Part 1: Please respond to each question briefly and concisely, but as completely as you can.
What is (are) the purpose(s) of research? Explain your answer.
Research allows us to better understand what is unknown, how a human thinks, why a dog barks when they hear a stranger approaching or that the earth is round and not flat. Research allows us to find answers to the questions we have. Research attempts to both understand and define. There are three kinds of research; Explanatory; Exploratory and Descriptive research. Explanatory, Exploratory and Descriptive research define what research is; Research is the attempt to explain, explore and describe (Neuman, 2006, 24).
Identify the three (3) formal research designs and specify the nature
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Why is it important? In which section of a research proposal do we identify the operational definitions of variables?
An operational definition of a variable is the way in which ‘something’ will be measured in said study. It is important because it distinguishes research from one another; for example two researchers may be studying the same exact thing but by having a different operational definition of the variable they are now conducting two completely different studies. The operational definition of a variable is identified in the research proposal; usually within the first couple of sentences of the research purpose. Identify and define the four scales of “Natural Measurement”. How are they interrelated? How do they relate to inferential (causal) statistics? Is there a preferred level of measurement? Why or why not?
Nominal-Level: Indicates the levels in between categories (Ex: Religions) (Neuman, 2006, 199).
Ordinal-Level: The differences and the ability to rank them.
Interval-Level: Indicates the levels between categories, ranks them and specifies the amount between each rank; does not have a true zero (Ex: IQ
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Sensitivity: The ability for the scale to measure both the response and stimuli without being affected.
It is possible for a measure to have one and not all of the above criteria’s. If it lacks one of the measurements the chances of the study/research lacking credibility are higher.
What is different about attitude measurement compared to other phenomena we might study? What does this require us to do differently in defining variables compared to the measurement of other phenomena? Is there any characteristic of the survey method that makes this problem easier to overcome?
Attitude measurement is when a research is studying the reaction of participants to a certain phenomena; while when studying a phenomena you are attempting to explore and describe it. When measuring a phenomena the variables are clear and known while with attitude measurement they are not. In order to overcome the lack of control over the variable within attitude measurements you can create a clear responses that respondents choose from (Ex: unsatisfactory, satisfactory,
An operational definition means that someone can pick up your notebook and know exactly what to do, without error. We need to use them so that we may measure lengths and widths.
Measurement validity can be described as ensuring the experiment measures the desired variable rather than accidentally measuring some other variable. Measurement validity consists of several aspects such as: face validity, criterion validity, and construct validity. If an experiment has strong face validity, it would mean that on a surface level, or at face value, it appears as if it would measure the intended variable. For an experiment to have strong construct validity, would mean that a
One of the questions were How do your race and gender impact status in American society? (q162). The answers that were able to be selected were “My race matters more (1), my gender matters more (2), My race and gender matter equally (3), or Neither one matters much at all (4). The operational definition is trying to measure the self-report of how important gender and race impacts people’s status. This is a good operational measure of my concept because used in cross tabulations with race or gender it shows if more people who are impacted by their race and gender notice that it does impact people’s status in American society.
In order to calculate the aggregate attitude scores for the five attitudinal items, variables one, three and five were recoded into new numeric values in order to reflect an accurate distribution. Using the new values, the sum of the five attitudinal items were determined with the expression SUM (att1 to att5). The total attitude
The level of measurement of the dependent variable influences the choice of statistical tests used to analyze the data. The simplest level of measurement is Nominal and the numbers as well as words and letters can be used to classify the data. An example is the two different genders, the female gender is classified as F, and the male gender is classified as M. The ordinal level of measurement showed in order such as rank. the ratio between any two types of rankings is different along the scale. The interval level of measurement does not only classify, place things in orders but it specifies that the equivalent along the scale from low interval to high interval. The ratio measurement is complex and can have a value of zero. In the ratio level of measurement, the divisions between the points have distance, and placed according to their size. (Grove, Burns, and Gray,
Before one can begin their research, they have to decide what it is they are going to be getting a deeper understanding on. This all starts with a theory. A theory is an observation of someone or something that the researcher wishes to further expand their knowledge upon. Once it has been established what will be studied, a well thought out hypothesis must be formulated. A hypothesis is an if-then statement, where if represents the particular behavior being observed and the then is acting as the result of the behavior being observed. Now, the experimenter must write up what is called an operational definition. This is a way in which future researchers can accurately replicate (which means to perform the same experiment and get the same result) the experiment. Once all of these steps have been carefully
Instrumentation is concerned a lack of consistency in the measuring instrument that could account for invalid results of a research study. This threat is most likely to occur when two different forms are used for the pre and post tests or if the instrument is constructed poorly. (Creswell, 2009).
1b) An operational definition of the dependent variable are the different amounts of the energy drink that effect the participants capabilities of performing successfully depending on their scores of the multiplication task.
Possible Problems with Attempting to Measure Attitudes The question what problems might arise in trying to measure attitudes itself conjures up many complicated questions that seem tricky to answer. The complicated task is that we are all unique and have our individual differences. A basic assumption on measuring attitudes is that ‘a person’s attitude can be measured by asking questions about thoughts, feelings and likely actions toward the attitude object (Hoff and Vaughan, 1995, Chapter 5)
Attitude can play a part in the variables that make up these types of scales: from Nominal to Ratio. The general attitude scale will involve measurement in the same aspect of taking someone’s temperature or providing distance between
An attitude survey is a test or survey on the feelings of a population on a specific product, or company. These surveys can be useful for recognizing markets, and learning what demographics a company needs to concentrate on to uphold or increase sales, and measuring the market effect of announcements or events. Consistency is looked for more among attitudes and behavior.
Attitudes can affect whether or not an employee is satisfied or dissatisfied with their employer or scope of employment. Workplace attitudes can be triggered by many different components based on interactions, situations, and preferences. Valves and attitudes should mean something to an organization. After all, they will affect all levels of the organization.
The researchers defined following terms in order to have a better understanding about the study.
Attitude is a major factor affecting behaviour. Attitude is an evaluate statements or judgements concerning objects, people or events. Attitudes are evaluates statements- either favourable or unfavourable-concerning objects, people, or events. They reflects how one feels about something. Attitudes are not the same as values, but the two are interrelated.
The research problem should identify the need for the research, provide focus, show the possibility of an empirical investigation, as well as provide a brief research overview. This implies that the research problem should interest the researcher which would serve as an important