Assignment Papers 2 Semister II
Assignment Papers 2 Semister II
Q 1. Define questionnaire and describe the characteristics, uses and limitations of questionnaire.
Ans.
Definition:
A questionnaire is a formalized set of questions designed to obtain information from the respondents
or the subjects selected for a study. It is an instrument that is generally handed over to the respondents
and filled in by them with no help from the interviewer or any other person.
A questionnaire is a specific type of survey instrument that consists of a set of questions designed to
gather information or data from individuals or groups. It is a structured tool used to collect responses
systematically and standardized. In essence, a questionnaire is a type of survey that uses a standardized
set of questions.
Characteristics:
A questionnaire has three specific characteristics.
1. It must translate the information needed into a set of specific questions that the respondents
can and will answer.
2. It must uplift, motivate, and encourage the respondents to become involved in the interview
and complete the interview.
3. It should minimize the response as well as other types of errors.
Postal: Postal questionnaires are paper surveys that participants receive through the mail.
Once respondents complete the survey, they mail them back to the organization that sent
them.
In-house: In this type of questionnaire, researchers visit respondents in their homes or
workplaces and administer the survey in person.
Telephone: With telephone surveys, researchers call respondents and conduct the
questionnaire over the phone.
Electronic: Perhaps the most common type of questionnaire, electronic surveys are presented
via email or through a different online medium.
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Uses of questionnaire:
The main and most common purpose of making use of a questionnaire is to gather data from a
respondent (such as a company employee). It’s an advantageous method since it’s a quick way to
gather data even if the researcher isn’t present to collect them firsthand. This advantage is especially
common in self-administered questionnaires.
Advantages of Questionnaires
Disadvantages of Questionnaires
Answer dishonesty: Respondents may not always be completely truthful with their answers —
some may have hidden agendas, while others may answer how they think society would deem
most acceptable.
Question skipping: Make sure to require answers for all your survey questions. Otherwise, you
may run the risk of respondents leaving questions unanswered.
Interpretation difficulties: If a question isn’t straightforward enough, respondents may struggle
to interpret it accurately. That’s why it’s important to state questions clearly and concisely,
with explanations when necessary.
Ans.
Research Tools can be defined as vehicles that broadly facilitate research and related activities. They
enable researchers to collect, organize, analyze, visualize and publicized research outputs.
Research Tools consists of a hierarchical set of nodes. It has four main nodes:
1. Searching the literature,
2. Writing a paper,
3. Targeting suitable journals, and
4. Enhancing visibility and impact of the research.
Data collection is an important part of research. To collect the requisite data for any theme of research
you must devise appropriate tools and use suitable measuring techniques and decide on the relevant
attributes of the samples drawn. There are several research tools, varying in design. operation,
complexity of features, and interpretation. In certain situations, you may select from a list of available
tools. In other situations, you may find that existing research tools do not suit your purpose or
objective of research and, therefore, you may like to modify them or develop your own. Each tool is
appropriate for collecting a particular type of data or information which lends itself to a particular type
of analysis and interpretation for drawing meaningful conclusions and generalizations. For this, you
need to familiarize yourself with the nature, merits, and limitations of various research tools. In this
and the subsequent unit we shall focus on the characteristics, types, uses and limitations of some
commonly used research tools - Questionnaires, interviews, observations, rating scales. attitude scales
and tests.
Characteristics of a good research tool
There are mainly three characteristics of a good research tool. These include validity, reliability, and
usability. In selecting tools for collecting data a researcher should evaluate them in terms of these
characteristics. Let us discuss these one by one.
Validity
A tool used for collecting data must provide information that is not only relevant but free from
systematic errors. In other words, it must produce only valid information and measure what it claims to
measure. For example, an achievement test in nutrition must measure knowledge of students in
nutrition alone. It should not turn out to be a language test. If a question on food frequency
questionnaire is asked, and a certain student well versed in the English language writes a good 'essay'
on it, the researcher should not end up measuring the language ability of the student.
A tool, however, does not possess universal validity. It may be valid in one situation out not in another.
The tool useful in deciding in a particular research situation may have no use at all for a different
situation. So, instead of asking, "Is this research tool valid?" It is important to ask the more pertinent
question, "How valid a particular tool is for collecting information which the researcher needs to
gather? Or, more generally, "For what decision is this tool valid? There are three types of validity,
Ans.
Simply, the validity of the measuring instrument represents the degree to which the scale measures
what it is expected to measure. It is not same as reliability, which refers to the degree to which
measurement produces consistent outcomes.
For the purpose of checking the accuracy and applicability, a multi-item measurement scale needs to
be evaluated, in terms of reliability, validity, and generalizability. These are certain preferred qualities
which gauge the goodness in measuring the characteristics under consideration. Validity is all about the
genuineness of the research, whereas reliability is nothing but the repeatability of the outcomes. This
article will break down the fundamental differences between validity and reliability.
Definition of Validity
In statistics, the term validity implies utility. It is the most important yardstick that signals the degree to
which research instrument gauges, what it is supposed to measure.
Simply, it measures the point to which differences discovered with the scale reflect true differences,
among objects on the characteristics under study, instead of a systematic and random error. To be
considered as perfectly valid, it should not possess any measurement error.
Definition of Reliability
Reliability is used to mean the extent to which the measurement tool provides consistent outcomes if
the measurement is repeatedly performed. To assess reliability approaches used are test-retest,
internal consistency methods, and alternative forms.
VALIDITY RELIABILITY
Validity implies the extent to which the Reliability refers to the degree to which assessment tool
research instrument measures, what it is produces consistent results, when repeated
intended to measure. measurements are made.
It refers to the ability of the instrument/test to It refers to the reproducibility of the results when
measure what it is supposed to measure repeated measurements are done
It relates to the correct applicability of the
instrument/test/procedure in a needed It relates to the extent to which an experiment, test or
situation any procedure gives the same result on repeated trials.
Can relate to question of ‘Does it measure what Can relate to question, ‘How representative is the
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it is supposed to measure’? measurement’?
Answers, ‘Is it the right instrument/test for Answers, ‘Can the results obtained be replicated if the
what I need to measure?’ test is repeated?’
Validity looks at accuracy Reliability looks at repeatability/consistency
Reliability mainly focuses on maintaining consistent
Validity mainly focuses on the outcome result
Influencing factors for validity are: process,
purpose, theory matters, logical implications, Influencing factors for reliability are: test length, test
etc. score variability, heterogenicity, etc.
Validity has more analysis and is harder to Reliability is comparatively easier and yields faster
achieve. results.
There cannot be validity without reliability There can be reliability without validity.
Even if validity of an instrument is poor (for When reliability/repeatability is poor, validity may also
certain test), it can have high reliability (for be poor. Thus, usefulness of a test/experiments are
other tests) negligible.
If the results are not valid, the test is of no use
at all If the results cannot be replicated, the test is of little use
Examples of different types of validity are:
Face validity
Construct validity
To sum up the following points explains the fundamental differences between validity and reliability:
1. The degree to which the scale gauges, what it is designed to gauge, is known as validity. On the
other hand, reliability refers to the degree of reproducibility of the results, if repeated
measurements are done.
2. When it comes to the instrument, a valid instrument is always reliable, but the reverse is not
true, i.e. a reliable instrument need not be a valid instrument.
3. While evaluating multi-item scale, validity is considered more valuable in comparison to
reliability.
4. One can easily assess the reliability of the measuring instrument, however, to assess validity is
difficult.
5. Validity focuses on accuracy, i.e. it checks whether the scale produces expected results or not.
Conversely, reliability concentrates on precision, which measures the extent to which scale
produces consistent outcomes.
Conclusion
To conclude, validity and reliability are two vital test of sound measurement. Reliability of the
instrument can be evaluated by identifying the proportion of systematic variation in the instrument. On
the other hand, the validity of the instrument is assessed by determining the degree to which variation
in observed scale score indicates actual variation among those being tested.
Ans.
Data analysis is one of the most flourishing fields right now as businesses around the world are trying to
make sense of their data. However, there are several data analysis tools available in the market. Here,
we will discuss about the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).
SPSS was originally launched in 1968 by SPSS Inc., and IBM acquired it in 2009. SPSS is popular because
of its simplicity, easy-to-follow command language, and well-documented user manual. Government
entities, educational institutions, survey companies, market researchers, marketing organizations,
health researchers, data miners, and many others use it for analyzing survey data.
2. Thanks to SPSS’ Data Mining Manager, its users can conduct smart searches, extract
hidden information with the help of decision trees, design neural networks of artificial
intelligence, and market segmentation.
3. SPSS software can be used to solve algebraic, arithmetic, and trigonometric operations.
4. SPSS’s Report Generator feature lets you prepare attractive reports of investigations. It
incorporates text, tables, graphs, and statistical results of the report in the same file.
1. Variable View
2. Data View
Variable View
Name: It is a column field that accepts a unique ID that helps in sorting the data. Some
of the parameters for sorting data are name, gender, sex, educational qualification,
designation, etc.
Label: It gives the label and allows you to add special characters.
Type: It is useful to differentiate the type of data that is being used.
Width: The length of the characters can be measured here.
Decimal: It helps us understand how to define the digits required after the decimal.
Value: The user enters the value here.
Missing: Data that is unnecessary for analysis will be ignored.
Align: As the name suggests, it is for alignment-left or right.
Measure: It measures the data that is being entered in the tools, such as cardinal,
ordinal, and nominal.
Data View
The data view is displayed as rows and columns. You can import a file or add data manually.
In SPSS, users are not forced to work with syntax, even though syntax files can be saved and modified
as needed. When there are saved syntax files, it helps immensely with documentation and also gives an
idea of how the new variables were calculated and how values that were missing were handled.
SPSS users can select the graph type which matches their data distribution requirement.
If researchers collect data using faulty or biased methods, then the resulting statistical analysis will not
give the right answers. If the gap between the sample and the actual population is negligent, then
there is no issue. But if the difference is big, then it will produce misleading data.
When researchers do not measure the exact thing that they want to measure, then the SPSS analysis
will not fail.
One more issue with using a statistical analysis tool such as SPSS is that it ends up giving you simple
answers for complex issues.
Conclusion
SPSS helps scientists, researchers, business analysts, managers, and marketers during the entire
analytics process, starting from planning, data collection, data analysis, report creation, and
deployment. No matter what your business objectives are if you have a bunch of data that you want to
analyze, SPSS is one of the best statistical analysis tools that you can use.
Submitted by : Snigdha Tripathy
Registration No : 222501039 Enrollment No : 13ED221MD012
Q 15. Differentiate between quantitative and qualitative research?
Ans.
Research is the most widely used tool to increase and brush-up the stock of knowledge about
something and someone. In the field of marketing, business, sociology, psychology, science &
technology, economics, etc. there are two standard ways of conducting research, i.e. qualitative
research or quantitative research. While the qualitative research relies on verbal narrative like spoken
or written data, the quantitative research uses logical or statistical observations to draw conclusions.
In qualitative research, there are only a few non-representative cases are used as a sample to develop
an initial understanding. Unlike, quantitative research in which a sufficient number of representative
cases are taken to consideration to recommend a final course of action.
There is a never-ending debate on, which research is better than the other, so in this article, we are
going to shed light on the difference between qualitative and quantitative research.
Qualitative research is one which provides insights and understanding of the problem setting. It is an
unstructured, exploratory research method that studies highly complex phenomena that are
impossible to elucidate with the quantitative research. Although, it generates ideas or hypothesis for
later quantitative research.
Quantitative research is a form of research that relies on the methods of natural sciences, which
produces numerical data and hard facts. It aims at establishing cause and effect relationship between
two variables by using mathematical, computational, and statistical methods. The research is also
known as empirical research as it can be accurately and precisely measured.
The differences between qualitative and quantitative research are provided can be drawn clearly on
the following grounds:
1. Qualitative research is a method of inquiry that develops understanding on human and social
sciences, to find the way people think and feel. A scientific and empirical research method that
is used to generate numerical data, by employing statistical, logical and mathematical
technique is called quantitative research.
2. Qualitative research is holistic in nature while quantitative research is particularistic.
3. The qualitative research follows a subjective approach as the researcher is intimately involved,
whereas the approach of quantitative research is objective, as the researcher is uninvolved and
attempts to precise the observations and analysis on the topic to answer the inquiry.
4. Qualitative research is exploratory. As opposed to quantitative research which is conclusive.
5. The reasoning used to synthesise data in qualitative research is inductive whereas in the case
of quantitative research the reasoning is deductive.
6. Qualitative research is based on purposive sampling, where a small sample size is selected with
a view to get a thorough understanding of the target concept. On the other hand, quantitative
research relies on random sampling; wherein a large representative sample is chosen in order
to extrapolate the results to the whole population.
7. Verbal data are collected in qualitative research. Conversely, in quantitative research
measurable data is gathered.
8. Inquiry in qualitative research is a process-oriented, which is not in the case of quantitative
research.
9. Elements used in the analysis of qualitative research are words, pictures, and objects while that
of quantitative research is numerical data.
10. Qualitative Research is conducted with the aim of exploring and discovering ideas used in the
ongoing processes. As opposed to quantitative research the purpose is to examine cause and
effect relationship between variables.
11. Lastly, the methods used in qualitative research are in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc. In
contrast, the methods of conducting quantitative research are structured interviews and
observations.
12. Qualitative Research develops the initial understanding whereas quantitative research
recommends a final course of action.
Conclusion
An ideal research is one, which is conducted by considering both the methods, together. Although,
there are some particular areas which require, only one type of research which mainly depends on the
information required by the researcher. While qualitative research tends to be interpretative,
quantitative research is concrete.