Step 5: Analyzing Data

Data analysis follows the collection stage. It is important to note that the analysis of data should be closely connected with the overall purpose and scope of the profile. The data should relate to and answer the social issues questions identified in Step 1. If statistical comparisons or inferences are to be made, a consultant familiar with statistical techniques should review the results. Agency or County Extension personnel or university researchers serving on a technical advisory committee could be utilized for this purpose.

Selective Interpretation

Once the indicator data is found, questions about its interpretation should arise. You may wonder if the data has a positive or negative meaning. For example, you may ask how many employment types in the community determines a diverse economy; or does this level of citizen involvement mean that our community will be able to support a watershed effort? Comparing your data to state and national averages might be interesting, but it is not going to help you answer these questions. When information about a variety of conditions is combined to form a social profile, each community becomes unique and beyond comparison. In essence, you will rely on your own subjective interpretation of the indicator data and create your own unique standard of comparison, based on your personal familiarity with your community and the goals and values in your community. The more involved the watershed manager and committee are in the creation of the profile, the more their expertise can contribute to analysis and interpretation of the data as either positive or negative.

Trends

Another strategy might be to focus on trends. Declining or growing trends in land use, community capacity, and economic vitality often can be interpreted easily as good or bad depending on community values and goals. Classifying landowner attitudes as positive, neutral, or negative is part of the questioning process itself. Most survey questions ask the respondents to summarize and express their opinions on a positive-negative attitudinal scale that, again, is interpreted easily as good or bad, depending on community values and goals.

At this point it is good to recall the purpose and scope of your social profile. The purpose of your profile and your collected data is to provide a snapshot of current conditions and issues in the community that will help the watershed committee identify stakeholders; identify issues and concerns that are to be addressed in the plan or planning process; and identify strategies for implementing the plan.

Survey Analysis

You should also consult with your survey professional when it is time to analyze and interpret your survey results. Depending on the size of your questionnaire and sample, it may be necessary to use specially designed computer software for this task. [If you use the survey questions that we provide, you may also use our analysis tool contained on this website to tabulate your results.] For smaller samples and for those proficient with basic spreadsheet software, programs such as Microsoft Excel may suffice. Using programs such as Excel, however, will require special attention to detail in setting up your worksheets and entering your data. On the Tools menu, Excel provides Data Analysis options that perform basic statistical analyses. The data analysis options are available by loading the Analysis ToolPak from the program disk. Again, you should be familiar with each statistic to determine what is the best way to analyze and represent your data.

In most cases, you will want to know the mean response and standard deviation for each question. However, the mean alone often does not tell the whole story. A mean can be derived from several different response patterns. For example, identical means can result when most respondents answer the same way or also when respondents reply equally to opposite extremes. So although the same mean resulted, the former pattern indicates an agreement on the issue while the later response pattern indicates a division in opinion on the issue. For this reason, you also will want to report the percentage of respondents who replied to each response category (i.e., the percentages of respondents who answered each question positively, negatively, and neutral). Sometimes you may also want to compare the reply of one type of respondent to another type of respondent. In this case, your consultant can help you determine if this is feasible based on the sample size of each respondent type and can help you determine which statistic to use to make the comparison.

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