TheKeele University report of the surveyconducted by Robin Hadley states: "Mr Hadley conducted thesurvey using an online questionnaire among people aged 20 to 66, with anaverage age of 41. Just over 80% were white British, 69% had degrees, 69%worked full time and 90% were heterosexual. Mr Hadley said this was aqualitative study rather than a quantitative statistical representation ofBritish society." http://www.keele.ac.uk/pressreleases/2013/title,89912,en.html
Does anyone have any idea of themethodology implied by the descriptions "online questionnaire"? I have written to the British SociologicalAssociation email address given at the end of the report requesting replies tothe following questions: 1. There is no indication of themethodology used. For instance, how were the respondees selected? Were theyself-selected? 2. Has the report beenpeer-reviewed? Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [email protected] http://www.esterson.org --------------------------------------- From: David Epstein<[email protected]> Subject: RE: "Childlessnesshits men the hardest" (n = 16) Date:Thu, 4 Apr 2013 12:50:02 -0400(EDT) On Thu, 4 Apr 2013, Rick Fromanwent: > Actually, the whole study withthe online survey methodology, the > small sample size and thequestionable interpretation reminds me of > studies done by my ResearchMethods undergrad students but at least > they would have calculated thechi square results and not made > anything out of anon-significant result. Yes! Most of the sources refer to the investigator as a "Ph.D. candidate." I DISAGREE. :) Well, OK, in one of the stories, theinvestigator cautions that the study is "qualitative, notquantitative" <http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/04/04/do-men-yearn-for-children-more-than-women/53416.html>. In fact, the title of his poster is"The Experiences of Involuntarily Childless Men as TheyAge." Nice andphenomenological. But he's allowed his institution to summarizehis work with a big batch of quasi-inferential "XX percentversus XY percent" statements. So what we have here is a failure ofquality control at every stage of dissemination. --David Epstein [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=24786 or send a blank email to leave-24786-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
