After selection psychological techniques to carry out PPE activities, a check of their prognostication should be carried out, that is, an assessment of their ability to solve the tasks set for them should be carried out: differentiation of all surveyed according to the severity of the PVK and predicting the probability of success in professional activity. For this purpose, a so-called pilot study is being carried out.
The concept of "pilot study" (sometimes also called a pilot study) is quite widespread in psychology. Moreover, these concepts very often mean completely different activities carried out with different goals. However, if you generalize everything that is understood by this concept, then its meaning is reduced to conducting a "trial", "evaluative" or "indicative" research.
The essence of the pilot study, conducted in order to assess the predictability of psychodiagnostic techniques, is to examine a group of people already performing professional activities for which it is planned to select. In this case, it is assumed that people working in this specialty
have individual psychological and personal characteristics that either hinder or, conversely, contribute to the successful performance of professional duties. Therefore, if the professionally important qualities were determined correctly, if the methods were selected correctly, then the results of the study should have a close relationship with the indicators of the success of the activity.
When conducting a pilot study, there is always a need to solve two problems: how to determine the criteria for the success of an activity, in relation to which the predictability of the selected methods will be assessed; how to form a group of persons to be examined.
As a rule, when forming a group of subjects to check the predictability of the selected methods, one of two fundamental decisions is made: to examine two groups of people with polar indicators of success in performing professional activities, or to conduct a survey based on the principle of random sampling, i.e., examine everyone who is possible.
If the assessment of the predictive value of the selected methods is carried out on the basis of the results of the survey of polar groups, then the experimental work is carried out in the following order. On the basis of clearly defined criteria for the success of activities, two groups of workers are formed: successful and unsuccessful, and the surveyed groups should be comparable in age and sex. Further, the examination is carried out and the processing of the primary results is carried out. At the final stage, a mathematical and statistical analysis of the results is carried out.
To implement this approach in practice, first of all, it is necessary to ensure the representativeness of the sample, which will require a sufficiently large group of people. When talking about the size of groups, one should recall the requirements mentioned above (see Chapter 8). Based on these requirements, it can be argued that to ensure the statistical reliability of the results, both groups of successful and unsuccessful workers compared with each other should be at least 30 people. However, it is extremely rare to ensure such a sample size in reality, if only because the management of an organization or enterprise is unlikely to put up with such a large number of unsuccessful employees. Therefore, while polar surveys are ideal, most often in a pilot study to develop an FLW system, developers survey a random sample of plant workers.
When conducting a pilot study based on the principle of random sampling, as a rule, all workers performing the same professional duties, that is, representatives of the same profession, are surveyed. In this case, the order of work is as follows: a survey of employees of the enterprise performing professional duties in the position in respect of which it is supposed to carry out professional psychological selection is carried out; further, the criteria for the success of professional activity are determined and, if possible, an integral indicator of success is developed; at the final stage, a mathematical and statistical analysis of the results is carried out.
At the same time, it should be noted that there are cases when none of the two above-mentioned methods of conducting a pilot study is suitable for their implementation in specific conditions. For example, this happens when a system of professional selection for newly created professions is being developed. In addition, there are situations when it is not possible to select the number of people necessary for conducting a pilot study. In this case, the psychologist has to model the sample of subjects; then the stages of the experimental research will be as follows: at the first stage, the experimental sample of the surveyed is modeled and psychological testing is carried out; at the second stage, a mathematical and statistical analysis of the results is carried out.

The most difficult stage in this version of the pilot study is the stage of modeling the experimental sample, since it determines the accuracy of assessing the compliance of the selected methods with the conditions for performing the tasks of the application software. When modeling the experimental sample, one should take into account the estimated age of people who will have to perform the relevant professional duties, as well as their gender and education. At the same time, it is desirable that the professional activity that they actually perform should present very similar requirements for the presence of the relevant professionally important qualities in employees, which are necessary for successful work in a new position. It is also desirable to take into account that the size of the simulated sample should be at least 55-60 people, and in the ideal case, at least 100.
It should be noted that all the options for conducting a pilot study to assess the predictability of methods that are supposed to be used in PPE activities have a very similar stage - a mathematical-statistical analysis of the results obtained. However, the content and order of implementation of this stage may be different. Let's consider this stage in more detail.

More on the topic Basic principles and methods of conducting a pilot study:

1. 3. Basic concepts and experience of marketing research 3.1. Content and directions of marketing research

Pilot study- preliminary, trial (most often methodological) sociological research with the aim of working out the tools for collecting primary sociological information, methods of organization and procedures for conducting mass field research. The pilot study is designed to work out technical procedures and techniques, most often to test the questionnaire

. Target- to obtain approximate data on a particular phenomenon or to test the application of the methodology to larger-scale research.

. An object- to carry out both studies, an insignificant set of objects is needed, so they are carried out in a limited time frame.

When conducting a pilot study, it is necessary to take into account the following rules:

The sample size in the pilot study does not have a clear methodological basis. It is only important that they represent all the essential categories of the planned research object.

· A small pilot sample does not have to be representative of the general population. Much more important is its other quality - diversity: it should include those groups of respondents who are able to respond to the toolkit in different ways.

· The pilot sample includes those respondents who represent the most important for the topic of the survey socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education, length of service, content of work, etc.).

In sociology, aerobatics is carried out before the main research and acts as a way to test the validity of hypotheses and tasks, as well as the professional level and methodological development of the toolkit. The pilot helps to assess the correctness of the sample model and to make appropriate corrections, if necessary; clarify some characteristics of the object and subject of research, justify the financial costs and timing of the main research. Pilotage is also useful for training a group of interviewers (questionnaires).

So, piloting is useful for: a) testing the tools in which the researcher is quite confident, b) improving the tools in a situation where the research subject is less known to the researcher.

Expert judgment method

The method of expert assessments, also called an expert survey, in general, is a survey of specialists who are competent in any field that the researcher needs. A survey of such persons is called an expert survey, and the judgments of respondents established in its course about the properties of the phenomenon under study are called expert assessments.
Expert review - competent opinion, the opinion of an expert on any of the problems that are in his sphere of competence.
The main differences between an expert survey and a mass survey are as follows:
- the number of respondents in a mass survey is much greater than in an expert one;
- the expert survey is not anonymous;
- the expert survey is distinguished by more complex tools;
- the work of experts, in contrast to the work of the respondents, is always paid.

When determining the specific composition of experts, one should be guided not only and not so much by the competence of experts as by the validity of their conclusions.

Question 56 (method of analyzing documents)

Document analysis Is a set of methodological techniques and procedures used to extract sociological information from documentary sources when studying social processes and phenomena in order to solve certain research problems.

The use of documentary sources of information in scientific research allows: quickly and at minimal cost to obtain information about objective facts, phenomena, events related to the research topic; learn about the subjective views, point of view, position of the authors of the documents.

In sociology, the following methods of studying documents are used:

• unformalized(traditional);
• formalized.
• In turn, the formalized type of document analysis can be presented in three varieties:
• content analysis or content analysis(from English - content- content);
• analysis of statistical information;
• information-targeted analysis of text information.

Each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages. Traditional method of document analysis based on "understanding" perception of the text. The advantage of this method is its relative simplicity. The disadvantages are associated with the subjective nature of the assessments of the content of documents, the difficulties in using technical means. These disadvantages are overcome with the help of quantitative research techniques typical for content analysis.

Content analysis- a method of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the content of documents in order to identify or measure various facts and trends reflected in these documents .. The content analysis procedure allows you to recreate social reality based on indicators contained in various sources of information. As a rule, such sources are periodicals, radio and television broadcasts, information on the Internet, in a word, information that has a significant volume and a tendency to be constantly updated.

The content analysis method is widely used in political science research. The object of their research is such documentary sources as: minutes of meetings of government bodies, etc.

1. Identification of semantic units of content analysis, which can be:
a) concepts expressed in separate terms;
b) topics expressed in whole semantic paragraphs, parts of texts, articles, etc .;
c) names, surnames of people;
d) events, facts, etc .;
e) the meaning of appeals to a potential addressee.

2. Units of account, which can be:
a) the physical length of the texts;
b) the area of ​​the text filled with semantic units;
c) the number of lines (paragraphs, characters, columns of text);
and etc.

Research in social work, as noted earlier, is mainly of an applied (empirical) nature. They are associated with the practice of social work, outline solutions to the problems that it poses. The formation of the research base of social work shows that it has common roots with sociological empirical research, their methods and methods. And the ego is not accidental, since already the first empirical sociological research was closely related to politics. social protection the poor; and with social work.

Discussions about the specifics of the methods used by the social worker continue today. This is due to the fact that the methods of social work are not yet sufficiently clear in terms of content. However, most authors agree that all existing approaches to the classification of methods can be used in social work, since it will be possible to identify the specifics of their use in general scientific terms as the methodological foundations of social work, as well as its own methods.

Based on existing research strategies in the social sciences, the following features of empirical research in social work can be distinguished:

• understanding that reality is socially conditioned;
• the use of an "understanding approach" to social reality;
• focusing on the study of individual situations, cases with their subsequent typification;
• research must necessarily be based on practice.

Above, we considered description and explanation as functions of scientific knowledge. But the description and explanation can be considered not only at the level of general methodology. scientific knowledge, but also at the level of specific research techniques. Within the framework of a detailed research program, they can act as successive stages: from a general orientation in a problem, they move on to the study of its individual aspects, gradually specifying questions. Accordingly, research techniques are changing: from extensive and unstructured methods of obtaining information (observation, conversation, study of documents), they are moving to the use of more narrowly focused and more clearly structured methods (questioning, testing, experimentation).

Within the description phase, a preliminary stage is often distinguished - pilot study. The term "aerobatics" usually denotes the art of flying an aircraft. But it also has another meaning - the flawless performance of any complex operations, requiring virtuoso skill. In this broader sense, it is used when talking about the pilot stage of sociological research.

Do you know that...

In social psychology, pilot studies have the working name "probing" and are used to establish the required sample size, clarify the content and number of questionnaire questions, survey time, etc. In testology, pilot studies are designated through the term "protest" and serve as a means of identifying some standards of the main test.

Pilot research is an essential part in planning any experimental psychological research. It provides the definition of the main direction, principles of organization and methods of the main research, clarifies the most important hypotheses. In Russian psychology, the term "search experiment" is more commonly used.

Pilot research appears as a trial-search type of research, which is carried out before the main one and is its simplified form. The fact is that it is impossible to immediately foresee all organizational problems, which, as a rule, may include the following points:

• features of the behavior of the studied people;
• level of understanding of the questions addressed;
• the presence of side factors that can affect the results, and ways to neutralize them;
• a sufficiently accurate definition of the forces, means and time required for study;
• identification of possible difficulties in data processing and other problems.

All of them emerge only in the course of the study itself. This is why a pilot study is needed. It allows you to identify the most difficult places in advance in order to eliminate them. A preliminary study makes it possible to increase the reliability of the information received, to clarify and even put forward new hypotheses, to check the organizational analysis procedure, to give a preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of the methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the information received. From here the purpose of the pilot study is preliminary orientation, identification of the main properties and the advancement of the most general assumptions about the connections between them. Imagine that before social workers the task is to draw up a comprehensive plan of measures to work with the youth of the microdistrict. The first step, of course, will be a pilot study: visiting places where young people gather, observing how young people spend their leisure time, talking with adolescents and young men, with their parents and teachers. This will give an overall picture, which can then be refined using, for example, statistical data. Only after an assessment of the needs and the existing forms of their satisfaction has been made, it is possible to begin to substantiate the need for any innovations.

This example shows that in applied research, addressing new problems, or even just a new contingent of potential customers, presupposes a general orientation stage. As for fundamental (purely scientific research), then, as a rule, there is a strong continuity: new problems arise from the already achieved amount of knowledge. Therefore, the main way of orientation here will be to study the literature on the problem. The phase of empirical research can then rely on more or less clear initial ideas and hypotheses.

Pilot research is an important and crucial stage. If it is not carried out well enough, then the inevitable decrease in the validity (validity and reliability) of the conclusions. For example, if at least one question remains in the questionnaire, which can be understood in different ways by people with different levels of education, then there will be a situation where the answers to it are incomparable between people with higher, secondary and other education. In such a situation, the researcher will lose the right to draw conclusions based on a comparison of the opinions of the people being interviewed. If such conclusions are made, then there will be doubt about their truth.

Despite the importance of the pilot study, it cannot be too long. Otherwise, the time will be reduced for the subsequent stages of research, which are more laborious and no less responsible. The duration and effectiveness of aerobatics is determined, first of all, by the qualifications of the researcher.

The collection of empirical data can take place both in a natural setting and in a specially equipped laboratory. In each of these cases, the research process will have its own characteristics. Research of the first type is designated as field studies - a type of study of social phenomena or the behavior of communities by studying them in normal, natural conditions (for example, a collective of people in its social context). In their focus, they are applied, since they are conducted to answer the questions that practice raises. This is the type of research that social workers most often deal with.

The main goal of field research is the description of a particular subject area, the discovery of still unknown processes and their determining factors. By their nature, they are closer to the idiographic than to the nomothetic type, although specific sociological research is often carried out in a nomothetic manner, i.e. using standardized data collection tools, large sample of respondents and statistical data processing procedures.

Do you know that...

In sociology, the concept of "field research" came from ethnology - a science that studies the composition, origin, settlement and cultural and historical relationships of the peoples of the world, their material and spiritual culture, and the peculiarities of everyday life. The first field studies were associated with the work of ethnologists who described a set of phenomena that were difficult to foresee and systematize in advance.

It should be borne in mind that field research provides only primary information, which can be significantly transformed at subsequent stages of research. In this regard, the researcher should not pass off his preliminary impressions for the results of the work. Depending on the tasks and the funds used, there are three types of field research (Fig. 3.1).

Rice. 3.1.

Search type field research is descriptive; diagnostic - aimed at solving practical problems; expert type related to hypothesis testing. The most important condition for field research is to ensure the presence of an observer that does not distort the natural course of the observed process.

Field research is carried out in accordance with the organizational and methodological plan of research, it provides a rich and varied material, but at the stage of its processing certain difficulties often arise. The qualitative methods of analysis used are quite laborious, and comparison of individual cases with each other is not always easy to carry out due to the internal heterogeneity of the material. Compared to a laboratory experiment, field research is usually associated with more significant organizational difficulties. And this is understandable if you consider that you have to get in touch with the most by different people, explain to them the objectives of the research and seek their assistance.

The antonym of the concept of "field research" is the concept "laboratory research" - research carried out in specially equipped laboratories. The equipment serves here to maintain the specified experimental regime, as well as for accurate and complete registration of the parameters under study. It ensures the completeness and reliability of the information received.

In ordinary consciousness, the laboratory environment is necessarily associated with experiment, and the natural one - with observation. In reality, the connection here is not so tight. The experiment is actually easier to carry out in the laboratory, while the various life situations provide rich material for observation. Ultimately, however, it is not the external environment, but the goals that the researcher sets and the specific techniques he uses that determine the type of research.

To clarify what has been said, let us use the example given in their textbooks by S. S. Novikova and A. V. Soloviev. Suppose we need to study the behavior of children. As you know, it can be studied both in a natural setting and in a specially equipped laboratory. Let's say we are interested in the nature of the children's play younger age, especially how children play when they are on their own. We want the presence of an observer not to affect the nature of the studied processes. In this case, the observation is convenient to carry out in a laboratory environment, which externally may differ little from the natural one. This is even good in the sense that the child is more likely to get used to it and will not be afraid. The room can look like a normal playroom. Only the presence of special devices turns it into a laboratory. Usually, it is enough to install a hidden camera or a one-way mirror, with the help of which a person in the next room can observe what is happening without being noticed.

This example shows that not every laboratory study is an experiment in the strict sense of the word. This experiment assumes active intervention of the researcher during the studied processes. In the absence of such, observation takes place, which is supported by special recording equipment and is carried out in the laboratory.

• See: S. S. Novikova, L. V. Soloviev Sociological and psychological methods research in social work: textbook, manual for higher education. M.: Academic project; Gaudeamus, 2005.S. 79.

A pilot study can be carried out for various purposes: testing the main hypotheses of the program, identifying individual characteristics of the object in order to determine the most stable ones for their further in-depth development, clarifying the effectiveness of the technique as a whole or its individual parts, preliminary verification of the reliability of the survey results, etc.

There are various forms of conducting a pilot study. It can be carried out on small and large samples. If the research program requires it, the questionnaire can be piloted with a large representative sample. In essence, such aerobatics sometimes acts as an independent empirical research, which takes no less effort and time than the main research.

However, usually a pilot study is conducted on a small area. The exact number of the surveyed in this case is not established, since in each case it may be different. Practice shows that the number of respondents most often does not exceed 50-100 people. This number of respondents is enough to solve the problems facing the pilot study. Necessary condition lies in the fact that the object of the study should be those people who, in their main characteristics, correspond to the main object of the study. In this case, the aerobatic survey is carried out not at the main object, but at another "field" that is close in its characteristics to the main one. This is done in order not to spoil the main "field" of research, since any, even the smallest, research gets resonance, and in one way or another can have an impact on the main research. So, if workers of an industrial enterprise act as the main object of research, then in a pilot survey, workers of an industrial enterprise, too, but of another enterprise, should become the object.

The order in which the pilot survey is conducted is very important. Despite the fact that the questionnaire is being prepared for a correspondence survey, in a pilot study it is better to present it in the form of a formalized interview. The advantage of a formalized interview is that, besides the fact that the results of the pilot survey will be analyzed in the aggregate of answers, it also provides direct observations of the interviewers over the response of respondents to a particular question and to the entire questionnaire as a whole. The interviewers are most often members of the research group or people specially trained for this. At the end of the survey, interviewers write short reports on the results of each interview. Although such written reports take a lot of time and effort and are not pleasant to every interviewer, they play a significant role in the pilot study. They are of great interest as a direct observation document, and their analysis is extremely important for finalizing the questionnaire. This is how one interviewer describes his experience of the survey in the pilot study.

Fragment:

"The first questions did not affect the respondent's attention, he remained indifferent to their content. Apparently, he had not yet had time to reorganize and it was clear that his thoughts still remained at his work, and we tore him off, apparently, not in the most successful But as a conscientious person, he tried to understand the questions asked to him, did not show any visible impatience and discontent and tried to do the job offered to him in good faith. To the fifth question, his attention somewhat sharpened, he had already begun to readjust to our interview and made the first remark along the way ( question No. ______). After five to seven minutes, he was already fully involved in the work and even began to show interest. The first stop we made at question No. ______ and discussed it for a long time, since he did not understand it. I carefully wrote down his proposals, and he he obviously liked it (he felt his role, significance and took an active position.) After that, he began to listen even more attentively to the questions asked and to Question No. ______ made, in my opinion, a significant comment about the specifics of the work, which was not actually reflected in the question. The questionnaire, in his expression and, I must say, fair, it seems to me, is faceless in the sense that it could be successfully used at other enterprises of a completely opposite nature of work.

The scales caused great difficulties. The respondent did not read them from the first reading, and he had to explain how to work with them. Having understood, he already calmly answered all the other scales, however, at the same time he often experienced difficulties in assessing the proposed gradations (mainly on a ten-point scale). Apparently, it is necessary to explain in more detail the rules for working with scales, and, perhaps, to revise the scales themselves.

On the whole, the questionnaire, judging by the response of the respondent and by his statements, leaves a good impression, most of the questions were understandable, and it took a little time to fill out the questionnaire, within the normalized range. "

After submitting written reports, you can conduct an oral exchange of views, which has its own characteristics. Not everything is possible to describe what can be said in an oral conversation. The collective exchange of views allows us to clarify some specific views and assessments of the questionnaire and to develop a certain collective opinion on each issue and on the questionnaire as a whole. The head of the study, who has the last word, synthesizes both written and oral reports and makes the final decision: to leave this or that question as it was or reformulate it, introduce new questions, rebuild the questionnaire, etc.

Pilot study

A trial-search type of research, which is carried out before the main one and is its simplified form. IN social psychology P. and. (working term "probing") is used to establish the required sample size, clarify the content and number of questions in the questionnaire, survey time, etc .; in P.'s testology and. (working term - "pretest") serves as a means of identifying some of the standards of the main test. P. and. - the most important part in planning any experimental psychological research: it provides the definition of the main direction, principles of organization and methods of the main research, clarifies the most important hypotheses. In Russian psychology, the term "search" is more commonly used.

A Brief Psychological Dictionary. - Rostov-on-Don: "PHOENIX". L.A. Karpenko, A. V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998 .

See what "pilot study" is in other dictionaries:

PILOT RESEARCH- see PILOT RESEARCH. Antinazi. Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009 ... Encyclopedia of Sociology

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Pilot study- (fr. piloter - to lead the plane) - preliminary research, often preceding the main one and allowing more successful planning of the latter ...

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Pilot (pilot) study- is intended to check the reliability of the methods and procedures of the main research, the scheme of organizing and conducting the survey itself and precedes it. In the process of P. and. the most optimal version (draft) of the organization's methodology is developed and ... Sociological reference book

A trial search type of research, which is carried out before the main one and is its simplified form. In psychology social research flight (working term sounding) is used to establish the required sample size, refine ... ... Great psychological encyclopedia