Worksheet 7 - Gathering and Processing Data

Question 1
You are carrying out research into savings institutions in St Vincent & the Grenadines.
Identify which of the following are primary and which are secondary sources of information. Explain why for each source.

(a) www.firstcaribbean.com

(b) Your own interview with the manager of GECU

(c) A report by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank on Savings in St Vincent from their website without a date.

(d) Statistics from the Government’s Annual Financial Statement on the Economy on Credit Union business for 2004.

(d) The results of a survey using questionnaires carried out by a PhD student for his thesis on “The growth of credit unions in St Vincent” submitted in 2006

(d) A text book entitled “Caribbean Economics” published in 1997.

(e) An advertisement for Millennium Offshore Bank’s Supergrowth Bond which compares its rate of interest to other savings institutions in St Vincent in last week’s local newspaper


Question 2

Evaluate 3 of the references above in Question 2 for reliability and validity. Make sure you evaluate both source of the data and the data itself.

Question 3

Evaluate the credibility ONE of the following websites.


http://www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com/

http://anthurium.miami.edu/home.htm

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Classroom/9912/kamguidepg.html

Question 4

The Principal wishes to research whether changing to an Associate Degree from the current A level / CAPE programme would be successful.

(a) What 3 different methods of research could he use to gather data on which to base his decision? State the method in detail and the source from which the data would be gathered for each method.

(b) What factors might affect reliability and validity of one of the methods you chose. What could be done to minimise the effects of the factors you have identified.

(c) The Community College has 830 students of which 700 are female and 130 are male. Discuss the effect of sample size and demographic representation (include all the factors) if the Principal wishes to ensure a reliable and valid sample of the students.

(d) The Principals is in favour of changing to an Associate Degree. How might this cause bias in interpretation of the data?

Question 5

The following questions are from a survey into herbal medicine. Comment on the effectiveness of each question in generating reliable and valid data

1. Do you use alternative medicine?

2. Is herbal medicine a good or a bad thing?

3. Which of the following ways have you obtained herbal medicine / have you used
herbal remedies
(a) prescribed by a health professional e.g. registered nurse or doctor
(b) herbal remedies suggested by other health practitioners e.g. bush doctor, herbalist
(c) over the counter herbal remedies purchased at a pharmacy
(d) herbal remedies from your own garden/collected by you
(e) any other method of obtaining herbal remedies (Please give details)

4 (a) Have you used herbal medicine Yes / No / Not sure
(b) What illnesses have you taken herbal medicine to relieve?


Question 5

You are carrying out research into attitudes towards recreational use of cannabis.

Other than questions to elicit demographic information suggest 4 questions two open and two closed in the sequence they would appear in the questionnaire to generate data.