2023 version PYC2606 Basic Measurement And Questionnaire Design

2023 version PYC2606 Basic Measurement And Questionnaire Design © 2019 University of South Africa All rights reserved Printed and published by the University of South Africa Muckleneuk, Pretoria PYC2606/1/ InDesign PR_Tour_Style .. .. .. .. .. . iii PYC 2606 /1 CONTENTS Page LESSON 1: Identify a suitable content domain 1 LESSON 2: Design a questionnaire 11 LESSON 3: Writing questionnaire items 29 LESSON 4: Pilot-test the questionnaire 38 LESSON 5: Evaluate reliability and validity 55 LESSON 6: Compile a manual 71 LESSON 7: Review a questionnaire 82 LESSON 8: Review a manual 96 RESOURCES 111 Content domain 112 Correlation coefficient 114 Item analysis 118 Item format 120 Layout of a questionnaire 127 Manual: purpose and structure 132 Reliability 136 Specification document 140 Suitability of a questionnaire 141 Validity 143 Writing questionnaire items 147 .. .. .. .. .. . iv .. .. .. .. .. . v PYC 2606 /1 INTRODUCTION A word of welcome A very warm welcome to you as you begin this module called Basic Measurement and Questionnaire Design PYC2606. In the first year of your study, you were already introduced to psychological assessment in general. Now you will be looking at a few aspects of the collection of information in a more structured manner. In this module, we want you to concentrate on eight important broad topics. Topics in the module include material on identifying the research aims and the goal of the questionnaire, defining the target respondents, developing questions, choosing the related question types, designing the questions and overall layout, running a pilot study to evaluate the questions and reporting the results. Hopefully, these will provide you with a window onto both designing questionnaires, asking the right questions in the right way and collecting the required information. What this module is about As the title suggests, this module concentrates on the process followed in designing a survey questionnaire and compiling a manual for the questionnaire. This includes the selection of a suitable topic and of content relevant to the local context; the writing of items that reflect sensitivity for diversity; the administration of the survey and analysis of its properties; and reporting the preceding in a manual. In addition, you will be enabled to critically evaluate a questionnaire and manual in terms of among others its relevance to a multicultural context with regard to aspects such as: a suitable content domain, questionnaire design for multicultural settings, language, gender and age sensitive questionnaire items, how to pilot-test the questionnaire, how to evaluate reliability and validity, how to compile a manual, how to review a questionnaire, and how to review a manual. Why study this module As mentioned, this module introduces the skills and knowledge necessary for questionnaire design and the gathering of psychological research data. The module covers the principles of various techniques and their procedural implementation and provides essential preparation for the projects you will do as a psychologist. The module is very important for psychological survey development. Psychological research refers to research that psychologists conduct to research and analyse the experiences and behaviours of individuals or groups. All our knowledge in psychology comes from research, and research continually refines and extends our understanding of the workings of the human mind. INTRODUC TION .. .. .. .. .. . vi The information in this section is adapted from an address made at the Psychological Society of South Africa’s Annual Psychology Congress that took place in Johannesburg from 21 to 23 September 2016. Contextualising the module In writing this module, a major concern has been with the debate on the suitability of a questionnaire in a multicultural country like South Africa with people holding views different from western views in psychology. While we acknowledge the need for culturally sensitive psychological interventions, we caution against an essentialising view of culture that seeks to construct non-western cultural practices as exotic and mysterious; such practices create a false dichotomy by constructing “African” and “western” cultural contexts and systems of healing as discrete entities. South Africa occupies a multicultural space that links “western” and African cultures. Decolonial psychologists in Africa, as Moll (2007) observes, are generally of two persuasions – those who view psychology as an indigenous area of study marked by distinctive worldviews and lived experiences of the continent; and those who see it as a universal disciplinary practise predicated on and concerned with psychological affairs of Africans, yet who postulates traverse cultures and race. Please note that the next two subsections (background on decoloniality and questionnaire design for diversity) are given as a context for the module – it does not form part of the syllabus and will not be covered in the examination. Background to the philosophical approach underlying decoloniality in teaching this module Decolonising psychology creates possibilities for social change Colonialism is today more entrenched objectively and subjectively than it was in the past. Meta-colonialism also surfaces in the colonisation of time since many people today still believe that real time is only the way Europeans define, interpret, and measure it. Effective and sustainable change can come only when those within the centre of the meta-colonised world and those in its boundaries work together both to deconstruct meta-coloniality in its different forms and jointly reconstruct a more just world. The call for collaboration is not an appeal for sympathy or generosity; those at the centres of meta-colonialism also pay heavy but hidden costs for injustice and the dehumanisation of others. We at Unisa therefore see the project of decolonising psychology as a means toward broad-based critical thinking and collaboration on what to deconstruct and how to reconstruct for the benefit of all. We endeavour to contribute to systemic and peaceful change in the metacolonised part of Africa in which we live, trying to make a difference in a South African society that has experienced more than its share of colonial violence and meta-colonial mystification. To this end, we hope that by studying the module, Basic Measurement and Questionnaire Design, the new generation of South African students can learn and advance decolonised psychology and social sciences. This is no doubt a small step in the global project of decolonising Introduc tion .. .. .. .. .. . vii PYC 2606 /1 psychology that requires larger, coordinated, and sustained work by people in different parts of the world. Unisa welcomes collaboration of lecturers and students in that respect. We also hope this module on psychological survey development will inspire such collaborative work in psychology research. Psychology and colonialism The emergence and growth of psychology as a discipline took place not only at a time of social change and conflict in Europe but also while Europeans and their descendants carried out violence in search for profit and self-aggrandisement of a cultural, social, and psychological character. As Europeans conquered much of the world, imposing themselves in action and ideology as the only honourable model of humanity, the discipline of psychology emerged as a specialty and arbiter of human experience. Never emerging in a social vacuum, psychology, and its medical counterpart psychiatry, played their part in the history of European colonialism serving as its agents in its different stages (Bulhan, 1980, 1985, 1993). During classical colonialism, psychologists and psychiatrists drew from theories of social Darwinism (the theory of the evolution of species by natural selection) and eugenics (a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population) to espouse the hierarchical categorisation of people into race groups. Examples include the early 20th century psychological projects that involved intelligence testing and other forms of psychometric testing. These placed people’s minds and abilities on a hierarchy determined by race. However, the mind does not exist on its own. It is inside a living person. It is shaped by personal experiences, beliefs and actions. These take shape in a social context. The mind is produced by our social environment. A decolonial turn for psychology would mean moving away from the assumption that the individual is the central unit of analysis in ways that overlook people’s social, economic and political contexts. The contribution of psychologists and psychiatrists in justifying colonialism did not end with classical colonialism. However, psychologists and psychiatrists have often shown a convenient social amnesia, ignoring their complicity with colonialism both in its crude and subtle forms. For two disciplines, that claim commitment to study and unmask repressed psychological experience, such neglect and avoidance about evidence of service to colonialism is curious indeed. This lead to the conclusion that economic self-interest, political allegiance, defence of delusional superiority in race, and the wish for selfaggrandisement take precedence over commitment to reason, objectivity, and justice in scientific thought and behaviour. Decolonising psychology Social and political systems seldom die or dismantle easily; they often reinvent themselves for three main reasons. Firstly, the economic and political interests they served in the past continue to prevail in subsequent generations. Secondly, the institutions – schools, law enforcement agencies, courts and others – that served those interests do not readily change. Thirdly, those who grow up under these systems – beneficiaries as well as victims – get so indoctrinated INTRODUC TION .. .. .. .. .. . viii This section is adapted from Bulhan, HA. 2015. Stages of colonialism in Africa: from occupation of land to occupation of being. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1):239–256.