bd survey

Attitudes to Mental Illness - 2011 survey report

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:21:00 +0000

Attitudes to mental illness

Grouping the statements

The 27 attitude statements are grouped into four categories for analysis purposes:

1. Fear and exclusion of people with mental illness

2. Understanding and tolerance of mental illness

3. Integrating people with mental illness into the community

4. Causes of mental illness and the need for special services.

Fear and exclusion of people with mental illness

Introduction

This section explores fear and exclusion of people with mental illness.

These statements have all been included in each wave of the survey since 1994.

The statements covered in this section are:

• ‘Locating mental health facilities in a residential area downgrades the neighbourhood’

• ‘It is frightening to think of people with mental problems living in residential

neighbourhoods’

• ‘I would not want to live next door to someone who has been mentally ill’

• ‘A woman would be foolish to marry a man who has suffered from mental illness, even

though he seems fully recovered’

• ‘Anyone with a history of mental problems should be excluded from taking public office’

• ‘People with mental illness should not be given any responsibility’

• ‘People with mental illness are a burden on society’

• ‘As soon as a person shows signs of mental disturbance, he should be hospitalized’

The statements in this section all portray less favourable or ‘negative’ attitudes towards

people with mental illness. Analysis in this section focuses on the percentage of respondents

agreeing with each of these statements (that is, displaying a negative attitude).

Trends over time

Figure 1 shows the levels of agreement with these statements from 1994 to 2011.

Overall, the levels of agreement with these negative statements about people with mental

illness were low, ranging in 2011 from 6% to 21%.

The highest levels of agreement in 2011 were with the statements ‘Anyone with a history of mental illness should be excluded from taking public office’ (21%) and ‘As soon as a person shows signs of mental disturbance, he should be hospitalized’ (21%).

The percentage of people saying that locating mental health facilities in a residential area downgrades the neighbourhood stood at 17% in 2011. (Figure1).

Data source: Table 1

Levels of agreement with several of these statements have fallen since 1994. Acceptance of

people with mental illness taking public office and being give responsibility has grown – the

percentage agreeing that ‘Anyone with a history of mental problems should be excluded from

taking public office’ decreased from 29% in 1994 to 21% in 2011, while the percentage

agreeing that ‘People with mental illness should not be given any responsibility’ decreased

from 17% to 13% over the same period.

There were no significant changes in levels of agreement with these statements between

2010 and 2011.

Survey Form(sample): Health Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:29:00 +0000

Instructions for completing the questionnaire:

Please answer every question. Some questions may look like others, but each one is different.

Please take the time to read and answer each question carefully by filling in the bubble that best represents

your response.

Patient Name: _____________________________________________________________

SSN#:________________________________________Date:________________________________

Person helping to complete this form: ___________________________________________________

1. In general, would you say your health is:

Excellent
Very good
Good
Fair
Poor

2. Compared to one year ago, how would you rate your health in general now?

Much better now than a year ago
Somewhat better now than a year ago
About the same as one year ago
Somewhat worse now than one year ago
Much worse now than one year ago

3. The following items are about activities you might do during a typical day. Does your health now limit you in these activities? If so, how much?

a. Vigorous activities, such as running, lifting heavy objects, participating in strenuous sports.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

b. Moderate activities, such as moving a table, pushing a vacuum cleaner, bowling, or playing golf?

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

c. Lifting or carrying groceries.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

d. Climbing several flights of stairs.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

e. Climbing one flight of stairs.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

f. Bending, kneeling or stooping.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

g. Walking more than one mile.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

h. Walking several blocks.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

i. Walking one block.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

j. Bathing or dressing yourself.

Yes, limited a lot.
Yes, limited a little.
No, not limited at all.

4. During the past 4 weeks, have you had any of the following problems with your work or other regular daily activities as a result of your physical health?

a. Cut down the amount of time you spent on work or other activities?

Yes No

b. Accomplished less than you would like?

Yes No

c. Were limited in the kind of work or other activities

Yes No

d. Had difficulty performing the work or other activities (for example, it took extra time)

Yes No

5. During the past 4 weeks, have you had any of the following problems with your work or other regular daily activities as a result of any emotional problems (such as feeling depressed or anxious)?

a. Cut down the amount of time you spent on work or other activities?

Yes No

b. Accomplished less than you would like

Yes No

c. Didn't do work or other activities as carefully as usual

Yes No

6. During the past 4 weeks, to what extent has your physical health or emotional problems interfered with your normal social activities with family, friends, neighbors, or groups?

Not at all
Slightly
Moderately
Quite a bit
Extremely

7. How much bodily pain have you had during the past 4 weeks?

Not at all
Slightly
Moderately
Quite a bit
Extremely

8. During the past 4 weeks, how much did pain interfere with your normal work (including both work outside the home and housework)?

Not at all
Slightly
Moderately
Quite a bit
Extremely

9. These questions are about how you feel and how things have been with you during the past 4 weeks. For each question,

please give the one answer that comes closest to the way you have been feeling. How much of the time during the past 4 weeks.

a. did you feel full of pep?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

b. have you been a very nervous person?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

c. have you felt so down in the dumps nothing could cheer you up?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

d. have you felt calm and peaceful?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

e. did you have a lot of energy?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

f. have you felt downhearted and blue?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

g. did you feel worn out?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

h. have you been a happy person?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

i. did you feel tired?

All of the time
Most of the time
A good bit of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

10. During the past 4 weeks, how much of the time has your physical health or emotional problems interfered with your social activities (like visiting friends, relatives, etc.)?

All of the time
Most of the time
Some of the time
A little of the time
None of the time

11. How TRUE or FALSE is each of the following statements for you?

a. I seem to get sick a little easier than other people

Definitely true
Mostly true
Don't know
Mostly false
Definitely false

b. I am as healthy as anybody I know

Definitely true
Mostly true
Don't know
Mostly false
Definitely false

c. I expect my health to get worse

Definitely true
Mostly true
Don't know
Mostly false
Definitely false

d. My health is excellent

Definitely true
Mostly true
Don't know
Mostly false
Definitely false

Global Competitiveness:part 6

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:55:00 +0000

Eleventh pillar: Business sophistication

Business sophistication is conducive to higher efficiency

in the production of goods and services.

This leads, in turn, to increased productivity, thus enhancing a nation’s

competitiveness.

Business sophistication concerns the

quality of a country’s overall business networks as well as

the quality of individual firms’ operations and strategies.

This is particularly important for countries at an

advanced stage of development,

when the more basic sources of productivity improvements have been exhausted

to a large extent.

The quality of a country’s business

networks and supporting industries, as measured by the

quantity and quality of local suppliers and the extent of

their interaction, is important for a variety of reasons.

When companies and suppliers from a particular sector

are interconnected in geographically proximate groups

(“clusters”), efficiency is heightened, greater opportunities

for innovation are created, and barriers to entry for new

firms are reduced.

Individual firms’ operations and strategies

(branding, marketing, the presence of a value chain,

and the production of unique and sophisticated products)

all lead to sophisticated and modern business processes.

Twelfth pillar: Innovation

The final pillar of competitiveness is technological innovation.

Although substantial gains can be obtained by

improving institutions, building infrastructure, reducing

macroeconomic instability, or improving human capital,

all these factors eventually seem to run into diminishing

returns.

In the long run, standards of living can be enhanced only by technological innovation.

Innovation is particularly important for economies

as they approach the frontiers of knowledge and the

possibility of integrating and adapting exogenous technologies

tends to disappear.

Although less-advanced countries can still improve

their productivity by adopting existing technologies or

making incremental improvements in other areas, for

those that have reached the innovation stage of development,

this is no longer sufficient for increasing productivity.

Firms in these countries must design and develop

cutting-edge products and processes to maintain a competitive

edge.

This requires an environment that is conducive

to innovative activity, supported by both the

public and the private sectors. In particular, it means sufficient

investment in research and development (R&D),

especially by the private sector; the presence of highquality

scientific research institutions; extensive collaboration

in research between universities and industry; and

the protection of intellectual property.

Amid the present

economic uncertainty, it will be important to resist pressures

to cut back on R&D spending—both at the private

and public levels—that will be so critical for sustainable

growth going into the future.

The interrelation of the 12 pillars

While we report the results of the 12 pillars of competitiveness

separately, it is important to keep in mind that

they are not independent: they tend to reinforce each

other, and a weakness in one area often has a negative

impact on other areas.

For example, innovation (pillar 12)

will be very difficult without a well-educated and trained

workforce (pillars 4 and 5) that are adept at absorbing

new technologies (pillar 9), and without sufficient

financing (pillar 8) for R&D or an efficient goods market

that makes it possible to take new innovations to

market (pillar 6).

Global Competitiveness:part 5

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Eighth pillar: Financial market development

The recent financial crisis has highlighted the central

role of a sound and well-functioning financial sector for

economic activities.

An efficient financial sector allocates

the resources saved by a nation’s citizens, as well as those

entering the economy from abroad, to their most productive

uses.

It channels resources to those entrepreneurial

or investment projects with the highest expected rates

of return rather than to the politically connected.

A thorough and proper assessment of risk is therefore a

key ingredient.

Business investment is critical to productivity.

Therefore economies require sophisticated financial

markets that can make capital available for private-sector

investment from such sources as loans from a sound

banking sector,

properly regulated securities exchanges,

venture capital, and other financial products.

The importance of such access to capital was recently underscored

by the liquidity crunch experienced by businesses and

the public sector in both developing and developed

countries.

In order to fulfill all those functions, the

banking sector needs to be trustworthy and transparent,

and—as has been made so clear recently—financial

markets need appropriate regulation to protect investors

and other actors in the economy at large.

Ninth pillar: Technological readiness

In today’s globalized world, technology has increasingly

become an important element for firms to compete

and prosper.

The technological readiness pillar measures

the agility with which an economy adopts existing technologies

to enhance the productivity of its industries,

with specific emphasis on its capacity to fully leverage

information and communication technologies (ICT) in

daily activities and production processes for increased

efficiency and competitiveness.ICT has evolved into

the “general purpose technology” of our time,

given the critical spillovers to the other economic sectors and

their role as industry-wide enabling infrastructure.

Therefore ICT access and usage are key enablers of

countries’ overall technological readiness.

Whether the technology used has or has not been

developed within national borders is irrelevant for its ability

to enhance productivity.

The central point is that the

firms operating in the country have access to advanced

products and blueprints and the ability to use them.

Among the main sources of foreign technology, FDI often

plays a key role.

It is important to note that, in this context,

the level of technology available to firms in a country

needs to be distinguished from the country’s ability to

innovate and expand the frontiers of knowledge.

That is why we separate technological readiness from innovation,

which is captured in the 12th pillar below.

Tenth pillar: Market size

The size of the market affects productivity since large

markets allow firms to exploit economies of scale.

Traditionally, the markets available to firms have been

constrained by national borders.

In the era of globalization,

international markets have become a substitute for

domestic markets, especially for small countries.

There is vast empirical evidence showing that trade openness is

positively associated with growth.

Even if some recent research casts doubts on the robustness of this relationship,

the general sense is that trade has a positive effect

on growth, especially for countries with small domestic

markets.

Thus exports can be thought of as a substitute for

domestic demand in determining the size of the market

for the firms of a country.

By including both domestic and foreign markets in our measure of market size,

we give credit to export-driven economies and geographic

areas (such as the European Union) that are broken into

many countries but have a single common market

Global Competitiveness:part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Fifth pillar: Higher education and training

Quality higher education and training is crucial for

economies that want to move up the value chain

beyond simple production processes and products.

In particular, today’s globalizing economy requires countries

to nurture pools of well-educated workers who are able

to adapt rapidly to their changing environment and the

evolving needs of the production system.

This pillar measures secondary and tertiary enrollment rates as well

as the quality of education as evaluated by the business

community.

The extent of staff training is also taken into

consideration because of the importance of vocational

and continuous on-the-job training—which is neglected

in many economies—for ensuring a constant upgrading

of workers’ skills.

Sixth pillar: Goods market efficiency

Countries with efficient goods markets are well positioned

to produce the right mix of products and services given

their particular supply-and-demand conditions, as well

as to ensure that these goods can be most effectively

traded in the economy.

Healthy market competition,

both domestic and foreign, is important in driving market

efficiency and thus business productivity, by ensuring

that the most efficient firms,

producing goods demanded by the market, are those that thrive.

The best possible environment for the exchange of goods requires a minimum

of impediments to business activity through government

intervention.

For example, competitiveness is

hindered by distortionary or burdensome taxes and by

restrictive and discriminatory rules on foreign direct

investment (FDI)—limiting foreign ownership—as well

as on international trade.

The recent economic crisis has

highlighted the degree of interdependence of economies

worldwide and the degree to which growth depends on

open markets.

Protectionist measures are counterproductive

as they reduce aggregate economic activity.

Market efficiency also depends on demand conditions

such as customer orientation and buyer sophistication

For cultural or historical reasons, customers may be 7

more demanding in some countries than in others.

This can create an important competitive advantage, as it

forces companies to be more innovative and customer

oriented and thus imposes the discipline necessary for

efficiency to be achieved in the market.

Seventh pillar: Labor market efficiency

The efficiency and flexibility of the labor market are critical

for ensuring that workers are allocated to their most

efficient use in the economy and provided with incentives

to give their best effort in their jobs.

Labor markets must

therefore have the flexibility to shift workers from one

economic activity to another rapidly and at low cost, and

to allow for wage fluctuations without much social disruption.

The importance of the latter has been dramatically

highlighted by the difficulties countries with particularly

rigid labor markets—such as Spain—have encountered

in recovering from the recent major economic

downturn.

Efficient labor markets must also ensure a clear relationship

between worker incentives and their efforts, as

well as equity in the business environment between

women and men.

Global Competitiveness:part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:55:00 +0000

Third pillar: Macroeconomic environment

The stability of the macroeconomic environment is

important for business and, therefore, is important for

the overall competitiveness of a country.

Although it is certainly true that macroeconomic stability alone

cannot increase the productivity of a nation, it is also

recognized that macroeconomic disarray harms the

economy.

The government cannot provide services

efficiently if it has to make high-interest payments on

its past debts.

Running fiscal deficits limits the government’s

future ability to react to business cycles.

Firms cannot operate efficiently when inflation rates are out of

hand.

In sum, the economy cannot grow in a sustainable

manner unless the macroeconomic environment is stable.

This issue has captured the attention of the public most

recently through discussions on exit strategies to wind

down deficit spending, and in the context of the recent

buildup of sovereign debt.

It is important to note that this pillar evaluates the

stability of the macroeconomic environment, so it does

not directly take into account the way in which public

accounts are managed by the government. This qualitative

dimension is captured in the institutions pillar

described above.

Fourth pillar: Health and primary education

A healthy workforce is vital to a country’s competitiveness

and productivity.

Workers who are ill cannot function

to their potential and will be less productive. Poor health

leads to significant costs to business, as sick workers are

often absent or operate at lower levels of efficiency.

Investment in the provision of health services is thus critical

for clear economic,

as well as moral, considerationsIn addition to health, this pillar takes into account

the quantity and quality of basic education received by

the population, which is increasingly important in

today’s economy.

Basic education increases the efficiency

of each individual worker.

Moreover, workers who have

received little formal education can carry out only simple

manual work and find it much more difficult to

adapt to more advanced production processes and techniques.

Lack of basic education can therefore become a

constraint on business development, with firms finding

it difficult to move up the value chain by producing

more sophisticated or value-intensive products.

For the longer term, it will be essential to avoid

significant reductions in resource allocation to these

critical areas,

in spite of the fact that government budgets

will need to be cut to reduce public debt brought

about by the present stimulus spending.

Global Competitiveness:part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:28:00 +0000

communities to core economic activities and services.
Effective modes of transport, including quality roads,
railroads, ports, and air transport, enable entrepreneurs
to get their goods and services to market in a secure and
timely manner and facilitate the movement of workers
to the most suitable jobs.
Economies also depend on
electricity supplies that are free of interruptions and
shortages so that businesses and factories can work
unimpeded.
Finally, a solid and extensive telecommunications
network allows for a rapid and free flow of information,
which increases overall economic efficiency by
helping to ensure that businesses can communicate and
decisions are made by economic actors taking into
account all available relevant information.
This is an area where the crisis may prove to have positive longer-term
effects, given the significant resources earmarked for
infrastructure development by many national stimulus
packages, including those of the United States and China.

Global Competitiveness

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:20:00 +0000

The 12 pillars of competitiveness

There are many determinants driving productivity and

competitiveness.

Understanding the factors behind this

process has occupied the minds of economists for hundreds

of years, ranging from Adam Smith’s focus on

specialization and the division of labor to neoclassical

economists’ emphasis on investment in physical capital

and infrastructure,3 and, more recently, to interest in

other mechanisms such as education and training, technological

progress, macroeconomic stability, good governance,

firm sophistication, and market efficiency, among

others.

While all of these ideas are likely to be important,

they are not mutually exclusive—two or more of

them can be true at the same time,

This open-endedness is captured within the GCI

by including a weighted average of many different components,

each measuring a different aspect of competitiveness.

These components are grouped into 12 pillars

of economic competitiveness:

First pillar: Institutions

The institutional environment is determined by the

legal and administrative framework within which individuals,

firms, and governments interact to generate

income and wealth in the economy.

The importance of a sound and fair institutional environment has become

even more apparent during the economic crisis, given

the increasingly direct role played by the state in the

economy of many countries.

The quality of institutions has a strong bearing on

competitiveness and growth.5 It influences investment

decisions and the organization of production and plays

a key role in the ways in which societies distribute the

benefits and bear the costs of development strategies

and policies.

For example, owners of land, corporate

shares, or intellectual property are unwilling to invest in

the improvement and upkeep of their property if their

rights as owners are not protected.6

The role of institutions goes beyond the legal

framework.

Government attitudes toward markets and

freedoms and the efficiency of its operations are also very

important: excessive bureaucracy and red tape,7 overregulation,

corruption, dishonesty in dealing with public

contracts, lack of transparency and trustworthiness, and

the political dependence of the judicial system impose

significant economic costs to businesses and slow the

process of economic development.

In addition, proper management of public finances

is also critical to ensuring trust in the national business

environment.

Indicators capturing the quality of government

management of public finances are included here

to complement the measures of macroeconomic stability

captured in pillar 3 below.

Although the economic literature has focused

mainly on public institutions, private institutions are

also an important element in the process of creation

of wealth.

The recent global financial crisis, along with

numerous corporate scandals, has highlighted the relevance

of accounting and reporting standards and transparency

for preventing fraud and mismanagement,

ensuring good governance, and maintaining investor

and consumer confidence

An economy is well served by businesses that are run honestly, where managers

abide by strong ethical practices in their dealings with

the government, other firms, and the public at large.8

Private-sector transparency is indispensable to business,

and can be brought about through the use of standards

as well as auditing and accounting practices that ensure

access to information in a timely manner.9

Second pillar: Infrastructure

Extensive and efficient infrastructure is critical for

ensuring the effective functioning of the economy, as it

is an important factor determining the location of economic

activity and the kinds of activities or sectors that

can develop in a particular economy.

Well-developed infrastructure

reduces the effect of distance between regions,

integrating the national market and connecting it at low

cost to markets in other countries and regions.

In addition,

the quality and extensiveness of infrastructure networks

significantly impact economic growth and affect income

inequalities and poverty in a variety of ways.10 A welldeveloped

transport and communications infrastructure

network is a prerequisite for the access of less-developed

The Global Competitiveness

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:48:00 +0000

competitiveness is defined as the set of institutions,

policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country.

The level of productivity, in turn, sets the sustainable level of prosperity that can be earned by an economy.

In other words, more competitive economies or countries tend to be able to yield higher levels of income.

The rates of return obtained by investments (physical, human, and technological) in an economy is also determined by the productivity level.

Because the rates of return are the fundamental drivers of the growth rates of the economy, a more competitive economy is one that is likely to grow faster in the medium to long run.

The concept of competitiveness thus involves static and dynamic components:

although the productivity of a country clearly determines its ability to sustain a high level of income, it is also one of the central determinants of the returns to investment, which is one of the key factors explaining an economy’s growth potential

Survey Tips:Survey Design

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:24:00 +0000

Computer Direct Interviews:

Computer direct interviews are invention of the modern science & technology.

These are interviews in which the Interviewees enter their own answers directly into a computer.

They can be used at malls, trade shows, offices, and so on.

The Survey System's optional Interviewing Module and Interview Stations can easily create computer-direct interviews. Some researchers set up a Web page survey for this purpose.

Advantages

• The virtual elimination of data entry and editing costs.
• You will get more accurate answers to sensitive questions. Recent studies of potential blood donors have shown respondents were more likely to reveal HIV-related risk factors to a computer screen than to either human interviewers or paper questionnaires.The National Institute of Justice has also found that computer-aided surveys among drug users get better results than personal interviews.
• The elimination of interviewer bias:Different interviewers can ask questions in different ways, leading to different results. The computer asks the questions the same way every time.
• Ensuring skip patterns are accurately followed. The Survey System can ensure people are not asked questions they should skip based on their earlier answers. These automatic skips are more accurate than relying on an Interviewer reading a paper questionnaire.
• Response rates are usually higher. Computer-aided interviewing is still novel enough that some people will answer a computer interview when they would not have completed another kind of interview.

Disadvantages

• The Interviewees must have access to a computer or one must be provided for them.
• As with mail surveys, computer direct interviews may have serious response rate problems in populations of lower educational and literacy levels. This method may grow in importance as computer use increases.

Email Surveys:

Email surveys are both very economical and very fast.

More people have email than have full Internet access. This makes email a better choice than a Web page survey for some populations.

On the other hand, email surveys are limited to simple questionnaires, whereas Web page surveys can include complex logic.

Advantages

• Speed. An email questionnaire can gather several thousand responses within a day or two.
• There is practically no cost involved once the set up has been completed.
• One can easily attach pictures and sound files.
• The novelty element of an email survey often stimulates higher response levels than ordinary “snail” mail surveys.

Disadvantages

• You must purchase a list of email addresses.
• Some people will respond several times or pass questionnaires along to friends to answer.
Many programs have no check to eliminate people responding multiple times to bias the results.
The Survey System’s Email Module will only accept one reply from each address sent the questionnaire.
It eliminates duplicate and pass along questionnaires and checks to ensure that respondents have not ignored instructions (e.g., giving 2 answers to a question requesting only one).
• Many people dislike unsolicited email even more than unsolicited regular mail.
• You cannot use email surveys to generalize findings to the whole populations.
People who have email are different from those who do not, even when matched on demographic characteristics, such as age and gender.
• Email surveys cannot automatically skip questions or randomize question or answer choice order or use other automatic techniques that can enhance surveys the way Web page surveys can.

Many email programs are limited to plain ASCII text questionnaires and cannot show pictures.

Email questionnaires from The Survey System can attach graphic or sound files.

Although use of email is growing very rapidly, it is not universal - and is even less so outside the USA (three-quarters of the world's email traffic takes place within the USA).

Many “average” citizens still do not possess email facilities, especially older people and those in lower income and education groups.

So email surveys do not reflect the population as a whole. At this stage they are probably best used in a corporate environment where email is common or when most members of the target population are known to have email.

Survey Tips :How To Write A Good Survey Quesstionaire

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:50:00 +0000

The Way To Write A Good Survey
Words are often used in different ways by different people; your first and foremost task is to write questions that each person can understand in the same way.
A good question should be short and straightforward.
A questionnaire should not be lengthy, use easy English and the question shouldn't be difficult to answer.Through careful writing, editing, review, and rewriting you can make a good questionnaire.
The following provides you instructions for conducting your surveys:
1. Create a short questionnaire
2. Use simple words
3. Relax your grammar
4. Assure a common understanding
5. Start with interesting questions
6. Avoiv writing leading question
7. Avoid double negatives
8. Balance rating scales
9. Don't make the list of choices too long
10. Avoid difficult concepts
11. Avoid difficult recall questions
12. Use Closed-ended questions rather than Open-ended ones
13. Put your questions logically
14. Pre-test your survey
15. Naming your survey
16. Cover memo or introduction

Survey Tips :Survey Design

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:44:00 +0000

Survey Design
This article is intended primarily for those who are new to survey research. It discusses options and provides suggestions on how to design and conduct a successful survey project.
It does not provide instruction on using specific parts of The Survey System, although it mentions parts of the program that can help you with certain tasks.

The Steps in a Survey Projec:
1. Establish the goals of the project - What you want to learn
2. Determine your sample - Whom you will interview
3. Choose interviewing methodology - How you will interview
4. Create your questionnaire - What you will ask
5. Pre-test the questionnaire, if practical - Test the questions
6. Conduct interviews and enter data - Ask the questions
7. Analyze the data - Produce the reports

Establishing Goal:

The first step in any survey is deciding what you want to learn. The goals of the project determine whom you will survey and what you will ask them.
If your goals are unclear, the results will probably be unclear. Some typical goals include learning more about:
• The potential market for a new product or service
• Ratings of current products or services
• Employee attitudes
• Customer/patient satisfaction levels
• Reader/viewer/listener opinions
• Association member opinions
• Opinions about political candidates or issues
• Corporate images
These sample goals represent general areas. The more specific you can make your goals, the easier it will be to get usable answers.

Selecting Your Sample:

There are two main components in determining whom you will interview.
The first is deciding what kind of people to interview. Researchers often call this group the target population. If you conduct an employee attitude survey or an association membership survey, the population is obvious.
If you are trying to determine the likely success of a product, the target population may be less obvious. Correctly determining the target population is critical.
If you do not interview the right kinds of people, you will not successfully meet your goals.
The next thing to decide is how many people you need to interview.
Statisticians know that a small, representative sample will reflect the group from which it is drawn. The larger the sample, the more precisely it reflects the target group.
However, the rate of improvement in the precision decreases as your sample size increases. For example, to increase a sample from 250 to 1,000 only doubles the precision. You must make a decision about your sample size based on factors such as:
time available, budget and necessary degree of precision.

Avoiding a Biased Sample:

A biased sample will produce biased results. Totally excluding all bias is almost impossible; however, if you recognize bias exists you can intuitively discount some of the answers.
The following list shows some examples of biased samples.
The consequences of a source of bias depend on the nature of the survey. For example, a survey for a product aimed at retirees will not be as biased by daytime interviews as will a general public opinion survey. A survey about Internet products can safely ignore people who do not use the Internet.

Quotas:

A Quota is a sample size for a sub-group. It is sometimes useful to establish quotas to ensure that your sample accurately reflects relevant sub-groups in your target population.
For example, men and women have somewhat different opinions in many areas. If you want your survey to accurately reflect the general population's opinions, you will want to ensure that the percentage of men and women in your sample reflect their percentages of the general population.
If you are interviewing users of a particular type of product, you probably want to ensure that users of the different current brands are represented in proportions that approximate the current market share. Alternatively, you may want to ensure that you have enough users of each brand to be able to analyze the users of each brand as a separate group.
If you are doing telephone or Web page interviewing, The Survey System's optional Sample Management or Internet Module can help you enforce quotas. They let you create automatically enforced quotas and/or monitor your sample during interviewing sessions.

Interviewing Methods

Once you have decided on your sample you must decide on your method of data collection.
Each method has advantages and disadvantages.

Personal Interviews
An interview is called personal when the Interviewer asks the questions face-to-face with the Interviewee. Personal interviews can take place in the home, at a shopping mall, on the street, outside a movie theater or polling place, and so on.

Advantages

• The ability to let the Interviewee see, feel and/or taste a product.
• The ability to find the target population. For example, you can find people who have seen a film much more easily outside a theater in which it is playing than by calling phone numbers at random.
• Longer interviews are sometimes tolerated. Particularly with in-home interviews that have been arranged in advance. People may be willing to talk longer face-to-face than to someone on the phone.

Disadvantages

• Personal interviews usually cost more per interview than other methods. This is particularly true of in-home interviews, where travel time is a major factor.
• Each mall has its own characteristics. It draws its clientele from a specific geographic area surrounding it, and its shop profile also influences the type of client. These characteristics may differ from the target population and create a non-representative sample.

Telephone Surveys

Surveying by telephone is the most popular interviewing method in the USA. This is made possible by nearly universal coverage (96% of homes have a telephone).

Advantages

• People can usually be contacted faster over the telephone than with other methods. If the Interviewers are using CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing), the results can be available minutes after completing the last interview.
• You can dial random telephone numbers when you do not have the actual telephone numbers of potential respondents.
• CATI software, such as The Survey System, makes complex questionnaires practical by offering many logic options. It can automatically skip questions, perform calculations and modify questions based on the answers to earlier questions. It can check the logical consistency of answers and can present questions or answers choices in a random order (the last two are sometimes important for reasons described later).
• Skilled interviewers can often elicit longer or more complete answers than people will give on their own to mail, email surveys (though some people will give longer answers to Web page surveys). Interviewers can also ask for clarification of unclear responses.
• Some software, such as The Survey System, can combine survey answers with pre-existing information you have about the people being interviewed.

Disadvantages

• Many telemarketers have given legitimate research a bad name by claiming to be doing research when they start a sales call. Consequently, many people are reluctant to answer phone interviews and use their answering machines to screen calls. Since over half of the homes in the USA have answering machines, this problem is getting worse.
• The growing number of working women often means that no one is home during the day. This limits calling time to a "window" of about 6-9 p.m. (when you can be sure to interrupt dinner or a favorite TV program).
• You cannot show or sample products by phone.

Mail Survey:

Advantages

• Mail surveys are among the least expensive.
• This is the only kind of survey you can do if you have the names and addresses of the target population, but not their telephone numbers.
• The questionnaire can include pictures - something that is not possible over the phone.
• Mail surveys allow the respondent to answer at their leisure, rather than at the often inconvenient moment they are contacted for a phone or personal interview. For this reason, they are not considered as intrusive as other kinds of interviews.

Disadvantages

• Time! Mail surveys take longer than other kinds. You will need to wait several weeks after mailing out questionnaires before you can be sure that you have gotten most of the responses.
• In populations of lower educational and literacy levels, response rates to mail surveys are often too small to be useful.
This, in effect, eliminates many immigrant populations that form substantial markets in many areas. Even in well-educated populations, response rates vary from as low as 3% up to 90%. As a rule of thumb, the best response levels are achieved from highly-educated people and people with a particular interest in the subject (which, depending on your target population, could lead to a biased sample).
One way of improving response rates to mail surveys is to mail a postcard telling your sample to watch for a questionnaire in the next week or two.
Another is to follow up a questionnaire mailing after a couple of weeks with a card asking people to return the questionnaire. The downside is that this doubles or triples your mailing cost.
If you have purchased a mailing list from a supplier, you may also have to pay a second (and third) use fee - you often cannot buy the list once and re-use it.
Another way to increase responses to mail surveys is to use an incentive. One possibility is to send a dollar bill (or more) along with the survey (or offer to donate the dollar to a charity specified by the respondent).
If you do so, be sure to say that the dollar is a way of saying "thanks," rather than payment for their time.
Many people will consider their time worth more than a dollar. Another possibility is to include the people who return completed surveys in a drawing for a prize.
A third is to offer a copy of the (non-confidential) result highlights to those who complete the questionnaire. Any of these techniques will increase the response rates.
Remember that if you want a sample of 1,000 people, and you estimate a 10% response level, you need to mail 10,000 questionnaires.
You may want to check with your local post office about bulk mail rates - you can save on postage using this mailing method. However, most researchers do not use bulk mail, because many people associate "bulk" with "junk" and will throw it out without opening the envelope, lowering your response rate.
Also bulk mail moves slowly, increasing the time needed to complete your project.

Survey Tips :How To Write A Good Survey Quesstionaire

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:15:00 +0000

Write a short questionnaire

Firstly,A questionnaire should be as short as possible. When drafting a questionnaire, make a organized decession between what is essential to know, what would be useful to know and what would be unnecessary.
Retain the former, keep the useful to a minimum and discard the rest.
If the question is not important enough to include in your report, it probably should be eliminated.

Use simple words

Survey recipients may have a variety of backgrounds so use simple language.
For example, "What is the frequency of your automotive travel to your parents' residents in the last 30 days?" is better understood as, "About how many times in the last 30 days have you driven to your parent's home?"

Relax your grammar

Relax your grammatical standards if the questions sound too formal.
For example, the word "who" is appropriate in many instances when "whom" is technical correct.

Assure a common understanding

Make your questions that everyone will understand in the same way.
Don't assume that everyone has the same understanding of the facts or a common basis of knowledge.
Identify even commonly used abbreviations to be certain that everyone understands.

Start with interesting questions

Start the survey with questions that are likely to sound interesting and attract the respondents' attention.
Save the questions that might be difficult or threatening for later.
Voicing questions in the third person can be less threatening than questions voiced in the second question.
For example, ask: "How do your colleagues feel about management?" rather than "How do you feel about management?"

Don't write leading questions

Leading questions demand a specific response.
For example: the question "Which day of the month is best for the newly established company-wide monthly meeting?" leads respondents to pick a date without first determining if they even want another meeting.

Avoid double negatives

Respondents can easily be confused deciphering the meaning of a question that uses two negative words.

Balance rating scales

When the question requires respondents to use a rating scale, mediate the scale so that there is room for both extremes.

Don't make the list of choices too long

If the list of answer categories is long and unfamiliar, it is difficult for respondents to evaluate all of them. Keep the list of choices short.

Avoid difficult concepts

Some questions involve concepts that are difficult for many people to understand.

Avoid difficult recall questions

People's memories are increasingly unreliable as you ask them to recall events farther and farther back in time.
You will get far more accurate information from people if you ask, "About how many times in the last month have you gone out and seen a movie in a movie theater or drive-in?" rather than, "About how many times last year did you go out and see a movie in a movie theater or drive-in?"

Use Closed-ended questions rather than Open-ended ones

Most questionnaires rely on questions with a fixed number of response categories from which respondents select their answers. These are useful because the respondents know clearly the purpose of the question and are limited to a set of choices where one answer is right for them.
An open-ended question is a written response.
For example: "If you do not want a company picnic, please explain why". If there are an excessive number of written response questions, it reduces the quality and attention the respondents give to the answers.
However, InfoPoll allows you to use a wide variety of other types of questions.

Put your questions in a logic order

The issues raised in one question can influence how people think about subsequent questions.
It is good to ask a general question and then ask more specific questions.
For example, you should avoid asking a series of questions about a free banking service and then question about the most important factors in selecting a bank.

Pre-test your survey

It is better to identify a problem during the pretest than after you have published the survey. Before sending a survey to a target audience, send it out as a test to a small number of people.
After they have completed the survey, brainstorm with them to see if they had problems answering any questions. It would help if they explained what the question meant to them and whether it was valid to the questionnaire or not.

Naming your survey

Some people discard an electronic message based entirely on its subject or sender. You should consider other titles that will pique the interest of the recipients. Here are examples of survey names that might be successful in getting attention:
Memo From the Chief Executive Officer
Evaluation of Services of the Benefits Office
Your Opinion About Financial Services
Free T-shirt
Win a Trip to Paris
Please Respond By Friday
Free Subscription
Win a notebook computer

Cover memo or introduction

Once a recipient opens your survey, you may still need to motivate him or her to complete it. The cover memo or introduction offers an excellent place to provide the motivation. A good cover memo or introduction should be short and includes:
Purpose of the survey
Why it is important to hear from the correspondent
What may be done with the results
what possible impacts may occur with the results.
Address identification
Person to contact for questions about the survey.
Due date for response

The Bay of Bengal

noreply@blogger.com (Mahede hasan) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:50:00 +0000

The Bay of Bengal (Bengali: বঙ্গোপসাগর) the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered by Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal down to the state of Tamil Nadu, India and Sri Lanka to the west and Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the east.

The Bay of Bengal occupies an area of 2,172,000 km². A number of large rivers – the Padma (a distributary of the Ganges), Meghna (a distributary of the Brahmaputra), Jamuna (a branch of the Brahmaputra), Ayeyarwady, Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna and Kaveri – flow into the Bay of Bengal. Among the important ports are Cuddalore, Ennore, Chennai, Karaikal, Pondicherry, Tuticorin, Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Vishakhapatnam, Paradip, Kolkata, Mongla, Chittagong and Yangon

NAMING

In the 10th century the explosion of Indianized kingdoms, led by the Chola Empire, resulted in the Bay of Bengal being known as the Chola Lake. It later came to be known as Bangal ki Khadi in Hindi after the region of Bengal.[2] Bengal comes from the Sanskrit Banga or Vanga which refers to the delta waters of the river Ganges.

ISLAND

The islands in the bay are very numerous, including the Andaman, Nicobar and Mergui groups. The group of islands, Cheduba and others, in the north-east, off the Burmese coast, are remarkable for a chain of mud volcanoes, which are occasionally active. Great Andaman is the main archipelago or island group of the Andaman Islands, whereas Ritchie's Archipelago consists of smaller islands. Only 37 of the 572 islands and islets of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are inhabited, or 6.5%.

Sea Beach↓ Location↓

Cox's Bazar Bangladesh

Kuakata Bangladesh

St. Martin's Island Bangladesh

Bakkhali India

Digha India

Chandipur India

Puri India

Waltair India

Marina Beach India

Ngapali Burma

Arugram Sri Lanka