METODE DE CERCETARE

1. METODE DE CERCETARE • CURS 9 www.policy.hu/badescu

2. Tabel Sir de nr. aleatoare: se imparte la nr. de adulti, restul e folosit pt. a selecta un adult din lista ordonata in f. de varsta. Ex: NA: 23, 3 adulti: restul 2; se alege al doilea adult in ordinea varstei Problema non-raspunsurilor: articol in Sociologie Romaneasca, penultimul numar, autor Mircea Comsa.

3. Constructia chestionarelor Rotariu & Ilut. Ancheta sociologica si sondajul de opinie. Polirom (p.71-94)

4. Search google: Survey Research and Questionnaire Methods • http://www.surveysystem.com/sdesign.htm • http://homepages.wmich.edu/~haus/EMR640/Lect11a.pdf • http://www.statpac.com/surveys/index.htm#toc • http://edf5481-01.fa01.fsu.edu/Questionnaires.html

5. CONSIDERATII GENERALE • Design the questionnaire to fit the medium. Phone interviews cannot show pictures. Survey-by-mail respondents cannot ask, “What exactly do you mean by that?” if they do not understand a ques­tion. Intimate, personal questions are sometimes best handled by mail or computer, where anonymity is most assured. • KISS - keep it short and simple. Ask yourself what you will do with the information from each question. If you cannot give yourself a satisfactory answer, leave it out. • Start with an introduction or welcome message. In the case of mail questionnaires, this message can be in a cover letter or on the questionnaire form itself. When practical, state who you are and why you want the information in the survey. A good introduction or welcome message will encourage people to complete your questionnaire.

6. Exemple de scrisori intro. Stimată Doamnă Primar / Stimate Domnule Primar, Localitatea d-voastră a fost inclusă într-o cercetare naţională realizată printr-un sondaj. Acest studiu are în vedere o serie de date despre comunităţile locale, iar realizarea sa va fi extrem de utilă pentru acumularea de informaţii capabile să ducă la îmbunătăţirea activităţilor administraţiei publice din România. Vă rugăm să completaţi d-voastră, sau o persoană desemnată de d-voastră din cadrul primăriei, răspunsurile la întrebările următoare, apoi să ni le trimiteţi în nu mai mult de 15 zile din momentul în care le-aţi primit. Vă rugăm să folosiţi pentru expediere plicul din scrisoare, care este imprimat cu adresa noastră şi timbrat. Succesul acestei cercetări depinde în foarte mare măsură de colaborarea şi de promptitudinea răspunsului d-voastră. Vă mulţumim anticipat.

7. Exemple de scrisori intro. Stimate d-le Prof. Badescu, Va scriu pentru a va ruga sa participati la o cercetare privind competitia politica intre partidele din Romania. In cadrul cercetari, intentionam sa aplicam un survey expertilor de tara in privinta partidelor politice din Romania.  Formularul completat il puteti trimite fie prin e-mail la aceasta adresa, fie pe adresa SRSP, Str. Agricultori, Nr. 128 Bis, Bucuresti, Romania. Intrucit este parte a Colegiului Invizibil si suntem oarecum presati de timp, v-as ruga sa trimiteti acest formular completat in termen de 10 zile Razvan GrecuProject coordinator,Invisible College, Romanian Society of Political ScienceE-mail: politics@home.ro

8. Exemple de scrisori intro. THE NETWORK OF INSTITUTES AND SCHOOLS OF PUBLIC            ADMINISTRATION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPENISPAcee News Questionaire for the NISPAcee member institutionsThe information will be published in the NISPAcee News, Volume X/2003, No. 1, winter issue.To be completed in English and returned no later than December 4, 2002to the NISPAcee Secretariat, 842 02 Bratislava 42, Hanulova 5/B,Slovakia, E-mail: JURAJ@NISPA.SK , Tel/Fax: 0042-2-6428 5557 Please, use additional paper if necessary.We would greatly appreciate it if you could send the information also by e-mail or fax which would considerably speed up the work on the Newsletter. __________________________________________________________

9. CONSIDERATII GENERALE Allow a “Don't Know” or “Not Applicable” response to all questions, except to those in which you are certain that all respondents will have a clear answer. Sometimes “Don't Know” or “Not Applicable” will really represent some respondents' most honest answers to some of your ques­tions. Respondents who feel they are being coerced into giving an answer they do not want to give often do not complete the questionnaire. For the same reason, include “Other” or “None” whenever either of these are a logically possible answer. When the answer choices are a list of possible opinions, preferences or behaviors you should usually allow these answers.You may want to combine two or more of them into one choice, if you have no interest in distinguishing between them. You will rarely want to include “Don't Know,” “Not Applicable,” “Other” or “None” in a list of choices being read over the telephone or in person, but you should allow the interviewer the ability to accept them when given by respondents.

10. We distinguish between open questions, in which the respondent uses their own words to answer, and closed questions which provide pre-written response categories. • CLOSED QUESTIONS: • standardize responses. In carefully-written closed questions, the question and responses mean the same thing to nearly all respondents. • are faster to administer. • are easier to code and score. • BUT closed questions also • may suggest answers. • have multiple meanings. • may omit important responses.

11. OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS: • take longer to administer. • may produce responses that are idiosyncratic and difficult to code into categories. • BUT open questions also: • allow a more exhaustive list of response possibilities. • alert us to the multiple dimensions in a topic. • convey a richness of feeling often missing from closed questions.

12. Exemple de intrebari. Doar pentru cei care au făcut donaţii în ultimii doi ani (cel puţin un cod la Q1, Q3, Q4, Q6): Care au fost motivele pentru care aţi făcut donaţii? Dacă există mai multe motive, care au fost cele mai importante? (întrebare deschisă, operatorul înregistrează toate motivele prezentate de respondent şi va indica cel mai important motiv – treceţi principalul motiv pe poziţia 1). ......................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................... În cazul firmei d-voastră, ... 1. alocaţi o sumă / cantitate de bunuri fixă pe an, pentru donaţii. 2. alocarea donaţiilor pe an este flexibilă, însă se face în mod regulat 3. alocarea donaţiilor depinde în totalitate de împrejurări, nu are loc în mod regulat 3. altă situaţie. Vă rog să o descrieţi pe scurt: ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

13. SOME RULES FOR CONSTRUCTING CLOSED QUESTIONS Closed questions should be unidimensional:  they ask about one and only one topic at a time. Questions which use more that one dimension are called “double-barreled”. Rule 1: Avoid double-barreled questions. We cannot disentangle which question embedded in a question the respondent actually answered. Double-barreled questions are usually quickly recognized by their use of “and” or “or”. But any question that simultaneously asks about at least two topics is double-barreled. EXAMPLES:    Do you agree that we should lower property taxes AND provide more county services?   Do you approve or disapprove of abortion in cases of incest OR threats to the mother’s health?

14. Rule 2: PROVIDE ALL RESPONSES TO A CLOSED QUESTION. Responses should be mutually exclusive. A respondent’s answer should fit in only ONE category. Responses should also be exhaustive: all possible responses are provided, even if you need to add an “OTHER. PLEASE SPECIFY:” alternative (or a don’t know or a refusal category). Rule 3: Consider as many alternative responses as you can in advance. EXAMPLE: For marital status, people are married, widowed, divorced, separated, living together, single (NEVER MARRIED) or something else (you’d be surprised), not just married or single.

15. Rule 4: Avoid condensing numerical responses into grouped categories. Ask about religious service attendance in times per month. Grouped categories lose information. Computers can always collapse responses together in categories in seconds later on. The exception: income categories. We use grouped categories to provide greater confidentiality in the answers and because people generally only know their incomes around April 15. Rule 5: Use a mix of question formats to avoid format response sets or response effects. For example, one of the most popular formats is the Likert item: people are asked whether they strongly agree, agree, are undecided, disagree, or strongly disagree with an attitude statement. Many survey researchers love Likert items because you can administer them quickly (a well-trained interviewer can do five per minute) and they are easy to code.

16. Exemplu. Venituri scazute rezulta sustinere ridicata pt. privatizare Venituri scazute asociate unui nivel scazut de educatie, asociat unui efect de lista pronuntat. Astfel, intrebarea “In ce masura sunteti de acord cu act. Guvernului in domeniul privatizarii”, parte a unei baterii de intrebari privind activitate guvernului in mai multe domenii, releva sustinere fata de guvernul format de partidul votat in alegeri si nu sustinere fata de privatizare.

17. Rule 6: IN GENERAL: don’t use hypothetical situations. Don't ask respondents to guess how other people “would feel” or even how they would feel under hypothetical conditions. The answers are generally unreliable because people have not thought about their responses. Rule 7: Try to keep the number of response alternatives that are read to respondents to a maximum of seven. You cannot use show cards in a telephone survey. The respondent must be able to memorize the alternatives, then select one. The fewer the response categories, the easier this is. Rule 8: Use specific time frames when you ask about behaviors, particularly regular or habitual behaviors. Don’t leave the time frame vague or undefined if at all possible.      “During the last month, how many times did you attend religious services?”      “During the last week, did you smoke any cigarettes at all?”

18. Rule 10: Make sure to make the question stem consistent with the provided responses. EXAMPLE: If the stem reads “how often”, make sure the responses are in a time frame (times per month) or take a relative form such as “All of the time”“Most of the time”“Half the time”“Seldom” or “Never”. Rule 11: If you have a very complicated question stem, break the question into AT LEAST two questions. The respondent will have an easier time and the questionnaire will actually go faster. BAD QUESTION: “What do you think should be done about the environment? Tell me all the actions that you approve: A. Recycling B. Start carpools C. Mandatory thermostat controls (etc.)” BETTER SET OF QUESTIONS: In general, do you approve or disaprove of recycling newpapers? In general, do you approve or disapprove of starting work carpools? In general, do you approve or disapprove of mandatory thermostat controls etc.

19. Rule 12: Avoid jargon or technical terms. Your respondent probably won't know what "trait anxiety" is, even if she or he has a lot of it. "ET" to most people means a movie about a quaint alien, not Educational Technology. E-mail = email Sistem electoral uninominal Rule 13: Avoid "red flag" words, that is, words with emotional connotations or that coincide with strongly-held values. Everyone wants to be "fair"! NEVER use that word in a question unless you are talking about a civic event or festival such as the North Florida Fair! "Murder" is another red flag word (as in "Do you approve of the murder of unborn babies?")

22. Rule 14: If the questionnaire will be administered by an interviewer, be sure to read the entire questionnaire aloud in a pilot test. Many words sound alike that have different meanings. Rule 15: Similarly, beware of words that have multiple meanings, for example: kind; fair; item. Put the Thesaurus in your computer's word processor to use!

23. SOME RULES FOR CONSTRUCTING OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS Rule 17: Ask open-ended questions in a way that encourages people to give a complete and full answer.      Use phrases such as “what are”? “how do you feel about”?Never ask a “yes/no” open-ended question!      Good: “what do you like best about high school cafeteria lunches?”     Bad: “do you like high school cafeteria lunches?”      Good: “what do you think is the biggest issue with homeless people in Tallahassee?”     Bad: “is homelessness a problem in Tallahassee?” (what is “problematic?”) Rule 18: With a complex question that could have multi-dimensional answers (“what do you see as the top priorities for the Florida legislature this year?”), use an open-ended format. There will be so many possible responses you will not be able to specify all the response categories in advance.

24. Ce ar trebui să se schimbe pentru a vă determina pe dumneavoastră să faceţi donaţii (din nou, dacă respondetul a făcut deja donaţii deja) unei organizaţii? înregistreaza răspunsul şi bifează în lista de mai jos varianta corespunzătore ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 1. nimic, nu am intenţia să donez bani 2. aş fi donat oricum, fără nici un fel de schimbări 3. o creştere a venitului personal/familial 4. să fiu solicitat să fac donaţii de către o organizaţie de încredere 5. facilităţi fiscale 6. să mi se ceară să donez pentru o cauză în care cred cu adevărat 7. posibilitatea unei recompense simbolice 8. altceva