Page 98 - PhD GT

The response choices Rarely and Infrequently were collapsed into one category called Rarely, and the time frames were broadened to be more inclusive; the meanings attributed to the remaining responses choices are shown in Table 4.5. When responses to Rarely and Infrequently were condensed into one category, the resulting percentage of the combined response given to each question was compared with the frequency of the response Often given to each question. These percentages are presented in Table 4.6.
Table 4.5 Meanings attributed to the five response choices (condensed): Sample 1 (n==51)
all the time /more than onceaday
every day / once a day
3pw-6pw 1pw-2pw 1 pm - 2 pm 2pa-6pa 1x3yr-1pa 0 - 1 x 5 yr
4.3.3 Study 1: Discussion
Never Rarely Sometimes Often
0 0 2 4 0 1 4 16
0 0 13 18 0 10 20 10 0 25 9 1
Nearly Always
18 24
4 2 1
042 0 6 0 5110
00 0 0 00
When respondents were asked to rank order the response choices, the majority ranked Infrequently in between Rarely and Sometimes (see Table 4.3). However, results of the question regarding the meaning of the each response choice suggest that, for this population, there is little difference between the meaning of the term Infrequently and the term Rarely. This conclusion is reached by looking at the modal value for each of the response choices, and the distribution of scores around the modal value (see Table 4.4). These findings suggest that there was greater clarity concerning the ordering of the responses than there was concerning their meaning. The difference may be accounted for by the fact that the tasks were perceived to be different; subjects were asked to do the rank ordering task in the abstract while they were asked for the meanings of the response choices after they had completed the questionnaire and gave their meanings with reference to their drinking or drug taking behaviour. It was noted above that subjects found the task too difficult to do
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