Rural Research Methods

Sony Pellissery
Institute of Rural Management,
Anand
 Module 2: Positivist
approaches
The human world is functioning like
natural science world.
Numerical data based.
Measurement.
Probability – sampling.

Survey
 Main steps in quantitative
research
• Problem – questions- Theory -
Hypothesis
• Design
• Devise measures of concepts
• Select research sites
• Select respondents
• Administer research instruments
• Process data
• Analyse data
• Findings/conclusions
• Write up and publicise results
• “Lack of social capital causes
increase in crime rates in cities”
 Concepts
• “Concepts are abstract summaries of
a whole set of behaviours, attitudes
and characteristics which we see as
having something in common
(DeVaus, 2003: 43).

• Have no universal existence ‘out

there’.

• Concepts used out-of-context can

 How to get rid of confusion
• Problem: if each one defines in their way,
there is anarchy.

• Practically: clarify how we defined

concept, and keep this definition in mind
while measuring as well as while drawing
conclusion.

• Concepts are to communicate, so in such a

way that others understand than purely
idiosyncratic.
 Nominal
Definition
Concept

The meaning of concept

in the context of
research question

Operational
definition
Construct

Indicators
to measure
 How to go about?
• Generate a range of definitions of the
concept
• Decide on a definition
• Delineate the dimensions of the
concept
 Variables and their
measurement
• Variable = is a characteristic on
which cases vary.

• Measurement of a characteristic of a
subject (i.e. something or someone)
that varies across subjects (i.e.is not
constant) in a population of subjects.
• This characteristic/attribute could be
a logical organisation.
• Independent - Dependent
 Variation
• Want to measure efficient worker.

• An indicator could be attendance.

• If all workers are present on all days,

it is not showing a variation, and thus
not a good variable.
 Indicators
• Sign of presence or absence of the
concept in the case we are
investigating.
• ‘as though a measure’.

• Through question in a survey

• Through observation of individual’s
behaviour
• Through official statistics
• …..
 Levels of measurement
• Different levels of measurement,
which means that we have to
examine different types of data in
different ways.

• Also at the stage of analysis, certain

types of tests are possible only with
certain data.
Nominal level measures (1)
• Just represent a category.
e.g.Male -1
Female -2
e.g.Single -1
Married -2
Divorced - 3
• Since there is no ordering, these are
nominal measures.
 Ordinal level measures
• Categories again, but these categories
are ordered.
e.g.Many polling/survey questions.
“It was right for Modi to attack Muslims”
Strongly agree -1
Agree -2
Disagree -3
Strongly disagree - 4
The distance between each category is
unknown.
“Strong agreers” are more supportive to
Modi than “agreers”, but we have no idea
how much more supportive they are.
 Interval level measures
Numbers represent a quantitative variable.
e.g.Income, number of pupils per
teacher, age, etc.
There is a specific distance between each
level.
We can say not only is my sister younger
than I am, but that she is 2 years younger.
Age is a continuous variable, one can also
subdivide the measure(784 days, 3 hours
and 2 minutes younger…).
It is also true that my parents have only 2
children.
Number of children is a discrete variable, you
 Ratio
• True zero as absolute reference point
 While collecting data
• Age: better collected as actual than
in range.
 Unit of analysis
• Unit of analysis
• Unit of observation

• Collecting data on individuals, but

generalising to the group.
• Collect data on group.

• Things, places, organisations.

 Life history Individual
method interview

Material culture
Focus group
Individual discussions
Mass Document, conversation based Group
media and material based Types of data based
inputs collection
strategies Group
Historical Interaction interviews
archival based
Conver documents
sation
analysis observation
Official
documents

Personal documents
 Sampling
• Often when we see numbers used they
are not numbers relating to a
population, but a sample of that
population.

• Newspapers report the percentage of

the electorate thinking Manmohan
Singh is trustworthy, but this is really
the percentage of their sample (say
1000 people) that they asked about
Singh’s trustworthiness.
 Samples and Population

• For that statistic from the newspaper’s

sample to be useful, the sample has to be
‘representative’.
• i.e.the % saying Singh is trustworthy in
newspaper’s survey (the sample of 1000
people) needs to be similar to the % in
electorate (the population eligible to vote
= millions).
• An intuitively obvious way of doing this is
to pick 1000 people at random.
• For the survey, metaphorically (or literally
with a big hat) put every elector’s name
into a hat and pull out 1000 names.
 Why sample?
Cost
We could ask all odd millions people that are
eligible to vote in India. This would prove
somewhat expensive.
The last Indian census cost?

Speed
Equally the last Indian census took 5 years to
process the data…

Impossibility
Consuming every bottle of wine from a vineyard
to assess its quality leaves no wine to sell…
 SAMPLE SIZE
• The degree of accuracy we require
for the sample.

• The extent to which there is variation

in the population in regard to the key
characteristics of the study.
 Why random sample?

• Random sampling allows us to apply

probability theory to our samples.

• This means that we can assess how

likely it is (given how big our sample
is) that our sample is representative.
 Random sampling
• Unrestricted random sampling
• Simple random sampling

• Could be respondent, item.

‘Fooled by randomness’
 Why did Newspaper
prediction about election go
wrong?
• Sample was large, but unrepresentative.
• They did not send questionnaires to
randomly selected people, but rather lists of
people with club memberships, lists of car
/telephone owners.
• These people were wealthier and therefore
more likely to vote for a particular party; the
sample was not representative of the Indian
electorate as a whole.
• The newspaper’s sampling frame was not
the population (the electorate), but a
wealthy subset of the population.
 Problems with SRS

A random sample may not include enough of

a particular interesting group for analysis.
• Interested in experiences of religious
extremism to minorities, 100 random
people will on average include 83 Hindus,
and an individual sample will potentially
have even fewer (maybe even zero) non-
Hindus.

Can be costly and difficult.

• A list of the population of interest is not
always available.
 Systematic sampling
• Begins with required number of sample
size (e.g. I need 20 (n) respondents
from this village).

• How many villagers (N= 100)

c = (N/n or 100/20)= 5

Take first item randomly from 1-5, and

then every 5th item is taken.
 Stratified sampling
• If variability is too much, precision is
limited. So, it is required to stratify
according to pre-existing knowledge.

• Two or more relatively homogeneous

data sets.
 Cluster Sampling
• Want a nationally representative
sample of 5000 students.

• Then probability sampling for 5000

students will take me to every corner
of India.

• To make it manageable, select from

selected cluster
 Non-probability Sampling
• Snow-ball sampling
 Quota Sampling
• Interviewer is assigned quota
(women in the age group of 20-30).
But, this quota sample size has to be
representative of general population.

• For instance, in the population if

there are 20% of women in the age
group of 20-30%, in the sample too,
it should be 20%.
• It is non-probability since interviewer
bias can select respondents.
 Error
• Sampling error: The difference
between a sample and a population
from which it is drawn
• Non-sampling error: non-response,
sampling frame was poor.
• Data collection error: poor question,
flaw in administration of
questionnaire.
• Data processing error: coding
 Sample weight
• Non-response: Systematic

• Purpose of weighting is to adjust the

sample for oversampling, non-
response.

Weight = Population%
Sample%
 Sample Population
Male 35% 50%
Female 65% 50%

Male weight = 50 / 35 = 1.43

Female weight = 50 / 65 = 0.77

In SPSS
COMPUTE WEIGHT
IF (sex = MALE) WEIGHT=1.43
IF (sex = FEMALE) WEIGHT=0.77
 What is survey?
• Survey is not merely a particular
technique.

• Form of data: Variable by case data

grid

• Method of analysis: descriptive &

causal
 Tools to create data grid of
Variable by case
• Observation
• Review
• Questionnaire
 Questionnaire
• Questionnaire is distinct from
Interview

• Face-to-face (holding a piece of

paper by researcher and filling in the
answers).
• Telephone
• Self-completion (web-based / paper
based)
 Survey documentation
• Letter of introduction or explanatory
leaflet.
• Consent forms if needed.
• Briefing notes for interviewer (e.g.
how to encourage response etc).
• Questionnaire including ‘show cards’
• Code book
• Technical report giving full details of
sample construction, weighting
 Sequencing the questions
• With intro.
Purpose of survey
Why respondent was chosen
Assurance of confidentiality
Next check respondent’s eligibility if
necessary
Begin with main questions, which is
interesting for respondent.
Put sensitive or threatening items
towards end
Think how earlier item may affect
responses on later items.
 Rules on question wording
• Simple concise language, using
spoken idiom.
• Avoid emotive or offensive language.
• Take advise in potentially difficult
areas
• No ambiguous questions, double-
barrelled questions, or leading
questions
• Avoid giving examples
 Types of questions
• Simple factual questions: answers
given in defined units.
• Closed: choose from possible
answers
• Open-ended: given whatever answer
they wish
• Attitude questions: Ratings and
rankings
 Factual questions
• Control the format in which answers
are given:

• When did you start working for your

current employer?
Write in Month
Year
 Factual questions
• Ask actual number than in banded
form:
• How many hours per week do you
usually work?
• Write in usual number
of hours per week
If don’t know, code with ‘199’

Not: less than 10, 10-19, 20-29, 30 or

more
 Closed question
• Avoid time and costs of coding
answers

• Is your training part of:

A full time job –1
A part time job –2
Or is it not part of a job? – 3

Probably the list was generated from

open ended questions
 Closed question
• Specify if respondent can choose
only one answer.
• A long list will bias the respondent to
choose items which appear early.
• A list which is too short will produce
too many ‘other’ answers
• ‘Show cards’ used in face-to-face
interview could also be employed
here.
 Open-ended questions
• Why did you not contact any one for
advice?
• PROBE FULLY AND RECORD
VERABTIM

• High cost, many times not useful

answers
• But useful at the stage of developing
questionnaire, when there is little
knowledge about the field.
 Attitude questions
• How satisfied as you with the current
job?
Very satisfied
Fairly satisfied
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
Fairly dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Permitted responses to rating scale
should be evenly distributed around
a neutral mid-point. Mid point is not
same as ‘don’t know’
 Attitude questions
Single dimensional:
• ‘How important is if for you to see a
GP of your own sex when you want to
do so?’

Multi dimensional:
• ‘How satisfied are you with your GP,
all things considered?’
Some common mistakes
 Double-barrelled question
• What are your feelings toward
Christians and Sikhs (minorities)?

• What do you think about the

proposed changes in budget on tax
cuts on milk and essential item?

• Break them into separate questions

 Dodgy questions
• Can the question be misunderstood?
• Is there are terminology which
respondent does not understand?
Is your opinion about media
representation of women positive?

(Do you mean Newspaper, TV, Radio

etc)
 Repeating questions
• It makes the procedure cumbersome
and respondents get irritated.

• Ask yourself, is the question needed

or useful? What additional info would
this give?
 Proxy questions
Factual to perspective

Acceptable: What is your husband’s

occupation?
Questionable: Which party did your
husband vote for?
Unacceptable: What does your
husband think about the present
government?
 Retrospective questions
• Problem of recall

• What was your grandfather’s

occupation?
• How many friends you had last year?
• How much money did you spend last
week?
 Hypothetical questions
• If there was a sports-centre in the
city, would you use it?
Biased or leading questions

• Only asking about benefits, without

disadvantage.

• Yes?
Good practices
 Filtering (routing)
• Q.4: Have you turned down any job
offer to you in the last six months?
Yes 1 Ask
Q5
No 2 Go
to Q6
Q.5: How many jobs have you turned
down in the last six months?
Q.6: Could be a new topic; or even
have you ever turned down a job?
 Specific
• Rather than ‘did you like the book’,
Ask
• ‘Did you recommend the book to
others?’
or
• ‘Did you look at other books by the
same author’?

• Moving to behavioural measures

than attitude question.
 Strategies to increase
response rate
• Make the survey relevant to the
respondent.
• Make the respondent feel their
answer help others.
• Keep the questionnaire short
• Timing of fieldwork
• Incentive payment (a live debate)