Systematic Errors In Social Work

A geriatric social worker develops a very lengthy scale to assess the degree of staff sensitivity to the needs of residents in nursing homes. This scale is designed to be completed by both staff and residents. According to Rubin & Babbie (2016), this scale may be vulnerable to common sources of systematic and random error. As discussed by Rubin & Babbie (2016), sources of systematic error in measurement scales originate from biases during data collection in which a pattern emerges indicating a consistent inaccurate portrayal of the concept being measured. A bias response distorts the measurement with answers based on the respondent’s personal opinion or beliefs. There are different biases which can cause systematic errors depending upon the nature of the respondent’s answers. The acquiescent response set bias occurs “when respondents tend to agree or disagree regardless of the content of a questionnaire” (p. 142). An example …show more content…
Respondents may at times take the time to think about what answer would be more socially appropriate rather than what their actual answer is. Respondents have a tendency to give social desirability biased answers within shared intersectionalities such as gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality in which can be identified by similar answers within certain demographics that create a pattern. These patterned responses are what respondents think is expected and socially acceptable answers regardless of whether or not they are true (Rubin & Babbie, 2016, p. 142). Rubin & Babbie (2016), further discuss the other common source of error in measurement scales: random error. A random error has no patterned indication and occurs inconsistently. Many factors can cause random error in the data collection process such as misinterpretation of the question, or out of boredom on the behalf of the respondent who may just check any box randomly to get it over