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Evaluating service quality: a comparison of diaries with direct observation
Author(s) -
Joyce Theresa,
Mansell Jim,
Gray Helen
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
mental handicap research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1468-3148
pISSN - 0952-9608
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3148.1989.tb00013.x
Subject(s) - psychology , quality (philosophy) , sampling (signal processing) , statistics , applied psychology , service (business) , mathematics , computer science , business , marketing , computer vision , philosophy , filter (signal processing) , epistemology
ABSTRACT Structured diaries describing the activity of three people with mental handicaps were kept by direct‐care staff and compared with results of simultaneous direct observation using five‐second momentary time‐sampling. Item‐by‐item agreement on main activity in five‐minute time blocks ranged from 41 to 72 per cent. Even averaged across three‐hour sessions substantial inaccuracy remained. These results suggest great caution is needed in using diaries as a source of evaluative data.