When doing research you may feel you
have control of your participants and your study. However, I would like you to
keep in mind the photo of Jed that I am attaching, he is quite sure he is
controlling the remote, and no one moves without him being involved. Yet, the
reality is his control is minimal, such is the case with research. Despite all
of your hard work and efforts to have things run smoothly, there will be
occasions when participants do the unexpected. Some examples are quitting the
study midway through, not reading questions carefully, misrepresenting
themselves, or lying.
What can you do about
these things? Actually, there is very little that you can do directly; all you
can do is be aware of the issues and the illusion of control. When you analyze
your data and get some strange data, remember the reality, that people do the
unexpected and discuss the issue with your committee. They can make have
suggestions on sorting it out.
Next time, we will look at the effects of small efforts. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me
to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your
ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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