Data Collection

   The data used in this study was collected through a survey which I conducted according to Donald C. Orlich's book Designing Sensible Surveys (1978).  In this book, surveys and questionnaires are discussed, including the advantages and disadvantages of using surveys, avoiding bias, question placement, and statistical analysis. 
      I conducted this survey because the data I needed is not available at another source.   The objective of my survey is to determine the location, age, and opinions (both general and specific) of the Cuyahoga River of people of all ages, male and female.  I wanted to know if the amount of time one has spent observing the Cuyahoga River affects that person's opinion of the River.  The two options I had of ways to collect this data were either through surveys or through interviews.  I decided to use a survey because of the four following factors:  each respondent receives identical questions, uniform data are collected, responses can be easily tabulated,  and a survey is less expensive and less time-consuming (for respondents and data collector) than an interview technique.
    I designed the survey to be simple and benign, so that there would not be any confusion or apprehension for the respondent.   According to Orlich, "Questionnaires are not designed to instruct the respondents about issues, techniques or problems.  They are designed to gather opinions or attitudes about already known issues, problems, or events" (Orlich, p. 25).   Once I had my survey designed, I showed it to my advisors and to relatives and friends to help find any unclarity or bias within the survey.  Once I had a final version, I made a large box with a tablet of surveys, pencils, and a slot for completed surveys.  This made it easy for people to not feel threatened, pressured, or hurried.   I then took the box and additional survey tablets to locations where I collected the data.  All data collection was in accordance with regulations set by the Kent State University Human Subjects Review Board.
    On the survey, for the questions of opinions, I used Likert scales.  When I entered these opinions into my database, I assigned a numeric scale to the Likert responses, for ease in tabulation and calculation.  According to Orlich, "Likert scales and ranked data are frequently summarized by determining the average mean scores as a measure of the central tendency" (Orlich, p. 139).    This is how I was able to manipulate the data, calculate averages, and use statistical analysis for the opinions gathered.