How important are interview methods and questionnaire designs in research on self-reported juvenile delinquency? An experimental comparison of Internet vs paper-and-pencil questionnaires and different definitions of the reference period

There has been relatively little change over recent decades in the methods used in research on self-reported delinquency. Face-to-face interviews and self-administered interviews in the classroom are still the predominant alternatives envisaged. New methods have been brought into the picture by recent computer technology, the Internet, and an increasing availability of computer equipment and Internet access in schools. In the autumn of 2004, a controlled experiment was conducted with 1,203 students in Lausanne (Switzerland), where "paper-and-pencil” questionnaires were compared with computer-assisted interviews through the Internet. The experiment included a test of two different definitions of the (same) reference period. After the introductory question ("Did you ever...”), students were asked how many times they had done it (or experienced it), if ever, "over the last 12 months” or "since the October 2003 vacation”. Few significant differences were found between the results obtained by the two methods and for the two definitions of the reference period, in the answers concerning victimisation, self-reported delinquency, drug use, failure to respond (missing data). Students were found to be more motivated to respond through the Internet, take less time for filling out the questionnaire, and were apparently more confident of privacy, while the school principals were less reluctant to allow classes to be interviewed through the Internet. The Internet method also involves considerable cost reductions, which is a critical advantage if self-reported delinquency surveys are to become a routinely applied method of evaluation, particularly so in countries with limited resources. On balance, the Internet may be instrumental in making research on self-reported delinquency far more feasible in situations where limited resources so far have prevented its implementatio

Measurement in marketing

We distinguish three senses of the concept of measurement (measurement as the selection of observable indicators of theoretical concepts, measurement as the collection of data from respondents, and measurement as the formulation of measurement models linking observable indicators to latent factors representing the theoretical concepts), and we review important issues related to measurement in each of these senses. With regard to measurement in the first sense, we distinguish the steps of construct definition and item generation, and we review scale development efforts reported in three major marketing journals since 2000 to illustrate these steps and derive practical guidelines. With regard to measurement in the second sense, we look at the survey process from the respondent's perspective and discuss the goals that may guide participants' behavior during a survey, the cognitive resources that respondents devote to answering survey questions, and the problems that may occur at the various steps of the survey process. Finally, with regard to measurement in the third sense, we cover both reflective and formative measurement models, and we explain how researchers can assess the quality of measurement in both types of measurement models and how they can ascertain the comparability of measurements across different populations of respondents or conditions of measurement. We also provide a detailed empirical example of measurement analysis for reflective measurement models

Norming and scaling sensitive behaviour in a student population at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Master of Science in Psychology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2016.This research aimed to norm and scale sensitivity amongst the student population at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg campus). The focus of this research was to validate the sensitivity of a range of sensitive and non-sensitive behaviours used in previous research at the University. This is essential in order to determine if the behaviours studied at the University were in fact sensitive for the student population. A pilot study was used in order to inform the questionnaire wording and social desirability scale used to norm and scale sensitivity amongst the student population. This research also made use of direct response options for comparison with the findings obtained from the norming option. A quantitative between subjects’ experimental research design, utilizing purposive sampling of students between the ages of 18 – 35 was used as a means of norming and scaling sensitivity at UKZN. This research was able to validate sensitivity for a wide range of behaviours previously considered to be sensitive by researchers at the University. A total of 44 out of the186 behaviours previously studied at the University was considered sensitive by the student population. However, this study was not able to find a definitive link between social desirability bias and the results obtained

Self-harm and secondary school students: The attitudes and understandings of teachers, psychologists and chaplains

Although school staff are on the front line of dealing with adolescent self-harm, very little research has explored their experiences of this concerning behaviour. The aims of this study were to explore the attitudes and understandings of secondary school staff towards student self-harm and identify gaps that may be addressed with training. School psychologists, chaplains and teachers (N=174) completed an on-line survey. In line with expectations, significant differences in attitudes were found between staff groups. In combination, understanding, empathy, and, having appropriate counselling and risk assessment skills, powerfully separated groups, and showed positive correlations with both confidence and effectiveness in managing the behaviour. Contrary to expectations, knowledge of self-harm was not found to be significantly different between groups, nor was it associated with attitudes. Further training to manage the behaviour was requested, is warranted, and should focus on staff response to self-harm, including countering the unfounded and unhelpful notion that self-harm is carried out “for attention.” The internet’s role in introducing and maintaining the behaviour amongst students, and the implementation of school policy around the issue, also require specific consideration

Franchising in food retailing :a marketing channels perspective

PhD ThesisThis study deals with franchising as a form of distribution in the UK food retail environment. Franchise systems have increased their penetration of food retail markets since the mid 1980's and are frequently commented on by industry observers as being a form of distribution likely to expand aggressively. This study comments on the potential for further franchise development and looks at the association and relationship between franchisor Satisfaction and prevailing environmental conditions from a marketing channels perspective. Because of the paucity of literature, data, statistics and law on franchising, this study uses the marketing channels literature as its theoretical basis. This body of theory is principally used to derive and test hypotheses concerning franchisor satisfaction and the environment. The approach focused on interpreting the results of test for an association and relationship between satisfaction and the environment, to comment on the prospects for further franchising development, and to simultaneously contribute to the increased specification of marketing channels theory. The specific objectives of the study were i) To comment on franchising development and its prospects from an operational perspective by understanding the character and valence of franchisor satisfaction. ii). To develop the specification of marketing channels theory in two areas. First, to examine the content, domain and character of channel member satisfaction from a franchisor's perspective, by looking at the relative importance of behavioural, strategic and corporate image based dimensions. Previous marketing channels studies have only considered franchisee satisfaction in relation to franchisor power. Second, to examine whether the variable of franchisor satisfaction has any association or relationship with external concepts of the environment, these were capacity, concentration, stability, complexity and conflict. iii) To utilise and comment on the robustness of the political economy environmental model as a theoretical and methodological approach to empirical testing of organisational and environmental concepts. Two data gathering exercises were undertaken for the study. First, an extensive number of in-depth interviews were conducted with industry practitioners in franchise firms and trade associations, and second an 8 page questionnaire was mailed to the apparent universe of 45 food franchising firms. Franchisor satisfaction was measured using a seven point, bi polar rating scale and instrumentality importance weights. The environmental concepts were measured by seven point monopolar rating scales. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and the multivariate techniques of factor analysis and discriminant analysis are used to analyse and interpret the results. The study reveals that i) from an operational perspective, 90% of franchisors were satisfied with their systems performance at the time of the analysis. They scored the behavioural dimensions regarding interaction with franchisees as more important to their organisation achieving its goals and objectives than strategic or image based dimensions. Instrumentality importance weights were shown not to affect franchisor satisfaction scores. ii) From a theoretical point of view, franchisor satisfaction has a negative association with environmental complexity and a positive association with environmental capacity. There is empirical evidence that discriminant functions of independent environmental variables are able to predict franchisor membership of satisfied and non satisfied groups. Statistically significant results were obtained when the analysis was conducted at an individual environmental variable level, but not at the concept level. iii) The political economy model was shown to be a robust theoretical platform for model and measure development. The model provided an approach which in analysis discriminated between concepts and behaved in a nomological way. Confirmatory factor analysis of two environmental concepts. complexity and stability, extracted factors which were consistent with the sectors of the model which were used to develop the concept measures. The findings suggest that i) under conditions of low environmental complexity and high environmental capacity we should expect higher levels of franchisor satisfaction and expansion of franchising systems. ii) The concept of franchisor satisfaction is multi dimensional and ranks behavioural aspects of the franchise relationship ahead of strategic or image attributes in goal and objective achievement. The franchisor is concerned with higher level strategic issues compared to the franchisee. Under these circumstances, franchisor satisfaction was shown to be associated and related to external concepts and variables, which is an advancement in marketing channel theory. This is because it indicates that in considering organisational satisfaction, the researcher may be overlooking important attributes of the concept if only internal organisational phenomena are considered.Institute of Grocery Distribution : Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Empowering Older Adults With Their Information Privacy Management

Literature depicts a deficit-based narrative around older adults and their technology use, suggesting that older adults are not able to keep up with their younger counterparts in adopting new technologies. In this dissertation, I argue that this view is not necessarily accurate or productive. Instead, I argue that the deficit is in the technology design, which is not inclusive and often caters to the needs of younger adults. I study older and younger adults\u27 privacy decision-making as a showcase. To study the privacy decision-making process with more granularity, I used a dual-route approach (decision heuristics and privacy calculus) to disentangle different aspects of the decision. This helps identify older and younger adults\u27 differences better. My results rebut the deficit-based narrative and show that older adults are motivated and able to manage their privacy. However, they have a different decision-making mechanism compared to younger adults. For example, older adults are more likely to make a rational decision by considering a more thorough risk/benefit trade-off than younger adults. I furthermore show that age (i.e., being older or younger adult) is only a proxy for other parameters; the different decision-making mechanisms can be justified by parameters that vary across age groups (e.g., levels of privacy literacy and privacy self-efficacy). My work introduces a new perspective in technology design and has practical implications for designing for the elderly, a population with different wants and needs

Students' rates of disclosure on sensitive sexual behaviours : a comparative study using methods of the Unmatched Count Technique 1 (UCT 1), Unmatched Count Technique 2 (UCT 2) and Self-Report Questionnaire.

Master of Arts in Psychology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2014.Sexual behaviour can be seen as sensitive behaviour because it is highly private to the participant and can often be “laden with negative evaluation” (LaBrie & Earleywine, 2000, p. 321). As a consequence, participants may then give socially desirable answers to surveys, interviews or self-reports about sexual behaviours (LaBrie & Earleywine, 2000). However, there is another way of analysing sensitive behaviours that is different from methods used before such as the Self Report Questionnaire, Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interview, Face To Face Interview and Informal Confidential Voting Interview. This method is known as the Unmatched Count Technique (UCT). The UCT provides a way of asking about sensitive behaviours in an indirect way. If the UCT results in higher base rates, this information could help any researcher or persons working in the health industry to “assess risk within a given population” in order to target interventions, which may be needed for that population (LaBrie & Earleywine, 2000, p. 322). In research, survey questionnaires have effectively been used to investigate constructs of concern as defined by the researchers and what was considered relevant and problematic within a certain community. Some survey questionnaires measured key constructs such as trait, attitude and behaviour (Abowitz & Toole, 2010). Furthermore, surveys have enabled researchers to study large populations thereby retrieving a large amount of information about that population (Abowitz & Toole, 2010). However, these surveys rely on participants’ self-reports rather than their nonverbal behaviour (Abowitz & Toole, 2010). The reliability in survey methods can be found when answers of the participants remain consistent and if the data converges “on a common pattern or result” allowing the researcher to make generalizations about the results (Abowitz & Toole, 2010, p. 110). However, the very nature of how the survey is constructed can be a threat to the validity of the survey and the outcome of the data. For example, if the format of the questions and how the questions are worded influences how the participant will interpret and answer the question, these can result as being problematic to the validity of the survey especially when the survey is not clearly worded (Abowitz & Toole, 2010). In addition, one of the biggest threats to reliability in survey methods is when participants are self-reporting and whether the answers they are reporting are considered to be true or not (Walsh & Braithwaite, 2008). According to Kays, Gathercoal and Buhrow (2012), it was found that many participants “skew their presentation in order to enhance social desirability” and this is especially the case when being surveyed about sensitive information or behaviour that is considered to be socially undesirable (p. 252). Furthermore, when participants are surveyed about sensitive information, item non-response will be evident as the respondent is concerned “with confidentiality of disclosure, particularly regarding highly sensitive information” (Kays et al., 2012, p. 525). In summary, the survey method of analysing behaviour that is operationalised as sensitive and seen as socially undesirable behaviour, cannot be considered to be completely valid or reliable due to the risk of underreporting or item non-response and several other reasons later discussed in this thesis (Droitcour, Casper, Hubbard, Parsley, Visscher, & Ezzati, 1991). In past research it has been found that base rates for risky sexual behaviour have been underestimated and many techniques have been researched to combat the underreporting that participants give when asked about risky sexual behaviour (Droitcour, et al., 1991). Survey methods have been viewed as problematic in combating this underreporting of sensitive information as they have been unsuccessful in inspiring trust, resulting in non-response and social desirability bias and therefore regarded as unreliable (Coutts & Jann, 2008). However, one technique that established “higher rates of truthful self-reporting” is the Unmatched-Count Technique 1 (UCT 1) (Walsh & Braithwaite, 2008, p. 49). However, there is another version of the UCT (which, for the purpose of this study, will be referred to as the UCT 2) that could also be more effective and yield higher base rates for self-reporting. This method is proposed by Chaudhuri & Christofides (2007). The UCT 1 is constructed by assigning participants to two independent groups. The one group receives a series of statements that consist of non-sensitive innocuous items and the participants are asked to report how many of these items are true or apply to them (Chaudhuri & Christofides, 2007). The second group will receive the same non-sensitive innocuous items as in the first group; however, one additional statement is added. This statement will be considered as the sensitive item (Dalton, Wimbush, & Daily, 1994). The participants in the second group will also be asked how many of these items are true or apply to them. From these two groups an “estimate of the base rate for the sensitive behavior can be obtained” (Dalton et al., 1994, p. 818). In contrast, the UCT 2 works somewhat differently to the UCT 1. Chaudhuri & Christofides (2007) argues that the participants need to have an increased sense that the items in the list serve a meaningful purpose and thus, the participants will increase their “level of cooperation” (p. 592). Therefore, Chaudhuri & Christofides (2007) suggests that the innocuous items should not be unrelated to the sensitive item (as in the UCT 1) but should be similar to the sensitive item. This is how the UCT 2 will be constructed within this thesis. This study forms part of the PhD of the supervisor of the current study. Therefore, there were also several other methods investigated to conclude which one seemed more reliable and valid in assessing what is operationalised as sensitive behaviour. These methods were the Audio Computer Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI), Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ), Informal Confidential Voting Interview (ICVI) and the Face to Face Interviewing (FTFI). This study will mainly focus on the SRQ and the UCT 1 and UCT 2