13.07.2015 Views

PRACTICING PRECAUTION and ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT ...

PRACTICING PRECAUTION and ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT ...

PRACTICING PRECAUTION and ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS
  • No tags were found...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Figure 1. The raw data from the questionnaires were centered at 0, <strong>and</strong> plotted againstquestion index (the depth of the question in the questionnaire). Narrowed sectionscorrespond to true/false or 1/0 responses, <strong>and</strong> the broader areas to questions with a 0-7response scale.However, no easily-discernable patterns are visible in Figure 1. The variation in response fromquestion to question is much greater than any general patterns that might distinguish the fourcases. An alternative representation of the data plots the centered partial sum process againstquestion index,ni.e. S(n)=∑( X i− X ) ),i=1– a technique frequently used in statistical quality control to detect out-of-control manufacturingprocesses. If there is a general positive bias for one case versus another, we should see a gradualseparation of the data points in the graph of S(n) against n. This is shown in Figure 2. That graphapparently shows that the forestry case study (R) separates from the other three, <strong>and</strong> that theGMO case (G) is somewhat distinct from the pesticide (P) <strong>and</strong> fisheries (F) cases. Similargraphs can be computed for each of the 5 parts of the questionnaire separately to highlight thedistinct patterns within each of those parts. These are provided in Figures 3 through 7. The Part Igraph is inconclusive. One can see that the forestry case lies above all the others for Parts II, III<strong>and</strong> IV. The pesticide case lies below or close to the bottom of the graphs for Parts II through V.Generally, the fisheries case is frequently a moderate one in the graphs. Of course, one must stillquestion whether the differences are due to the cases or the raters, <strong>and</strong> these observations arepurely tentative.André Dabrowski – Commentary <strong>and</strong> Analysis of Research Questionnaires E-11Exploratory Data Analysis of the Institutional Questionnaire

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!