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FORM 5.5 Individual Form for Free List by Attribute (M2)

FORM 5.6 Times Each Food Item Was Mentioned by Attribute (M2)

FORM 5.7 Summary of Food Most to Least Often Mentioned by Attribute (M2)

Preparation of Materials for the Rating Task

Use the same set of cards with food pictures that was used in the pile sort task. Before beginning the interview, you will need to select the attributes or concepts about which you wish the foods to be rated. You may want to get people's ratings of foods on concepts such as hot, cold, strengthening, healthful, nutritious, vitamin-rich, good for children, good for the eyes, etc. Of course, you will only use concepts that are appropriate in the local language(s)-those that have emic meaning and that you discovered in your key-informant interviews, pile sort, attribute module, and other interviews.

Select four attributes that you would like to learn more about, attributes that you have identified as important- to the food culture of the community, or attributes that are most frequently associated with vitamin A-rich food. You may also want to choose an attribute(s) that you consider important and has not been mentioned by the respondents. Most of the attributes you select should have positive features or meaning(s) to the community, but include at least one attribute with a negative connotation. Another criteria is to select attributes that are most appropriate for the target groups, i.e., women and children. It is also important to keep in mind that since you are working with a small sample of respondents you want to limit the number of attributes.

Select three or four attributes that the team has chosen to explore and go through the module with the respondents. If you find, as you administer the module, that it is not necessary to gather additional information on one attribute, move on to another attribute that you have identified as potentially interesting. Always keep in mind that your goal is to gather more detailed information regarding people's perceptions and culturally-assigned beliefs about the key foods.

You may notice, for example, that certain concepts are gender and age specific. Women may associate some foods as making one energetic, or as being dangerous for the baby. Differences by socioeconomic status, gender, or ethnic group can be explored in terms of their ratings of foods. At the same time, this task produces additional information about the foods themselves.

This module should take about fifteen minutes per attribute.

Administering the Task

i. Explain to your respondent that you would like to conduct another interview or task. Tell her that you would like to get her opinion concerning concepts and attributes as they relate to the same list of food items employed during the pile sort and attribute modules.
ii. Place the cards face-up on a flat surface in front of the respondent, leaving room for the gameboard, perhaps slightly to the side.
iii. Explain the gameboard by pointing first to the left end of the board and saying, "This is the least, or lowest, or worst," then point to the other end saying, "This is the most or the best," for example, the "most delicious, or best tasting." Then point to the middle depression or slot and say, "Here in the middle is the average or the intermediate."
iv. If you find, during pretesting, that people have difficulties in understanding the task, then choose an obvious, nonfood example from a different domain of information and demonstrate.

For example: "Let us take size of animals. Suppose I were to ask you to rate the elephant, horse, cow, dog, cat, mouse, and some other animals from very big to very little. (Demonstrate with a prepared set of cards). The elephant is the biggest, so you would put it here (at the right hand extreme of the board). And then the mouse would be over here (extreme left) because it is the very smallest. Now, where would you put the horse?" Continue with this demonstration if you feel the person does not yet fully understand.
v. Use a separate form for each concept or attribute the respondents rated. Put the attribute name on Form 6.1. Tell your informant that you are interested in seeing how she would rate the food items according to, for example, their taste. Explain that to the extreme left you would like her to place a food item which is good tasting and to the extreme right a food item which is not so good tasting.

FORM 6.2 Rating of Food Attributes by Individuals (M3)

Discussion as to why the respondent answered as she did:

vi. Once the respondent has placed a food item at each extreme, ask her to identify a food which could be positioned in between the food which is good tasting and the food which is not so good tasting.
vii. Next ask the informant to choose a food which she feels fits between the middle food and the food which is the least good tasting.
viii. To complete the range, ask the informant to choose a food that falls between the food with middling or average tastiness and the very good tasting food.
ix. Continue the module by asking the respondent to rank the rest of the foods placed in front of him or her in the same fashion. If you find that the respondent has difficulty ranking all of the foods you may need to give encouragement and reminders on which attribute is being ranked. An approach that has worked well at the field level has been to ask the respondents whether the remaining foods have fiends or companions that have already been ranked according to the particular attribute in question. At the same time, avoid forcing a choice. If you find that the respondent is unable to complete ranking all of the food items move on to the next attribute.
x. Once the module has been completed and all twenty-five to thirty foods have been rated, record the responses on Form 6.1, including one food item and its number in each box. Fill in the range of scale from most to least. Ask the respondent to explain why she ranked the foods as she did and write the responses at the bottom of Form 6.1.
xi. When the responses have been recorded, select a different attribute or concept that you have identified as being associated with vitamin A-rich food, and go through the same module.
xii. Go through two to four attributes per respondent.

Procedures for Analyzing the Data

i. Go through Forms 6.1 and record the responses on Form 6.2. You will need several copies of Form 6.2.
ii. Once you have recorded all of the food items, calculate the responses on Form 6.3 by adding the number of times a food item was mentioned under a specific range for each concept. Jot down the food name and the number of times it was mentioned within each range in the appropriate box directly next to the food item. Again, you will use one form for each attribute or concept.
iii. Go through the answers responding to why the respondents replied as they did. On a separate piece of paper write down answers which appear to be important or responses which constitute new ideas or concepts.

Continued

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