Data Collection and Analysis

If you are following the steps in this chapter, you can do the following:

• • Understand the format of a research proposal
• • Choose a problem of some significance in your field and specify what the variables of interest (both dependent and independent) will be
• • Locate measures of the dependent variable that are both reliable and valid

Now you are ready to begin the data analysis stage.In Chapters 7 and 8, you learned how to use some basic statistical tools to describe the characteristics of the data you collect during the early stages of your research.At this point in your proposal, you want to address the following tasks and ensure that they are completed before you continue:

• 1. Development of a data collection form to help you with organization and accuracy.
• 2. Specification of which types of descriptive statistics you will use to describe the variables you are examining. At what level of measurement do they fall, and what level of measurement—nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio—best reflects what you are trying to say?
• 3. Identification of the other kinds of information you need to present in this initial analysis of what your data look like. Maybe you need demographic information, such as the gender, age, socioeconomic status, or political affiliation, of the participants. Even if this information is not directly related to the question you are asking, it does not hurt to collect it at this point. Later on you might want to go back and look at some of the other information, and you will be glad you collected it. This does not mean that the demographic questionnaire you use is 10 pages long and contains more than 1,000 questions. It means that, within reason, you collect information related to, but not directly bearing upon, your main question.
• 4. Pilot data collection, so that you can practice the simple descriptive and inferential statistics discussed in Chapters 7 and 8. Treat the analysis as if it were the real thing and go through every step that you plan to go through for the final data analysis. In this way, you will know exactly what you do and do not understand and can get help if necessary. Do the data analysis both by hand using the formulas in this chapter and by using SPSS, which is illustrated in Appendix A.

Selecting an Inferential Statistic

Selecting an inferential test is a task that always takes care. When you are first starting out, the choice can be downright intimidating.You can learn about some of the most common situations, such as testing the difference between the means of two or more groups and looking at the relationships between groups. In both cases, the same principles of testing for the significance of an outcome apply.Now, do not think for a minute that (a) you can substitute a chart like the one you saw in Chapter 8 for a basic statistics course, or that (b) this is a statistics course (and this is a statistics book). Instead, that chart you see on page 187 offers some simple help to guide you toward a correct selection. You got a little bit of the why of inference in Chapter 8, but to get all of the why, enroll in that Statistics 1 class and make your adviser (and parents) happy.

Protecting Human Subjects

As you learned in Chapter 2, most organizations that sponsor research (such as universities) have some kind of committee that regularly reviews research proposals to ensure that humans (and animals) are not in any danger should they participate.Before investigators begin their work, and as part of the proposal process, an informed consent form is completed and attached to the proposal. The committee reviews the information and either approves the project (and indicates that human subjects are not in danger) or tries its best to work with the investigator to change the proposed methods so that things proceed as planned.

Summary

When it comes time to write a proposal, here is the quote you want to paste over your desk:

•     Pay me now or pay me later.

And that is the truth. Successful scientists will tell you that if you start out with a clear, well-thought-out question, the rest of your proposal, as well as the execution of your research, will fall into place. On the other hand, if your initial question is unclear, you will find yourself floundering and unable to focus on the real issue. Work on writing your proposal every day, read it over, let it sit for a while, have a friend or colleague glance at it and offer suggestions, write some more, let it sit some more. Get the message? Practice and work hard, and you will be well rewarded.