METHODS OF DATA

COLLECTION

OBTAINING DATA
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
SAMPLE SURVEYS AND INFERENCE ABOUT
POPULATIONS
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
a. SAMPLE SURVEYS AND INFERENCE ABOUT POPULATIONS

- Some studies are designed for the purpose of estimating population

characteristics, such as means and proportions.
- Before planning a data collection activity, identify first the population
involved.
- A population is the entire group of individuals or items in a study.
- A sample is the part of a population that is actually studied.
- A list ( or comparable form of identification) of all members of a
population is known as a frame.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
EXAMPLE OF A FRAME:
● A list of all students in the college of engineering.
● A list of all the equipment owned by a company
● A list of all possible errors that can occur when a program is run
● A list of all addresses served by a power supplier
● A list of all bidders for a construction project
● A list of all the trees in a particular lot
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
EXAMPLE OF A SAMPLE:
● All the fish in Mobile Bay constitute of a population, but the fish
caught for mercury levels make up a sample.

● All the items produced in one run of an assembly line make up a

population, but the items inspected for defects make up a
sample.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
● SAMPLE SURVEY
- A sample is collected and studied to gain information about a
population.
EXAMPLE:
- When Alabama was planning to to offer tax incentives to
Mercedes for building a plant in Alabama, the Mobile Register
conducted a telephone survey of about 400 adult Alabama
residents and asked them, “ Should Alabama offer tax incentives
to industries to relocate in the state? “
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
● The scenario outlined in the example have an element of a
typical sample survey.
● There is a question of “ How many?” or “ How much “ to be
determined for a specific target population
● Target population - The population to which we intend to apply
the results of the study.
● Sampled population - The population from which the data is
collected.
Note: It is desired to have the target population the same as the
sampled population, but in some circumstances they may differ.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
Example: Random-digit-dialing telephone polls systematically leave
out those without telephones and may miss those with cellphones.
● An approximate answer for a population is derived from a sample
of data extracted from the population of interest.
● The approximate answer will be a good approximation only if the
sample truly represents the population under study.
NOTE: Randomization plays a vital role in selection of samples that
represent the population and produce good approximations.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
● Judgemental bias - Any sampling scheme that depends upon
subjective judgements rather than randomization as to who ( or
which item ) should be included in the sample.
● Census
- Complete enumeration
- A process of collecting information from every unit in the target
population.
- Is a big sample survey.
- Information is available on each element of that population.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
EXAMPLE OF CENSUS:
● If a firm is takes inventory, it is taking a census of everything in
stock.
● The computerized record of all the employees of a firm is infact a
census of employees.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
NOTE: It is feasible to conduct a census if the population is small and
the process of getting information does not destroy or modify units
of the population.
For larger populations, a census can be costly and time consuming
process of data gathering.
Sometimes the process of measurements is destructive, as in testing
an appliance for lifelength.
EXPERIMENT AND INFERENCE ABOUT
CAUSE AND EFFECT
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW

● Experiment - A planned activity desigmed to compare

“treatments”
● In an experiment the experimenter creates differences in the
experimental units involved by subjecting them to different
treatments and then observing the effects of such treatments on
the measure of outcomes.
 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
EXAMPLE OF EXPERIMENT:
● Engineer’s interested in studying heat transfer use pipes of
different sizes and control the direction in which water is flowing
. In one study, the engineers create different environments by
controlling the size of pipes and direction of water flow to
determine the percent of heat transfer in those different
environments. ( The pipes are the experimental units and
size-direction combination are treatments.)
.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
NOTE:

● As in sample surveys, randomization plays a vital role in designed experiments.

● Randomizing the assignment of different environments (treatments) to
experimental units, biases that might result due to learning effects or specific
orders can be avoided.
● Designed experiments are conducted not only to establish differences in
outcomes under different environments, but also to establish cause and effect
relations among outcomes and environments.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW

● In sample surveys, a sample is selected randomly from a

population of interest to estimate some population
characteristic; in designed experiments different experimental
units are assigned randomly to different treatments to study the
treatment effects.
OBSERVATIONAL STUDY
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
● Observational study - A data collection activity in which the
experimenter merely plays the role of observer.
● The experimenter observes the differences in the conditions of
units and observes the effects of these conditions on
measurements taken on these units.
● The experimenter does not interject any treatment and does not
contribute to the creation of observed differences.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
EXAMPLE OF OBSERVATIONAL STUDY:
● One researcher collected information about the speed at which
the car was travelling when a crash occurred and the amount of
damage to the bumper from the accident reports filed by the
local Police Department. In this example, the researcher has no
control over the speed of the car. He did not contribute to
creation of the differences among speeds. The researcher merely
observed the differences in speeds and the result of them as
measured by the amount of damage to the bumper.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW

● Although we might like to, it is not possible to conduct an

experiment in all investigations that involve a comparison of
treatments. Sometimes we must use an observational study
instead of an experiment.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
EXAMPLE:

a. To study the effects of asbestos on the health of workers in a

certain industry that makes use of that product, an experiment
will require a group of workers to be exposed to the products
containing asbestos while another group is not. It is unethical to
expose somebody intentionally to posssibly harmful chemicals so
that damaged to health can be measured.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
b. Certain inhereted traits affect a worker’s ability to perform certain
tasks. It is not possible to randomly assign genetic traits to different
workers; they are born with those traits.
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION OVERVIEW
● In observational studies, results cannot be generalized to a
population because observational studies use volunteers or
samples of convenience such as workers in the first shift instead of
a random sample selecred from the workers.
● However, we can sometimes check to see whether the results can
reasonably be explained by chance alone.
THE END