ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the selection of informants or respondents and the design and implementation of information gathering techniques and discusses verification and preparation of both primary and secondary information for analysis. The non-experimental information gathering techniques will primarily cover the conventional interview from a questionnaire. The complete elimination of language problems is nearly impossible, but careful consideration of cross-cultural communication difficulties will minimize problems of interpretation in the questionnaire. Pretesting the questionnaire or checking to see if it will obtain the information sought, must be accomplished under actual field conditions before beginning the general survey. Although the interview must be objective, interviewers must be given flexibility to obtain a useful response. The success of non-experimental data collection rests upon the ability of the researcher to accurately and effectively select informants or respondents from the defined population and to communicate effectively with those selected.
