Questionable data.
When you are collecting in-person data, you may have someone act strangely,
making you suspect drugs or alcohol use. Another scenario is that someone hands
in a “completed” survey in a few minutes, as compared to the 20 minutes others
took.
What to do? First,
make sure you are safe in the case of strange behavior (I once had a
participant break the chair in which he was sitting from rocking and bouncing
the chair due to amphetamine use). If there are any concerns, thank them for
coming and get them out the door quietly. Second, mark their data forms, with
the behavior that concerns you. Later when you analyze data, check whether
their data deviates from the norm. Discuss the issue with your methodologist
and make a joint decision about whether to include the data in the analyses.
Next time, we will have a guest blogger. Do you have an
issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me
an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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