Question

Obtaining Data. Discuss the methods for obtaining data. Describe each method.

Answer 1

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General methods of data collection:

1. Observation:

Observation is the process in which one or more persons observe what is occurring in some real life situation and they classify and record pertinent happenings according to some planned schemes. Observation method has occupied an important place in descriptive sociological research. It is the most significant and common technique of data collection. Analysis of questionnaire responses is concerned with what people think and do as revealed by what they put on paper. The responses in interview are revealed by what people express in conversation with the interviewer. Observation seeks to ascertain what people think and do by watching them in action as they express themselves in various situations and activities.

Interview as a technique of data collection is very popular and extensively used in every field of social research. The interview is, in a sense, an oral questionnaire. Instead of writing the response, the interviewee or subject gives the needed information verbally in a face-to-face relationship. The dynamics of interviewing, however, involves much more than an oral questionnaire.

2. Interviews

Interview is relatively more flexible tool than any written inquiry form and permits explanation, adjustment and variation according to the situation. The observational methods, as we know, are restricted mostly to non-verbal acts. So these are understandably not so effective in giving information about person’s past and private behaviour, future actions, attitudes, perceptions, faiths, beliefs thought processes, motivations etc.

3. Schedule:

Schedule is one of the very commonly used tools of data collection in scientific investigation. P.V. Young says “The schedule has been used for collection of personal preferences, social attitudes, beliefs, opinions, behaviour patterns, group practices and habits and much other data”. The increasing use of schedule is probably due to increased emphasis by social scientists on quantitative measurement of uniformly accumulated data.

4. Questionnaire:

Questionnaire provides the most speedy and simple technique of gathering data about groups of individuals scattered in a wide and extended field. In this method, a questionnaire form is sent usually by post to the persons concerned, with a request to answer the questions and return the questionnaire.

5. Projective Techniques:

The psychologists and psychiatrists had first devised projective techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of patients afflicted by emotional disorders. Such techniques are adopted to present a comprehensive profile of the individual’s personality structure, his conflicts and complexes and his emotional needs. Adoption of such techniques is not an easy affair. It requires intensive specialized training.

6. Case Study Method:

This method is a form of qualitative analysis involving the very careful and complete observation of a person, a situation or an institution.” It is said that Case study is a way of organizing social data so as to preserve the unitary character of the social object being studied.” P.V. young defines case study as a method of exploring and analyzing the life of a social unit, be that a person, a family, an institution, cultural group or even entire community.”