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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY MB 0050 [pic] Name: XXXXX Roll number: XXXX Learning centre: XXXX Subject: MB 0050- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Assignment No. : Set 1 Date of submission at learning centre: [pic] ASSIGNMENTS Subject code: MB0050 (4 credits) Marks 60 subject NAME: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Note: Each Question carries 10 marks Q1)a. Differentiate between nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales, with an example of each. b. What are the purposes of measurement in social science research? a. Types of scales: Ans) There are four types of data that may be gathered in social research, each one adding more to the next.
Thus ordinal data is also nominal, and so on. Nominal The name ‘Nominal’ comes from the Latin nomen, meaning ‘name’ and nominal data are items which are differentiated by a simple naming system. The only thing a nominal scale does is to say that items being measured have something in common, although this may not be described. Nominal items may have numbers assigned to them. This may appear ordinal but is not — these are used to simplify capture and referencing. Nominal items are usually categorical, in that they belong to a definable category, such as ’employees’. Example The number pinned on a sports person.
A set of countries. Ordinal Items on an ordinal scale are set into some kind of order by their position on the scale. This may indicate such as temporal position, superiority, etc. The order of items is often defined by assigning numbers to them to show their relative position. Letters or other sequential symbols may also be used as appropriate. Ordinal items are usually categorical, in that they belong to a definable category, such as ‘1956 marathon runners’. You cannot do arithmetic with ordinal numbers — they show sequence only. Example The first, third and fifth person in a race.
Pay bands in an organization, as denoted by A, B, C and D. Interval Interval data (also sometimes called integer) is measured along a scale in which each position is equidistant from one another. This allows for the distance between two pairs to be equivalent in some way. This is often used in psychological experiments that measure attributes along an arbitrary scale between two extremes. Interval data cannot be multiplied or divided. Example My level of happiness, rated from 1 to 10. Temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit. Ratio In a ratio scale, numbers can be compared as multiples of one another.
Thus one person can be twice as tall as another person. Important also, the number zero has meaning. Thus the difference between a person of 35 and a person 38 is the same as the difference between people who are 12 and 15. A person can also have an age of zero. Ratio data can be multiplied and divided because not only is the difference between 1 and 2 the same as between 3 and 4, but also that 4 is twice as much as 2. Interval and ratio data measure quantities and hence are quantitative. Because they can be measured on a scale, they are also called scale data. Example
A person’s weight The number of pizzas I can eat before fainting b. Purpose of measurement in social science. One of the primary purposes of classifying variables according to their level or scale of measurement is to facilitate the choice of a statistical test used to analyze the data. There are certain statistical analyses which are only meaningful for data which are measured at certain measurement scales. For example, it is generally inappropriate to compute the mean for Nominal variables. Suppose you had 20 subjects, 12 of which were male, and 8 of which were female.
If you assigned males a value of ‘1’ and females a value of ‘2’, could you compute the mean sex of subjects in your sample? It is possible to compute a mean value, but how meaningful would that be? How would you interpret a mean sex of 1. 4? When you are examining a Nominal variable such as sex, it is more appropriate to compute a statistic such as a percentage (60% of the sample was male). When a research wishes to examine the relationship or association between two variables, there are also guidelines concerning which statistical tests are appropriate.
For example, let’s say a University administrator was interested in the relationship between student gender (a Nominal variable) and major field of study (another Nominal variable). In this case, the most appropriate measure of association between gender and major would be a Chi-Square test. Let’s say our University administrator was interested in the relationship between undergraduate major and starting salary of students’ first job after graduation. In this case, salary is not a Nominal variable; it is a ratio level variable.
The appropriate test of association between undergraduate major and salary would be a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), to see if the mean starting salary is related to undergraduate major. Finally, suppose we were interested in the relationship between undergraduate grade point average and starting salary. In this case, both grade point average and starting salary are ratio level variables. Now, neither Chi-square nor ANOVA would be appropriate; instead, we would look at the relationship between these two variables using the Pearson correlation coefficient.
Q2) a. What are the sources from which one may be able to identify research problems? b. Why literature survey is important in research? Ans: Identifying research Problem This involves the identification of a general topic and formulating it into a specific research problem. It requires thorough understanding of the problem and rephrasing it in meaningful terms from an analytical point of view. Types of Research Projects • those that relate to states of nature those which relate to relationships between variables In understanding the problem, it is helpful to discuss it with colleagues or experts in the field. It is also necessary to examine conceptual and empirical literature on the subject. After the literature review, the researcher is able to focus on the problem and phrase it in analytical or operational terms. The task of defining the research problem is of greatest importance in the entire research process. Being able to define the problem unambiguously helps the researcher in discriminating relevant data from irrelevant ones.
Extensive literature review Review of literature is a systematic process that requires careful and perceptive reading and attention to detail. In the review of the literature, the researcher attempts to determine what others have learned about similar research problems. It is important in the following ways: • specifically limiting and identifying the research problem and possible hypothesis or research questions i. e. sharpening the focus of the research. • informing the researcher of what has already been done in the area. This helps to avoid exact duplication. If one had the literature and exercised enough patience and industry in reviewing available literature, it may well be that his problem has already been solved by someone somewhere some time ago and he will save himself the trouble. ” Nwana (1982). • Providing insights into possible research designs and methods of conducting the research and interpreting the results. • Providing suggestions for possible modifications in the research to avoid unanticipated difficulties. The library is the most likely physical location for the research literature.
Within the library there is access to books, periodicals, technical reports and academic theses. Other sources are the Education Index and the Educational Resources information centre (ERIC). Computer-assisted searchers of literature have become very common today. They have the advantage of comprehensiveness and speed. They are also very cost-effective in terms of time and effort although access to some of the databases requires payment. Irrespective of the sources of the literature, ethics of research require that the source is acknowledged through a clear system of referencing. . Why Literature survey is important in research? Doing a literature survey before you begin your investigation enables you to take advantage of the unique human capacity to pass on detailed written information from one generation to another. Reading all the knowledge that’s accumulated so far on the problem you want to study can be time-consuming and even tedious. But careful evaluation of that material helps make your investigation worthwhile by alerting you to knowledge already gained and problems already encountered in your areas of interest.
A literature survey amounts to reading available material on a given topic, analyzing and organizing findings, and producing a summary. There are many sources for literature reviews, including journals of general interest in each discipline, such as the American Political Science Review. There are also journals for specific topics such as the Leadership and Organization Development Journal. Governments publish great quantities of data on many topics. The United Nations and the United States Government Printing Office are two major sources.
In addition, businesses and private organizations gather and publish information you might find useful. For certain problems you may want to search through popular or non-scholarly periodicals as well. While it’s customary to include only data from sources that actually research the problem in a precise fashion, articles in more popular sources may provide interesting insight or orientations. Talking to knowledgeable people may also give you information that helps you formulate your problem. Thoroughness is the key. Most libraries have staff trained in information retrieval who can help find sources and suggest strategies to review the iterature. The Internet, of course, now allows easy access to limitless information on given topics. Thoroughness in your review means not only finding all current publications on a topic but locating earlier writing as well. There’s no easy rule for how long ago literature was published on your topic. The time varies from problem to problem. A useful way to locate past as well as current writing is to begin with the most current sources likely to contain relevant material. Then, follow these authors’ footnotes and bibliographies.
At some point in this search you’ll find the material is beginning to be only peripherally related to your current interest or that authors claim originality for their work. Of course, doing a goodliterature surveyis easier when you know a great deal about the subject already. In such a case you’d probably be familiar with publications and even other people who do research in your area of interest. But for the novice, efficient use of library/Internet services and organizing how they check sources are especially important skills. Having located literature, keeping a checklist of useful information will help you read each source.
You might ask yourself, particularly for research articles: 1. What was the exact problem studied? 2. How were the topics of interest defined? 3. What did the authors expect to find? 4. How were things measured? 5. What research did this author cite? Have you read it? 6. Who were the subjects of study? 7. What do the results show? 8. Do the data presented agree with the written conclusions? 9. What were the limitations of the study? A thorough literature survey should demonstrate that you’ve carefully read and evaluated each article or book.
Because research reports can be tedious and difficult to understand for new researchers, many tend to read others’ conclusions or summaries and take the author’s word that the data actually support the conclusions. Careful reading of both tables and text for awhile will convince you they don’t always agree. Sometimes data are grossly misinterpreted in the text, but on other occasions authors are more subtle. Consider, for example, the following statements: Fully 30 percent of the sample said they did not vote. Only 30 percent of the sample said they did not vote.
The percentage is the same, but the impression conveyed is decidedly different. Reading the actual data before accepting the author’s conclusions will help prevent some of these errors of interpretation from creeping into your own research. It’s important that after you finish your reading, you’re able to write your literature survey in a way that’s clear, organizing what you know about the content and methods used to study your problem. You may find it helpful to record information about each source on a separate card or piece of paper so that information can later be reshuffled, compared, and otherwise reorganized.
Note in most journal articles that what probably began as a long literature survey is usually condensed on the first few pages of the research report, explaining previous research on the problem and how the current study will contribute. You, too, want to add to this growing body of knowledge we call social science by a creative summary of what’s been accomplished by others as well as by your own research. Q3) a. What are the characteristics of a good research design? b. What are the components of a research design? Ans) Research Design – Definition A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose witheconomy in procedure”Is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted; it constitutes theblueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data more explicitly: i. What is the study about? ii. Why is the study being conducted? iii. Where will the study be carried out? iv. What type of data is required? v. Where can the required data be found? Components of research design http://www. google. co. in/url? a=t&rct=j&q=components%20of%20research%20design&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDIQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fposta. marmara. edu. tr%2F~sozmen%2F2003-2004%2Fresearch_methodology%2Fweek_4. doc&ei= KgOgTo-aEofqrAeFkbWNAw&usg=AFQjCNG1ctNqNjUq_ils-O4muicz4Z2eBA&sig2=RFuXRcsnlsSIOe9zWHhr5A&cad=rja 4. a. Distinguish between Doubles sampling and multiphase sampling. [ 5 marks] b. What is replicated or interpenetrating sampling? [ 5 marks] http://wiki. answers. com/Q/What_is_double_sampling http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Multistage_sampling http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Replication_(statistics) https://onlinecourses. science. psu. du/stat506/node/54 5. a. How is secondary data useful to researcher? [ 5 marks] b. What are the criteria used for evaluation of secondary data? [ 5 marks] http://www. steppingstones. ca/artman/publish/article_60. shtml http://www. change. freeuk. com/learning/resmeth/secondary. html 6. What are the differences between observation and interviewing as methods of data collection? Give two specific examples of situations where either observation or interviewing would be more appropriate. [10 marks]. • http://www. differencebetween. com/difference-between-observation-and-vs-interviewing-as-methods-of-data-collection/