scholarly journals It's Not All Tests and Norms! The Reach of Culture in Behavioral Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1300-1300
Author(s):  
J H Bernstein ◽  
F Youssef
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Behavioral Measurement ◽  
Outcome Monitoring

Abstract Five major challenges experienced while conducting a study regarding the neurobehavioral developmental trajectories of primary school children in Trinidad and Tobago are reviewed. 1. Governing Principles. Institutional review of the scientific rationale for the work and safety of participants is required for research activities in any/all settings. 2. Design/Methodology. Cultural beliefs/values/goals shape the research endeavor from recruitment strategies, informed consent, research design, and data collection to outcome monitoring. 3. Participants. Research studies involving children are closely scrutinized. Children need additional protections because they cannot give informed consent. Who speaks for children and how? Children must be recruited via guardians - who may not be parents but societal institutions functioning as “proxy guardians”. The relationships between parents and different “proxy guardians” respond to cultural beliefs/values. 4. Behavioral Measurement-Tests. American psychology has been severely critiqued as focusing on a circumscribed sector of the population while neglecting 95% of the global community. A core concern is the use, in non-United States settings, of behavioral measures developed and normed in the U.S. No measure can be truly culture free: all brains are sculpted by interactions not only with the physical world but also with the psychological world of their own cultural heritage. 5. Behavioral Measurement-Rating Scales. In transferring research across cultures, language/dialect differences are frequently highlighted. Differences in literacy can be even more challenging. Lack of literacy cannot be used to exclude persons from potential research benefits, nor for the failure to conduct effective informed consent processes. Cultural variations in the value/use of the written word have direct impact on research design/methodology, data collection/quality, the training/conduct of research personnel, and on funding. Implications for the mounting research in international settings are discussed.

Management Strategy for Distributing Questionnaires and Interview Guidelines in the Research Data Collection Process

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-111
Author(s):  
Po. Abas Sunarya ◽  
George Iwan Marantika ◽  
Adam Faturahman
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Good Management ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Data Collection Process ◽  
Group Interviews

Writing can mean lowering or describing graphic symbols that describe a languageunderstood by someone. For a researcher, management of research preparation is a veryimportant step because this step greatly determines the success or failure of all researchactivities. Before a person starts with research activities, he must make a written plan commonlyreferred to as the management of research data collection. In the process of collecting researchdata, of course we can do the management of questionnaires as well as the preparation ofinterview guidelines to disseminate and obtain accurate information. With the arrangement ofplanning and conducting interviews: the ethics of conducting interviews, the advantages anddisadvantages of interviews, the formulation of interview questions, the schedule of interviews,group and focus group interviews, interviews using recording devices, and interview bias.making a questionnaire must be designed with very good management by giving to theinformation needed, in accordance with the problem and all that does not cause problems at thestage of analysis and interpretation.

Delegation of Responsibilities: A Leadership Tool for Subordinates’ Competence Development in Selected Organisations in Ibadan Metropolis

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Ayodeji Omolawal
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Survey Research ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
P Value ◽  
Important Ingredient ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Organisational Climate ◽  
Qualitative Approaches

Delegation of responsibilities constitutes a very important ingredient of good leadership in organisations and is critical to competence development of workers. However, experience shows that many leaders are unwilling to delegate responsibilities to their subordinates for a number of reasons. This study was therefore designed to investigate delegation of responsibilities as a tool for competence development of subordinates in selected organisations in Ibadan metropolis. The study, anchored on Elkem’s model, was descriptive and adopted survey research design with a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. It was conducted on 206 respondents randomly selected from 20 public and private organisations in Ibadan. Questionnaire and IDI were instruments of data collection, while the data collected were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The study showed that respondents perceived delegation of responsibilities as a vital tool for developing, equipping and motivating subordinates; and that it had positive effects on subordinates’ performance (X2 = 11.14, p-value = 0.001). The study also revealed that lack of confidence in subordinates (79%), level of skill and competence (66%), organisational climate (68%) and bureaucracy (58%) were barriers to delegation of responsibilities. Delegation of responsibilities is a cost-free way of enhancing competence development of subordinates in organisations, and should therefore, be encouraged among leaders irrespective of their levels.

Ethics in Social Research

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Medical Interventions ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Social Researcher ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collection Phase

It is right that social researchers consider the ethical implications of their work, but discussion of research ethics has been distorted by the primacy of the ‘informed consent’ model for policing medical interventions. It is remarkably rare for the data collection phase of social research to be in any sense harmful, and in most cases seeking consent from, say, members of a church congregation would disrupt the naturally occurring phenomena we wish to study. More relevant is the way we report our research. It is in the disparity between how people would like to see themselves described and explained and how the social researcher describes and explains them that we find the greatest potential for ill-feeling, and even here it is slight.

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