Methodological Planning and Data Collection. Ensuring a Valid and Credible Research of a Questionnaire Survey in Social Work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18662/lumenss/13.2/106Keywords:
research methodology, research in social work, questionnaire survey, quantitative researchAbstract
The validity and credibility of scientific research are determined by the strictness of planning and elaborating each stage of the research, by correlating the purpose of the research with the chosen research method, by avoiding methodological planning errors, as well as by carrying out each research stage in a manner that excludes errors in data collection, processing and interpretation. In the field of social work, par excellence, the value of an empirical research is conferred, among other things, by the possibility of extrapolating the conclusions of that research to similar situations in the practical activity of social workers, in case work with the beneficiaries of social work services. Due to the close connection between research and practice in this field of social sciences, the methodological design must be transparent and convincing, so as to give practitioners a high degree of confidence in the conclusions of the scientific study, as well as the possibility to capitalize on its informative benefits. So, methodological errors of research projects carried out in the field of social work can have a much wider and more tangible negative impact than in the case of other fields of science, at least from a pragmatic point of view, when theory is translated to practical applicability, and the scientific study is implemented in case work performed with the beneficiaries. This study aims to analyze the questionnaire survey in social work, by highlighting the main methodological errors that can affect the validity of such an empirical study, in order to identify the optimal solutions for a correct planning and methodological development of the scientific study.
References
Acharya, B. (2010). Questionnaire design. http://saciwaters.org/CB/IFRM/IFRM/IV.%20Literature/Module%206_Qualitative%20Research%20Methods/6.4%20Questionnaire%20Design_Acharya%20Bidhan.pdf
Aithal, A., & Aithal, P. S. (2020). Development and validation of survey questionnaire and experimental data – A systematical review-based statistical approach. International Journal of Management, Technology, and Social Sciences, 5(2), 233-251. https://doi.org/10.47992/ijmts.2581.6012.0116
Aldridge, A., & Levine, K. (2001). Surveying the social world: Principles and practice in survey research. Open University Press.
Blair, J., Czaja, R. F., & Blair, E. A. (2014). Designing surveys: A guide to decisions and procedures. Sage.
Bowling, A. (2005). Mode of questionnaire administration can have serious effects on data quality. Journal of Public Health, 27(3), 281–291. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdi031
Călin, F. M. (2021). Metode şi tehnici în asistenţa socială [Methods and techniques in social work]. Pro Universitaria.
Chelcea, S. (2022). Metodologia cercetării sociologice [The methodology of sociological research]. Pro Universitaria.
Conrad, F. G., & Schober, M. F. (Eds.). (2007). Envisioning the survey interview of the future. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
De Vaus, D. (2013). Surveys in social research. Routledge.
Eaden, J., Mayberry, M. K., & Mayberry, J. F. (1999). Questionnaires: The use and abuse of social survey methods in medical research. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 75(885), 397–400. https://doi.org/10.1136/pgmj.75.885.397
Foddy, W. (1993). Constructing questions for interviews and questionnaires. Cambridge University Press.
Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, J. H. P., & Warner, U. (2018). Sociodemographic questionnaire modules for comparative social surveys. Springer.
Huidu, A. (2019). Parsson and Săvulescu’s” Unfit for the future” or the starting point for the deconstruction of the concept of parentality. Postmodern Openings, 10(1), 200-219. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/63
Karimova, G. (2024). The methodology of compiling a sociological questionnaire. Miasto Przyszłości, 46, 52–56. https://miastoprzyszlosci.com.pl/index.php/mp/article/view/2783
Kelsall, R. K., Poole, A., & Kuhn, A. (1972). The questionnaire in a sociological research project. The British Journal of Sociology, 23(3), 344-357. https://doi.org/10.2307/589082
Krosnick, J. A. (1999). Maximizing questionnaire quality. În J. P. Robinson, P. R. Shaver, &, L. S. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measuring of political attitudes (pp. 37-57). Academic Press.
Lietz, P. (2010). Research into questionnaire design: A summary of the literature. International Journal of Market Research, 52(2), 249-272. https://doi.org/10.2501/S147078530920120X
Miftode, V. (2011). Tratat de metodologie sociologică [Treatise on sociological methodology]. Lumen.
Przybyłowska, I., & Kistelski, K. (1986). The social context of questionnaire interview. The Polish Sociological Bulletin, 75(76), 21-26. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44816641
Quarm, D., Converse, J. M., & Presser, S. (1988). Survey questions: Handcrafting the standardized questionnaire. Teaching Sociology, 16(3), 314-315. https://doi.org/10.2307/1317544
Sandu, A. (2012). Metode de cercetare în ştiinţa comunicării [Research methods in communication science]. Lumen.
Saris, W. E., & Gallhofer, I. N. (2007). Design, evaluation, and analysis of questionnaires for survey research. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Sjöström, O., & Holst, D. (2002). Validity of a questionnaire survey: Response patterns in different subgroups and the effect of social desirability. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, 60(3), 136–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/000163502753740133
Song, Y., Son, Y. J., & Oh, D. (2015). Methodological issues in questionnaire design. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing, 45(3), 323-328. https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2015.45.3.323
Taherdoost, H. (2016). Validity and reliability of the research instrument; How to test the validation of a questionnaire/survey in a research. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3205040
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 The Authors & LUMEN Publishing House
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant this journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
LUMEN SS Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND
