Problem with Reliability Measures Employed by Holly - Essay Example

? GESTURING IN MOTHER-CHILDREN INTERACTION s School`s of School`s Location Outline Problem with Reliability of Measures Employed by Holly and how to improve them 3 Problem with Validity of Measures Employed by Holly and how to improve them 3 Correlation or Contingencies in Gesture Rate 4 Observance of British Psychological Society’s Code of Human Research Ethics 5 Principles of Good Practice in Data collection 5 Do you Think Evidence Warrants Holly`s Conclusion 6 Holly`s Generalization of Results 6 Question Problem with Reliability Measures Employed by Holly and How to improve them In questionnaire, interview, or any other procedural test, reliability is the extent to which the measure used produces similar results after repeated trials (Lyberg, Biemer, Collins, Leeuw, Dippo, Schwarz, and Trewin, 1997). Research will never be fully reliable but the extent to which individual results remain similar over time signal the reliability of information. Besides, equivalence, stability and homogeneity measures reliability. For Holly`s case, each of the measures of determining reliability is violated. Firstly, equivalence determines the extent to which data from two data collecting methods correlate (Lyberg, Biemer, Collins, Leeuw, Dippo, Schwarz, and Trewin, 1997). It includes administering similar forms of questions in two different tools of measure, either at the same time or later. For Holly, she only tested mothers and their children in a natural environment. However, Holly made negative predetermined judgement about the data collected from mother in the lab setting alone. To correct her mistake and attain reliable results, Holly needed to establish samples in laboratory and natural environment. Use similar rater on mother in laboratory and natural environment and come to an agreement on the judgement. From the results obtained, she would have reliable answers after calculating the correlation, variance, and mean of the two sets of data (Lyberg, Biemer, Collins, Leeuw, Dippo, Schwarz, and Trewin, 1997). Problem with Validity of Measures Employed by Holly and how to improve them Validity determines whether data instrument measures what is entitled to measure (Lyberg, Biemer, Collins, Leeuw, Dippo, Schwarz, and Trewin, 1997). Holly lacks content validity In her interview with the sample subjects, Holly asks the mother`s kid different questions from the one related to her research problem. She records the right responses but they are insignificant in her research problem. Therefore, she never reviewed her items for readability, clarity, and completeness before embarking on the survey to determine the elements to include in her survey. Moreover, she prejudged the laboratory surveys without establishing a test to disqualify its results. Instead, Holly should have established measures that record the traits of her interest, assessed the relationship between scores on the measure to a given criterion, and determine the needed degree of theoretical construct. Correlation or Contingencies in Gesture Rate The given table shows correlation between parent`s gestures and the children`s. It is natural and proven that mothers display some gestures to nurture the child as relative use of gestures reinforces the message passed to the child (Pfandler, Lakatos, and Miklosi, 2011). Moreover, the table shows individual difference in gesture rates for the mothers over time, which accordingly resulted to surveyed children adopting a similar trend of gestures. The mother`s rates of gesturing can be attributed to her cultural and family background (Pfandler, Lakatos, and Miklosi, 2011). A mother from a culture rich in gestures will gesture a lot to her child and transmit the same to the child. As a result, scientists state that gestures are a form of communication between parents and her kid. There are other factors explaining variations in the infant`s gesturing rates. Firstly age and experience states that the level of gesturing from the mother is high and lower in child at younger ages. The rate increases with age and the duration the child is exposed to the mother`s gestures. Thus, gestures increases between a child and his/her mother as the child grows and become more familiar with the mother`s gestures (Pfandler, Lakatos, and Miklosi, 2011). Secondly, the signal utilisation at individual levels; every infant`s level of understanding and comprehending things is different (Pfandler, Lakatos, and Miklosi, 2011). Few infants would comprehend gestures from the start. Most comprehend them at different times of gestures exposures. Observance of British Psychological Society’s Code of Human Research Ethics British Psychological Society`s Code of Human Research Ethics governs every research involving human participants, animals and non-living things. These codes ensure that the researcher upholds the rights and dignity of the human, animals and environment samples in the survey and maintenance of the genuine interest of the research as recommended by the survey`s stakeholders. Holly failed to respect the autonomy and the dignity of her sample subjects. She failed to explain to them about the nature of her research. She failed to give them the freedom of participating in the research or not. Moreover, her research was poorly designed, led to waste of resources and devalued the contribution of the participant, which underestimated the scientific values. Her research also failed to incorporate social responsibility and her generated knowledge failed to benefit society (The British Psychological Society, 2010). In order to collect her deviations from the set research codes, Holly needed to consult the sample subject and engage them into a legal agreement of participating in the survey. She should also involve other professionals in her survey`s analysis and do thorough research in her elements of research before embarking on the survey. This will ensure she acquires information useful to the society. Principles of Good Practice in Data collection Holly has broken the principle of good practice in data collection. She agrees to collect data for her colleague; a survey she is not a stakeholder. She also does not have a legitimate goal when collecting data about children`s age for her friend. Hence, she is not fair on the participants over the processing of information. Besides, she is not open with the sample subjects on the use of the information she collects. She does inform survey participant she will reuse the personal information they gave. She processes personal information and present it without considering the respondent concerns. However, any disclosures of private matters need consent from the respondent. She can avoid collecting personal data for her friend. She also needs to engage her participant in the survey openly and clearly. Holly Generalisation of Results Holly`s generalisation of her survey results is wrong as selective force acted in her sample selection. There was little coverage of the population in the survey, lacked specific method of sampling individuals from other members of the population; the sample size was never determined prior survey. Therefore, data collected was not good enough for the study, terms used were vague, and there was no typical or idea cases and general approval of obtained data. Do you Think Evidence Warrants Holly`s Conclusion No. evidence does not warrant Holly`s conclusion over mother`s who make facial gestures causing their child imitate them more. To ensure that her conclusion and evidence warrant her conclusion, Holly could have followed the following steps. First step is to ensure she develop the survey`s objectives through specifying the population to be covered by her survey, delineating the data to be collected in the survey, and determine the precision of the expected results from the survey. Second step is to determine the individual to survey by specifying the method to use in order to collect data, choose a sample frame, and select the sample. Third step is to create test instruments such as choosing the respond mode for the respondents, drafting the questions, presenting, and revising the instruments employable in the survey. Fourth step is to contact the respondents through process of surveying by pre-notifying them of the survey, sending them survey reminders and thank you notes, and making non-response follow-ups to the persons who fail to respond to survey call. Last step is to engage in data collection, reduction, and analysis. She should ensure she follows all ethics stipulated for conducting surveys in her survey. References Lyberg, Lars, Biemer, Paul, Collins, Martin, Leeuw, Edith, Dippo, Cathryn, Schwarz, Norbert, and Trewin, Dennis, 1997, Survey measurement and process quality, John Wiley & Sons Inc, NY, New York. Pfandler, Edina, Lakatos, Gabriella, and Miklosi, Adam, 2011, Eighteen month old human infant show intensive development in comprehension of different types of pointing gestures, Spring Verlag, Berlin. The British Psychological Society, 2010, Codes of human research, The British Psychological Society, Leicester, U.K. Read More