs of most marketing research situations. In addition variables like knowledge, opinions, intentions, motivations and personal habits, which do not lend themselves to observation, can only be elicited through questioning. It is also the only method to get information on past events for which records have not been maintained. Relatively speaking, questioning turns out to be speedier and less costly than observation. Interviewers using questionnaires have a higher degree of control over information gathering activities than do observers, who have to wait for the respondent to perform the action under study. Moreover the lag time between one interview and another is controllable by the interviewer while the observer cannot control the waiting time between two successive observations. The questionnaire method is, however, subject to certain limitations also. Important among them are inability of the respondent to furnish information. Even though they may be willing to share information about themselves, many respondents are actually unable to give accurate information to the questions asked. For example, it might be difficult for you at a point of time to give the exact reason for choosing a brand of soap over another unless you have carefully analyzed these reasons beforehand. Therefore, on questions of buyer motivations quite often-inaccurate information is given which interferes with the reliability of data collected.
Averseness of Respondent to Respond:
The questionnaire-aided interviewer is usually an imposition on the time of the respondent, who is required to answer questions on his personal habits, values, socio economic characteristics and so on to an unknown interviewer. In some cases, respondents refuse to spend the time needed to answer the questions and in quite a few cases, refuse to answer questions in relation to their income or on very personal subjects. These ‘gaps’ in the information collection may affect the overall research process.
Influence of the Questioning Process:
As the situation in which the questionnaire asks respondents’ to relate routine actions is an artificial one, they may furnish information, which is at variance with the truth. Quite often, respondents to give answers that they think will please the interviewer. At times, if the true answer to a question shows them in a bad light or is damaging to the ego, respondents tend to give ‘doctored’ or manufactured responses. Also some respondents tend to give ‘doctored’ or manufactured responses. Also some respondent take at the whole process very lightly and try to amuse, shock or astonish the interviewer /reader through their responses.
(b) Unstructured Direct Interviews:
This method does not involve the use of a formally structured questionnaire. The interviewer is only given general instructions on the type of information sought. He has therefore, a considerable degree of freedom in choosing the questions, as well as the wording and the order, which may seem most appropriate for a given interview. Generally used in exploratory research studies these interviews are useful in obtaining a clearer understanding of the problem and determining the areas to be investigated. This technique is also applied for obtaining information on motives for respondents’ action. When so used, it usually takes the form of a depth interview. Exploring the motive behind a particular purchase the interviewer may continue asking probing questions like “could you explain what you meant by this statement? Why do you feel like that? Do you have any other reason”? And so on, the complete information was obtained.. The restrictions in this case are requirements of the problem, time limitations and the willingness as well as ability of respondents to put their motives into words. The advantage of unstructured direct interview is that since it is free of the restrictions imposed by formal questions, the interview may be conducted in a conversational causal mode, which is more conducive to information gathering. Moreover the vocabulary can be adjusted to ensure rapport and understanding. The flexibility and informality of the direct unstructured interview often provides access to information not usually obtained in structured questionnaire. The possibility that respondents will knowingly or unknowingly furnish wrong responses is, however, still there. The success of the unstructured interview depends upon the skill of the interviewer in formulating and asking questions. The use of highly skilled and competent interviewers adds to the cost per interview. Another factor contributing to costs is that unstructured interviews are much longer than structured ones, and the varied order and form of questions makes editing and tabulating much more complicated.
(c) Structured and Unstructured Indirect Interviews:
In order to overcome the non-response or inaccurate response problem associated with direct questionnaires and unstructured interviews, some techniques have been developed to elicit information in an indirect fashion. Applying the projective techniques developed in the field of psychology, the respondents are asked to describe a non-personal ambiguous situation. The premise is that the description by the respondents would involve a projection of their own personalities, values, motives, needs and desires. The most common among these techniques are word association tests, sentence completion tests and thematic apperception (interpretation of pictorial representation). These techniques have been mostly used in the study of buying motivations and consumption patterns of consumer products, which are similar in performance, price and quality, so that the consumer has little basis of differentiating them except brand and company image. Examples are soaps and detergents, food products, cigarettes, etc.
Since pre-designed sets of words, statements or pictorial representation are used to elicit respondents descriptions, all indirect interviews involve some structuring. The degree however, varies from highly structured ones to relatively unstructured interviews where the interviewer has a high degree of latitude in questioning the respondent to get responses. Some of the commonly used indirect interview techniques are described below to help you to understand these tools of data collection.
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