Descriptive Research (I)

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Descriptive Research (I)

• Week 8 Lecture 1

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Agenda

• Quantitative Design issues
• Correlation Research
• Survey Research

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Quantitative design issues

• The language of variables and hypotheses
• Quantitative researchers redefine concepts of
  interest into the language of variables
• Attributes the values or the categories of a
  variable
• Examples
• Male, married, number of years married
• SSL, SET, PKI, security technology
• Types of variables
• Independent variable
• Dependent variable

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Quantitative design Issues

• The language of variables and hypotheses
• An expected but unconfirmed relationship between
  two or more variables
• Where do hypotheses come from
• Theory, direct observation,guess, intuition
• Two different ways of stating a hypothesis
• Looking for difference between variables
• Looking for relationship between variables

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Refinement of hypothesis

• Problem or general hypothesis
• You expect some children to read better than
  others because they come from homes in which
  there are positive values and attitudes to
  education.
• Research hypothesis
• Reading ability in nine-year-old children is
  related to parental attitudes towards education
• Operational hypothesis
• There is a significant relationship between
  reading ability for nine-year-old children as
  measured by standardized reading test X and
  parental attitudes to education as measured by
  attitude test Y

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What is descriptive research

• Identify the characteristics of an observed
  phenomenon
• Explore possible correlations among two or more
  phenomena

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Correlational Research

• Examines the extent to which differences in one
  characteristic or variable are related to
  differences in one or more other characteristics
  or variables.
• Gather data about two characteristics for a
  particular group of people or other appropriate
  units of study.

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Example of correlational research
Scattergram dynamic relationship between age and
reading level
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Interpretation

• Describe the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the
  two variables
• Describe the degree to which the two variables
  are intercorrelated
• Interpret these data and give them meaning.

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Cautions about interpreting correlational results

• Correlation does not, in and of itself indicate
  causation
• One variable correlates meaningfully with another
  only when a common causal bond links the
  phenomena of both variables in a logical
  relationship

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Survey research

• General features
• Large-scale probability sampling
• A study on snipping behavior of online auction
  took 368 eBay bidders as respondents
• Systematic Procedures Interviews and
  questionnaires
• Answers are numerically coded and analyzed with
  the aid of statistical software
• Used extensively for both descriptive and
  explanatory purposes

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Research questions appropriate for a survey

• Developed within the positivist approach to
  social science
• Self-reported beliefs or behaviors.
• Ask many things, measure many variables and test
  several hypotheses in a single survey
• Behavior
• Attitudes/beliefs/opinions
• Expectations
• Self-classification
• Knowledge

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Steps in conduction a survey

• Step 1 Questionnaire design
• Develop hypotheses
• Decide on type of survey (mail, interview,
  telephone)
• Write survey questions
• Decide on response categories
• Design layout
• Step 2 Pilot test
• Plan how to record data
• Pilot test survey instrument
• Step 3 Sampling
• Decide on target population
• Get sampling frame
• Decide on sample size
• Select sample

• Step 4 Data collection
• Locate respondents
• Conduct interviews (distribute questionnaire)
• Carefully record data
• Step 5 Data analysis
• Enter data into computers
• Recheck all data
• Perform statistical analysis on data
• Step 6 Writing up
• Describe methods and findings in research report
• Present findings to others for critique and
  evaluation

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Types of surveys

• Self-administrated Questionnaires
• Hand delivered
• Mail survey
• Web survey
• Face-to-face and Telephone interviews
• Structured interview
• The researcher asks a standard set of questions
  and nothing more
• Semi-structured interview
• The researcher may follow the standard questions
  with one or more individually tailored questions
  to get clarification or probe a persons reasoning

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Questionnaire item styles

• Open-ended question
• Respondents answer in their own words
• Closed-ended question
• Respondents choose a response from those provided
• Examples
• What drives you to bid in the last minutes in a
  second-price auction? (OPEN)
• Which one of the factors listed below drives you
  to bid in the last minutes? (CLOSE)
• () Checking around if there are other auctions
  offering the same item
• () Dont want other bidders get benefit from my
  expertise of the auction item
• () Avoid bidding war
• () Other _____________(please explain)

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Open vs. closed

• Open-ended question
• Great freedom for respondent to answer
• Responses may be ambiguous
• Coding is time-consuming and costly which usually
  results in some degree of error
• Entail more work from respondents
• Closed-ended question
• Require less effort and less facility with words
• Difficult to develop good closed questions
• Recommendation for designing closed-end question
  use open questions in preliminary interviews or
  pretests

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Ranking and scaling

• Rank-ordering questions
• Rating scale questions
• Respondents are asked to indicate the degree of
  their agreement or disagreement with a statement

Rank-order the most important things you want in the job you make your lifes work? (1 indicates the most important one 4 the least important one) Rank-order the most important things you want in the job you make your lifes work? (1 indicates the most important one 4 the least important one)
______ Making a lot of money
______ Being creative
______ Being free from supervision
______ Having opportunities for advancement
Whats your overall reaction to the present Bear Lake bus system Whats your overall reaction to the present Bear Lake bus system Whats your overall reaction to the present Bear Lake bus system Whats your overall reaction to the present Bear Lake bus system Whats your overall reaction to the present Bear Lake bus system
1 2 3 4 5
Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied
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Using language effectively

• Are the items unambiguous, easily read and
  sufficiently brief
• Avoid indefinite words such as usually,
  seldom, many, few, here, there
• Avoid false premises

How often do you use Internet? (bad example) How often do you use Internet? (bad example)
() Seldom or never
() Often
() Very often
The post office is open too many hours. Do you want it to open four hours later or close four hours earlier each day? (bad example) The post office is open too many hours. Do you want it to open four hours later or close four hours earlier each day? (bad example)
() Open four hours later
() Close four hours early
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Using language effectively(II)

• Avoid double-barreled question two separate
  ideas are presented together as a unit
• The system is easy to use and helpful
• Avoid overlapping or unbalanced response
  categories.

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Questionnaire design issues

• Length of survey or questionnaire
• Question order or sequence
• Opening, middle and ending questions
• Group questions on the same topic together.
• Order effect
• Format and Layout
• Noresponse
• The percentage of people who have and have not
  consented to participate
• Those who agreed or refused to be interviewed
• Those who have or have not returned questionnaire

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Question order effect
Question Order Effects Question Order Effects Question Order Effects
Question 1 Do you think that the United States should let communist newspaper reporters from other countries come in here and send back to their papers the news as they see it? Question 1 Do you think that the United States should let communist newspaper reporters from other countries come in here and send back to their papers the news as they see it? Question 1 Do you think that the United States should let communist newspaper reporters from other countries come in here and send back to their papers the news as they see it?
Question 2 Do you think a Communist country like Russia should let American newspaper reporters come in and send back to America the news as they see it? Question 2 Do you think a Communist country like Russia should let American newspaper reporters come in and send back to America the news as they see it? Question 2 Do you think a Communist country like Russia should let American newspaper reporters come in and send back to America the news as they see it?
PERCENTAGE SAYING YES PERCENTAGE SAYING YES PERCENTAGE SAYING YES
Heard first Yes to 1 (Communist Report) Yes to 2 (American Reporter)
Question 1 54 75
Question 2 64 82
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Analyzing one variable

• Univariate frequency distribution

Degree of satisfaction Degree of satisfaction Frequency Percent Cumulative percent
Very satisfied 1 23 16.4 16.4
2 71 50.7 67.1
3 19 13.6 80.7
4 14 10.0 90.7
5 11 7.9 98.6
Very disatisfied 6 2 1.4 100.0
Total Total 140 100
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Being critique on survey results

• The items to include when reporting survey
  research
• The sampling frame used
• The date on which the survey was conducted
• The population that the sample represents
• The size of the sample for which information was
  collected
• The sampling methods
• The exact wording of the questions asked
• The method of the survey
• The organizations that sponsored the survey
• The response rate
• Any missing information or dont know responses
  when results on specific questions are reported

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Summary

• Quantitative design issues
• Language of variables and hypotheses
• Correlational research
• Scattergram and its interpretation
• Survey research
• Steps
• Different types of survey
• Design of questionnaire
• Preliminary analysis of survey data