The Main Types Of Social Enquiry Psychology Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Research is the systematic investigation and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.Main types of social enquiry. Social Inquiry provides students with a broad overview of modern social theory and approaches, addressing themes common across disciplines in the social sciences-especially sociology, politics, economics, and anthropology.

Case study

A careful study of some social unit (as a corporation or division within a corporation) that attempts to determine what factors led to its success or failure, report, written report, study or a written document describing the findings of some individual or group; this accords with the recent study.

Cross sectional

Cross-sectional research is a research method often used in developmental psychology, but also utilized in many other areas including social science and education. This type of study utilizes different groups of people who differ in the variable of interest, but share other characteristics such as socioeconomic status, educational background, and ethnicity.

For example, researchers studying developmental psychology might select groups of people who are remarkably similar in most areas, but differ only in age. By doing this, any differences between groups can presumably be attributed to age differences rather than to other variables.

Longitudinal

Longitudinal research is a type of research method used to discover relationships between variables that are not related to various background variables. This observational research technique involves studying the same group of individuals over an extended period of time. Data is first collected at the outset of the study, and may then be gathered repeatedly throughout the length of the study. In some cases, longitudinal studies can last several decades.

1.2 Investigate research objectives in order to contribute to, modify and improve upon theory and practice

Research objectives

Research objectives set the purpose and focus of your research with the fundamental questions that will be addressed. Defining your research objectives means defining what do I need to investigate and how am I going to do it?

Objectives are the single most important aspect of research design and implementation. They include individual, tangible steps that will be taken in your research.

Your individual steps will revolve around a wider question or problem that you've defined.

Often, objectives will be based on the findings of other research - taking something someone else has investigated or theorised and focusing on a specific aspect of their findings to either strengthen or challenge them.

Such follow-up research involves more than repeating research that's already been done. It aims to improve the understanding of a specific topic through asking what else needs to be evidenced before the research is meaningful, or what knowledge could be garnered from a more focused investigation, or scrutiny of the existing findings

Dimensions to be measured

Productivity

Efficiency

Effectiveness

Objectives are converted into hypotheses and tested. If data analysis is positive the hypothesis is accepted and the theory hold good, conversely if the data analysis is opposite to the hypothesis it is rejected and the theory is not valid.

The objectives would contribute to improve our understanding of the problem investigated

Since objectives are identified through academic literature review the measurement of research objectives would lead to either consolidate existing theories or would lead to modification or improvement of existing theories and therefore current practice.

1.3 systematically analyse the main research philosophies of positivism and phenomenology.

Research philosophies

There are two kinds of research philosophies

Positivism

Positivism was a result of rejection of concepts that belonged to metaphysics, for example god. As sociologists found it different to explain things as also to test and prove, they looked for other ideas. They felt a strong need for social sciences to be more objective and verifiable as science subjects. Positivism arose as an alternative to metaphysics in an attempt to describe social phenomenon leaving aside what cannot be known or is beyond the scope of social sciences. Positivists are of the view that we can analyze and draw conclusions only what we observe. What we see and can measure forms the subject matter of positivism. Two of the most influential positivists are Durkheim and Comte.

Interpretivism

Interpretivism arose as scientists felt that human beings were not puppets to react to stimuli in a prescribed manner. They were active and purposeful and can respond to stimuli in different ways depending upon their interpretation. Interpretivists describe human beings as having intent and the power to interpret, they say that human beings have the capability to construct their surroundings rather than being a mere spectators to what is happening around them. These scientists stressed the thinking, intentions and behaviours of human beings more than positivists thereby drawing conclusions that were more realistic and perhaps more valid also. Interpretivists talk about shared consciousness as the brain behind many of the concepts in a society.

Task: 2

2.1 Examine qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

When conducting a research, it is very important to decide on the methodology depending upon focus of study. There are basically two ways to go about an analysis, qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. There are many who cannot differentiate between the two concepts and think of them as same which is incorrect. If analysis can be thought of as a continuum, quantitative analysis lies at one extreme and qualitative would obviously lie at the other extreme.

Research is the most important tool to increase our knowledge base about things and people. There are two important methods of doing research namely quantitative and qualitative research methods. Despite some overlapping, there is a clear cut difference between quantitative and qualitative research.

Quantitative research

As the name implies, this type of research pertains to studying social behaviour through techniques that have computational basis. The tools in a quantitative research are mathematical in nature, and measurements form the backbone of any quantitative research.

These measurements provide the basis for observation and recording of data that can be later analyzed quantitatively. Rather than being subjective, quantitative research yields data that is more or less unbiased and can be expressed in numerical terms such as percentages or statistics that is easily understandable for a layman. Researcher utilizes the results to make generalizations about a larger set of population.

Qualitative research

This is a kind of research that employs different ways of gathering information without making use of any scientific measurement tools. For example, the sources of information could be varied like diary accounts, surveys, and questionnaires containing open ended questions, interviews that are not structured and also such observations that are not structured.

The data collected through qualitative research is not expressed in mathematical terms. It is descriptive in nature and its analysis is also harder than finding one's way through a maze of statistical tools. Case studies and ethnography seem to be perfect for utilizing qualitative research tools.

Qualitative vs Quantitative Research

The design of study is not ready beforehand and develops and unfolds gradually in a qualitative research while the design and structure are already present in quantitative research

Data generated in quantitative research is numerically expressed in percentages and numbers while data obtained through qualitative research is in the form of text or picture

Data in quantitative research is efficient but may not be able to capture the true essence of human nature and behaviour while qualitative data in words can capture the human nature in totality

Results of quantitative research are quantifiable while the results of a qualitative research are subjective in nature

2.2 critically evaluate the role of the researcher.

Typically the researcher is expected to:

take responsibility for finding out what is expected

take the initiative in raising problems or difficulties

help the supervisory team to ensure consistency

discuss with the supervisory team how to make guidance more effective, including disability related concerns

agree, organise and attend mutually convenient meetings, contribute to their agenda and circulate work in advance

undertake research training as agreed and where need is identified

undertake recommended reading

produce written work as agreed

comply with reporting procedures and inform supervisors of the progress of your research

tell supervisors about difficulties you encounter in your work

arrange for informal sharing of information and practice

generate your own ideas

set realistic deadlines

ask if he don't understand

decide when to submit the thesis and ensure that it is submitted on time

Ensure that the findings complies with regulations.

2.3 systematically analyse qualitative approaches covering the following terms: Descriptive, Interpretive, Ethnographic and Naturalistic studies.

Description

According to Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw, 1995, Giorgi, 1992, Wolcott, 1994, There is no pure looking with a naked eye, and there is no immaculate. Researchers seeking to describe an experience or event select what they will describe and, in the process of featuring certain aspects of it, begin to transform that experience or event.

Although no description is free of interpretation, basic or fundamental qualitative description, as opposed to, for example, phenomenological or grounded theory description, entails a kind of interpretation that is low-inference, or likely to result in easier consensus among researchers. Even though one researcher may feature the feelings and a second researcher the events a woman reported in an interview, both researchers will likely agree that. In the case of two researchers describing ostensibly the same scene, one researcher might feature the spatial arrangement in a room, while the second researcher will feature the social interactions. But both researchers ought to agree with each other's descriptions as accurate renderings of the scene. That is, with low-inference descriptions, researchers will agree more readily on the facts of the case, even if they may not feature the same facts in their descriptions.

Interpretive

According to the Wolcott 1994, interpretive, is the human perceptions, basic qualitative description is not highly interpretive in the sense that a researcher deliberately chooses to describe an event in terms of a conceptual, philosophical, or other highly abstract framework or system. The description in qualitative descriptive studies entails the presentation of the facts of the case in everyday language. In contrast, phenomenological, theoretical, ethnographic, or narrative descriptions re-present events in other terms. Researchers are obliged to put much more of their own interpretive spin on what they see and hear.

There are certain types of phenomenological studies incline the researcher to look for, and interpret data in terms of, ``life world existential,'' such as Van Manen, 1990, claims that corporeality and temporality Such descriptions require researchers to move farther into or beyond their data as they demand not just reading words and scenes, but rather reading into, between, and over them McMahon 1996, Poirier and Ayres 1997 and Wertz 1983 analyse phenomenological study which is an excellent demonstration of the successive transformations from a participant's description of an event to a researcher's phenomenological description of that event.

Although less interpretive than phenomenological or grounded theory description, fundamental qualitative description is more interpretive than quantitative description, which typically entails surveys or other pre-structured means to obtain a common dataset on pre-selected variables, and descriptive statistics to summarize them.

Naturalistic observation

Naturalistic observation is a research method commonly used by psychologists and other social scientists. This technique involves observing subjects in their natural environment. This type of research is often utilized in situations where conducting lab research is unrealistic, cost prohibitive or would unduly affect the subject's behaviour.

Naturalistic observation differs from structured observation in that it involves looking at behaviour as it occurs in its natural setting with no attempts at intervention on the part of the researcher.

2.4 systematically analyse qualitative approaches including Independent observation, large samples, Development of hypotheses, Statistical analyses.

Observation

Qualitative observational research describes and classifies various cultural, racial and sociological groups by employing interpretive and naturalistic approaches. It is both observational and narrative in nature and relies less on the experimental elements normally associated with scientific research of reliability, validity and generalizability. Connelly and Clendenin (1990) suggest that qualitative inquiry relies more on appetency, verisimilitude and transferability. On the other hand, Lincoln and Guba (1985) emphasize the importance of credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability in qualitative studies.

Large samples

Any of the purposeful sampling techniques can be used in qualitative descriptive studies. Especially useful, though, is maximum variation sampling, which allows researchers to explore the common and QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTION unique manifestations of a target phenomenon across a broad range of phenomenally and demographically varied cases (Sandelowski,1995).

Researchers like Trost, 1986 also choose to sample cases to represent a combination of pre-selected variables , or typical or unusual cases of a phenomenon, in order to describe it as it tends to appear or uncommonly appears. As in any qualitative study, the ultimate goal of purposeful sampling is to obtain cases deemed information-rich for the purposes of study. The obligation of researchers is to defend their sampling strategies as reasonable for their purposes.

Task:3

3.1 examine the basic principle of research design with respect to objectives, plan, action, review, report.

All research is different but the following factors are common to all good pieces of research.

If the research aims to identify the scale of a problem or need, a more quantitative, randomised, statistical sample survey may be more appropriate. Good research can often use a combination of methodologies, which complement one another.

The research should be carried out in an unbiased fashion. As far as possible the researcher should not influence the results of the research in any way. If this is likely, it needs to be addressed explicitly and systematically.

From the beginning, the research should have appropriate and sufficient resources in terms of people, time, transport, money etc. allocated to it.

The people conducting the research should be trained in research and research methods and this training should provide:

Knowledge around appropriate information gathering techniques,

An understanding of research issues,

An understanding of the research area,

An understanding of the issues around dealing with vulnerable social care clients and housing clients, especially regarding risk, privacy and sensitivity and the possible need for support.

Those involved in designing, conducting, analysing and supervising the research should have a full understanding of the subject area.

In some instances, it helps if the researcher has experience of working in the area. However, this can also be a negative factor, as sometimes research benefits from the fresh eyes and ears of an outsider, which may lead to less bias.

If applicable, the information generated from the research will inform the policy-making process.

All research should be ethical and not harmful in any way to the participants.

Background

Why is this research important?

What other studies have there been in this area?

How will this research add to knowledge in this area?

Objectives

What do you want to find out?

What is the main question you wish to answer?

What are the specific questions you will ask to address the main question?

Are you going to do this research on your own or with others?

Plan

Who are you targeting in this research?

How many people or case files do you intend to interview or read through?

Where will the research take place?

Will participants be clearly and fully informed of the purpose of the research study?

How will you do this?

How will participants be clear about the expectations of the researcher?

Do you have an information sheet and a consent form for participants?

Action

It enables you to examine your own situation.

It is a participatory process and allows for input from all those involved.

It is collaborative. You work with colleagues and other participants to answer your research question.

It allows for an ongoing process of self‐evaluation where you appraise yourself and your own performance.

It assumes that you already have a great deal of professional knowledge and can continue to develop this knowledge and improve your practice.

Review

A review of the literature is an essential part of your academic research. The review is a careful examination of a body of literature pointing toward the answer to your research question.

Literature reviewed typically includes scholarly journals, scholarly books, authoritative databases and primary sources. Sometimes it includes newspapers and magazines.

Primary sources are the origin of information under study, fundamental documents relating to a particular subject or idea. Often they are firsthand accounts written by a witness or researcher at the time of an event or discovery.

Secondary sources are documents or recordings that relate to or discuss information originally presented elsewhere. These, too, may be accessible as physical objects or electronically in databases or on the Internet.

Report

Draft the report from your detailed plan.

Do not worry too much about the final form and language, but rather on presenting the ideas

Coherently and logically.

Redraft and edit. Check that sections contain the required information and use suitable headings,

Check ideas flow in a logical order and remove any unnecessary information.

Write in an academic style and tone.

Use a formal objective style.

Generally avoid personal pronouns; however, some reports based on your own field

3.2 critically evaluate the success of both qualitative and quantitative research projects using relative literature.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research options have been predetermined and a large number of respondents are involved. By definition, measurement must be objective, quantitative and statistically valid.

Simply put, it's about numbers, objective hard data. The sample size for a survey is calculated by statisticians using formulas to determine how large a sample size will be needed from a given population in order to achieve findings with an acceptable degree of accuracy. Generally, researchers seek sample sizes which yield findings with at least a 95% confidence interval (which means that if you repeat the survey 100 times, 95 times out of a hundred, you would get the same response), plus/minus a margin error of 5 percentage points. Many surveys are designed to produce a smaller margin of error.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people do and say. Whereas, quantitative research refers to counts and measures of things, qualitative research refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things.

Qualitative research is much more subjective than quantitative research and uses very different methods of collecting information, mainly individual, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The nature of this type of research is exploratory and open-ended. Small numbers of people are interviewed in-depth and/or a relatively small number of focus groups are conducted.

Participants are asked to respond to general questions and the interviewer or group moderator probes and explores their responses to identify and define people's perceptions, opinions and feelings about the topic or idea being discussed and to determine the degree of agreement that exists in the group. The quality of the finding from qualitative research is directly dependent upon the skills, experience and sensitive of the interviewer or group moderator.

This type of research is often less costly than surveys and is extremely effective in acquiring information about people's communications needs and their responses to and views about specific communications.

Basically, quantitative research is objective; qualitative is subjective.

Quantitative research seeks explanatory laws; qualitative research aims at in-depth description. Qualitative research measures what it assumes to be a static reality in hopes of developing universal laws. Qualitative research is an exploration of what is assumed to be a dynamic reality. It does not claim that what is discovered in the process is universal, and thus, replicable. Common differences usually cited between these types of research include.

Task:4

4.1 define a research problem or issue by analysing current literature and management practice.

Research problem

It is one of the first statements made in any research paper and, as well as defining the research area, should include a quick synopsis of how the hypothesis was arrived at.

This will lead to the proposal of a viable hypothesis. As an aside, when scientists are putting forward proposals for research funds, the quality of their research problem often makes the difference between success and failure.

Defining a Research Problem

Lack of force that drives the people to behave the way they do and they behave even in hardship.

Qualitative research designs use inductive reasoning to propose a research problem.Reasoning Cycle - Scientific Research

This is called the conceptual definition, and is an overall view of the problem.

Lack of motivation is like measuring abstract concepts, such as intelligence, emotions, and subjective responses, and then a system of measuring numerically needs to be established, allowing statistical analysis and replication.

For example, motivation may be measured with a questionnaire from

strongly disagree

disagree

don't know

agree

strongly agree

4.2 Examine the background and content of the research

Early explanations of motivation focused on instincts. Psychologists writing in the late 19th and early twentieth century suggested that human beings were basically programmed to behave in certain ways, depending upon the behavioural cues to which they were exposed. Sigmund Freud, for example, argued that the most powerful determinants of individual behaviour were those of which the individual was not consciously aware.

According to Motivation and Leadership at Work (Steers, Porter, and Bigley, 1996), in the early twentieth century researchers began to examine other possible explanations for differences in individual motivation. Some researchers focused on internal drives as an explanation for motivated behaviour. Others studied the effect of learning and how individuals base current behaviour on the consequences of past behaviour. Still others examined the influence of individuals' cognitive processes, such as the beliefs they have about future events. Over time, these major theoretical streams of research in motivation were classified into two major schools: the content theories of motivation and the process theories of motivation.

4.3 Develop research questions to elicit facts, information, gaps in knowledge, and dichotomies in management processes and practices.

Research questions and hypotheses narrow the purpose statement and become major signposts for readers. Qualitative researchers ask at least one central question and several sub questions. They begin the questions with words such as how or what and use exploratory verbs, such as explore or describe. They pose broad, general questions to allow the participants to explain their ideas. They also focus initially on one central phenomenon of interest. The questions may also mention the participants and the site for the research.

1. Determine if a mixed methods study is needed to study the problem

2. Consider whether a mixed methods study is feasible

3. Write both qualitative and quantitative research questions

4. Review and decide on the types of data collection

5. Assess the relative weight and implementation strategy for each method

6. Present a visual model

7. Determine how the data will be analyzed

8. Assess the criteria for evaluating the study

9. Develop a plan for the study

I encourage mixed methods researchers to construct separate mixed methods questions in their studies. This question might be written to emphasize the procedures or the content of the study, and it might be placed at different points. By writing this question, the researcher conveys the importance of integrating or combining the quantitative and qualitative elements. Several models exist for writing mixed methods questions into studies: writing only quantitative questions or hypotheses and qualitative questions, or writing both quantitative questions or hypotheses and qualitative questions followed by a mixed methods question, or writing only a mixed methods question.

4.4 critically evaluate the project plan from the following perspectives: ethical, social, legal, stakeholders.

Ethical and Legal

When most people think of ethics (or morals), they think of rules for distinguishing between right and wrong, such as the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"). This is the most common way of defining "ethics" for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

Even conducting our research we have to look into following ethical aspects:

Honesty

Objectivity

Integrity

Carefulness

Openness

Respect for Intellectual Property

Confidentiality

Responsible Publication

Responsible Mentoring

Respect for colleagues

Social Responsibility

Non-Discrimination

Competence

Legality

Animal Care

Human Subjects Protection

Task: 5

Critically evaluate what implications previous research into the topic chosen have for the research proposal.

Implications in research of motivation at work

Following can be expected as implications in research of motivation at work.

Lack of secondary data

Some secondary data is limited and insufficient. Sometimes, external parties don't like to give their real idea about regarding their motivation.

Draw backs in primary data collection

It is very difficult. Because, all data not already available. Some data related people feels, attitudes or opinion. And next important fact is both of primary data have qualitative and quantitative behaviour. Both of data is dependents on people's opinion.

Time constraints

Students have very limited time in their academic career and this research should conduct simultaneously with other learning activities. Therefore, It is difficult to handle all learning and research activities under limited time management.

Financial constraints

Due to cost involved mainly with the process of data collection, limited number of sources and the small size of sample area can cause biased findings which may mislead the results.

5.2 systematically analyse literature relevant to the content of the proposal.

Great scholars Gardner & Lambert, 1972 proposed that motivation is influenced by two orientations to language learning. An integrative orientation is typical of someone who identifies with and values the target language and community, and who approaches language study with the intention of entering that community.

Such an individual is thought to have an internal, more enduring motivation for language study. Instrumentally motivated learners, on the other hand, are more likely to see language learning as enabling them to do other useful things, but as having no special significance in itself. Such learners will be motivated if they see language learning as having beneficial career prospects or something that will enable them to use transactional language with speakers of the foreign language.

A second problem he argues is whether the integrative/instrumental conceptualization captures the full spectrum of student motivation. It may be that, for a given population of second language students, there are reasons for language learning that are unrelated to either of the two motivational orientations. I agree with Ely that it is not always easy to tell one from the other. For example, there are students who don't like to study, but they have to, because they have pressure from their parents, peers, teachers, and so forth. This is also a type of motivation which can't belong to either of the two motivational orientations.

5.3 Make conclusions regarding different approaches to and outcomes of research.

Lack of motivation to learn is very striking thing in almost all of the schools in Japan. I believe some of the schools in other countries also face the same problem. One of the things I found through this literature review is that if we, as teachers, can't motivate students to learn directly, we should look at different ways to try to motivate them indirectly. For example, we should encourage them to be autonomous learner, increase their confidence, and try to get rid of anxiety they have in learning.

That will lead to great motivation eventually, and thus lead to success in learning. One of the strategies we can use is need analysis. We must find out which aspects of L2 learning are personally valuable to students and must design tasks that support those aspects. For example, if students will go abroad, they will need to communicate with people in English, so the classroom activities must encourage development of this skill and must have positive results.

I presented motivation theory, confidence, anxiety, and autonomy related motivation in language learning. They all are linked to each other in various ways, however, as you can see, there are not enough evidence and research on confidence, anxiety, and autonomy. This is something we should pay more attention to in SLA field. Revealing facts and secrets of them will contribute a lot to motivation research and to millions of students who are learning a foreign or second language.

This literature review also made me realize that all the points discussed are from teacher's perspective. Learning is two-way communication. I experienced being a student and a teacher myself, I remember I had great time in learning when I met teachers who are competent, knows exactly what he/she is doing. This, student's perspective, so to speak, is one of the things we should look into when we talk about motivation. "What kinds of teachers motivate students more or what kind of elements do you want for teachers for motivation?" Not only looking at students how to motivate them, but also reviewing what teachers should be. I believe this will open new doors to the research of motivation.

Task:6

6.1 Assess how the research could be carried out?

Step 1: The Title

Research is an important part of the research proposal. It should tell the user (In 25 words or less) what you intend to research and how you intend to do it. For title the choice is up to you, as long as your title is relevant to the research question.

Step 2: The Abstract

Your research proposal in its entirety may be anywhere between 5,000 to 25,000 words in length. So it is important that you give a summary of the entire document. This summary is known as the abstract, and should demonstrate to the reader the most important parts of each of the sections of the research proposal in around 200 words. It is often useful to write the abstract last, after the rest of the research proposal has been written and fully thought out.

Step 3: Aims and Objectives

In this section you should expand on the title of your research project to articulate in full detail the aims and objectives of your research. You should be able to provide a detailed description of the research question, the purpose of the research, and a description of your approach (methodology and method) to the research.

Included in this section should be discussion around the research problem that you intend to answer or investigate, your hypothesis, the parameters of the research i.e. what you intend to include within the research, and what you intend to leave out.

Step 4: Background

This section should provide detail about the background to the research question. In this section researcher will need to demonstrate an understanding of the existing literature and research studies within the area of your proposed research topic. This is to assist the reader to understand the significance of your research, and where it fits within the existing body of knowledge.

Step 5: Methodology and Method

In this section of the proposal researcher will need to demonstrate how you intend to go about investigating the research question. The methodology generally refers to the theory to be used to justify the use of the particular research methods that you are choosing to use. Researcher may use more than one methodology to inform your method of research. The method describes the way researcher intend to investigate the question, such as a questionnaire, in-depth individual interviews, focus group interviews, a survey and so forth.

Researcher should also discuss the different methods you intend to use in full detail, and provide justification as to why you have chosen to use these methods. It is also helpful to discuss how many participants researcher intend to involve in his research, how he intend to find or approach participants, and how they will be used in your study.

Step 6: Schedule and Timeline

You need to be able to demonstrate that your research is possible within a given timeframe. You may be able to define your own timeframe, or the institution for which you are writing a proposal may have a set timeframe that you will need to work within. Either way, it is important that you are able to plot the intended progress of the project from start to finish. If you intend to produce any outputs, reports, findings then they should be inserted into this schedule.

Step 7: Ethical Approval

Some institutions require that any research involving interaction with human participants get approval from ethical advisory committees or boards. This ethical approval is sought to ensure that the researcher conducts research in a manner that is respectful to the participants and other human beings that may be influenced by the research process. It is important that you seek out what ethical approval is required within your area of research. You may need to seek approval from more than one advisory committee depending on the institutional, financial and disciplinary context. Applications for ethical approval are obtained directly from the ethical committees themselves.

Step 8: Budget

Not all research proposal require a budget however if you intend to apply for funding for research it is important that you are able to show how much money you require, and justify the amount asked for. The way to justify the amount you are asking for is to provide a detailed budget outlining what expenses you predict you will incur in conducting the research. Exactly where and how money will be spent will differ from project to project, and the size of the budget should reflect the size of the research project.

6.2 Identify resources and time needed to complete the project.

Resources

This demonstrates to the reader that you are both suitable and capable of carrying out the proposed research. You will need to discuss what resources you have at your disposal that makes it possible for you to carry out this research.

For example, physical resources (such as research instruments), personal resources (such as knowledge of the discipline, area or community under study), as well as any other resources that you have as a researcher (or research team) that will enable you to carry out the research from beginning through to completion.

Time

organisations are often forced to balance the need to build up as detailed a picture as possible regarding customer needs etc. against the desire to make decisions as quickly as possible, in order to maintain or improve their position in the market

6.3, 6.4: Collect and collate evidence and critically evaluate findings and outcomes.

Many managers have accepted as fact that they are doomed to have a couple of employees that drag about the office. Most will argue that not all employees will be self-directed and highly motivated. However, accepting even a couple of lowly motivated employees could be negatively affecting your business.

Motivation's Effect on Productivity

A telltale sign that one of your employees lacks motivation will be his level of productivity. You may observe his productivity is slipping through an increased number of project deadlines. The quality of his work may suddenly appear sloppy and lack attention to detail. A highly motivated employee will work diligently to complete assignments on time. His work will reflect a high standard of quality in the areas of accuracy, completeness and appeal. Evidence that you have a motivated employee is the pride taken in the presentation of his work.

Motivation's Effect on Creativity

Advertising or marketing agencies depend on the creativeness of their employees for original campaigns. An employee lacking motivation will have trouble coming up with creative ideas. In fact, almost every job requires the employee to have some level of creativity to do the job sufficiently. The ability to be creative is necessary to solve problems and satisfy customer complaints. The lack of motivation hampers the ability to do these responsibilities well. On the other hand, motivated employees thrive in creative work environments.

Motivation's Effect on Others

Any employee with low motivation will have conflicts in their work relationships. These conflicts will be very evident when dealing with co-workers especially in a team. Teams depend on everyone pulling their own weight. Lowly motivated employees are perpetually behind on work and lack the energy to put forth the best effort. Therefore, their team members are the ones who suffer and usually someone else on the team must take up the slack. This creates a resentful atmosphere within the team and the office in general. In addition, the lack of motivation will result in poor customer service. The diminished motivation will cause diminished interest in helping customers and in being a positive representative of the company. Anyone lacking motivation will not have the energy to go the extra mile for your customers. In contrast, a motivated employee will seek anyway he can to assist your customers and will have less conflict with his co-workers.

Motivation's Effect on Work Ethic

Poor quality of work is a sign of low motivation. Your employee's reports will exhibit increased errors, lack of fact checking, poor writing, and a lousy appearance. In addition, the employee will take more sick days than usual. Showing up late, leaving early and taking long lunch breaks are all exhibits of a lack of motivation. In general, the employee will not have a desire to come to work or interact with anyone at work. Normal employee to employee socializing during work hours will cease and the lowly motivated employee will keep more to himself.

Motivation's Effect on Decision Making

One of the most troubling aspects of an employee with low motivation is his inability to make critical decisions. In business it is important that an employee be able to make proper decisions at critical times based on correct information and facts. An employee with low motivation may be missing several of these necessary pieces. Due to the lack of energy, the employee will usually not have gathered the information on time. Lacking the necessary information can mean not being able to make the proper decision at the critical time. The employee would then have to gather the necessary information wasting valuable time or make a decision without the information risking a costly mistake. Either way the lowly motivated employee may be costing your company critical time or money due to his debilitated decision making.

6.5 Present the research to receive feedback on the project

A comparison of these results to Maslow's need-hierarchy theory provides some interesting insight into employee motivation. The number one ranked motivator, interesting work, is a self-actualizing factor. The number two ranked motivator, good wages, is a physiological factor. The number three ranked motivator, full appreciation of work done, is an esteem factor. The number four ranked motivator, job security, is a safety factor. Therefore, according to Maslow (1943), if managers wish to address the most important motivational factor of Centers' employees, interesting work, physiological, safety, social, and esteem factors must first be satisfied. If managers wished to address the second most important motivational factor of centers' employees, good pay, increased pay would suffice. Contrary to what Maslow's theory suggests, the range of motivational factors are mixed in this study. Maslow's conclusions that lower level motivational factors must be met before ascending to the next level were not confirmed by this study.

The following example compares the highest ranked motivational factor (interesting work) to Vroom's expectancy theory. Assume that a Centers employee just attended a staff meeting where he/she learned a major emphasis would be placed on seeking additional external program funds. Additionally, employees who are successful in securing funds will be given more opportunities to explore their own research and extension interests (interesting work). Employees who do not secure additional funds will be required to work on research and extension programs identified by the director. The employee realizes that the more research he/she does regarding funding sources and the more proposals he/she writes, the greater the likelihood he/she will receive external funding.

Task: 7

7.1 Examine a range of data collection techniques to determine optimum approach for the project to include qualitative and quantitative measures.

Quantitative and Qualitative Data collection methods

The Quantitative data collection methods rely on random sampling and structured data collection instruments that fit diverse experiences into predetermined response categories. They produce results that are easy to summarize, compare, and generalize. 

Quantitative research is concerned with testing hypotheses derived from theory and/or being able to estimate the size of a phenomenon of interest. Depending on the research question, participants may be randomly assigned to different treatments. If this is not feasible, the researcher may collect data on participant and situational characteristics in order to statistically control for their influence on the dependent, or outcome, variable. If the intent is to generalize from the research participants to a larger population, the researcher will employ probability sampling to select participants.

Typical quantitative data gathering strategies include:

Experiments

Observing and recording well-defined events e.g., counting the number of patients waiting in emergency at specified times of the day.

Interviews

In Quantitative research (survey research), interviews are more structured than in Qualitative research. In a structured interview, The researcher asks a standard set of questions and nothing more.

Face -to -face interviews

According to Leedy and Ormrod, (2001) These interviews have a distinct advantage of enabling the researcher to establish rapport with potential participants and there for gain their cooperation. These interviews yield highest response rates in survey research. They also allow the researcher to clarify ambiguous answers and when appropriate, seek follow-up information. Disadvantages include impractical when large samples are involved time consuming and expensive.

Telephone interviews

These interviews are less time consuming and less expensive and the researcher has ready access to anyone on the planet who hasa telephone.Disadvantages are that the response rate is not as high as the face-to- face interview but cosiderably higher than the mailed questionnaire.The sample may be biased to the extent that people without phones are part of the population about whom the researcher wants to draw inferences.

Questionnaires

Paper-pencil-questionnaires can be sent to a large number of people and saves the researcher time and money. People are more truthful while responding to the questionnaires regarding controversial issues in particular due to the fact that their responses are anonymous. But they also have drawbacks. Majority of the people who receive questionnaires don't return them and those who do might not be representative of the originally selected sample.(Leedy and Ormrod, 2001)

Web based questionnaires : A new and inevitably growing methodology is the use of Internet based research. This would mean receiving an e-mail on which you would click on an address that would take you to a secure web-site to fill in a questionnaire. This type of research is often quicker and less detailed.Some disadvantages of this method include the exclusion of people who do not have a computer or are unable to access a computer.Also the validity of such surveys are in question as people might be in a hurry to complete it and so might not give accurate responses.  

7.2 critically evaluate the main statistical methods for data analysis of large sample groups in quantitative studies.

Many of the quantitative techniques fall into two broad categories:

Interval estimation

Hypothesis tests

Interval Estimates

It is common in statistics to estimate a parameter from a sample of data. The value of the parameter using all of the possible data, not just the sample data, is called the population parameter or true value of the parameter. An estimate of the true parameter value is made using the sample data. This is called a point estimate or a sample estimate.

For example, the most commonly used measure of location is the mean. The population, or true, mean is the sum of all the members of the given population divided by the number of members in the population. As it is typically impractical to measure every member of the population, a random sample is drawn from the population. The sample mean is calculated by summing the values in the sample and dividing by the number of values in the sample. This sample mean is then used as the point estimate of the population mean.

Interval estimates expand on point estimates by incorporating the uncertainty of the point estimate. In the example for the mean above, different samples from the same population will generate different values for the sample mean. An interval estimate quantifies this uncertainty in the sample estimate by computing lower and upper values of an interval which will, with a given level of confidence (i.e., probability), contain the population parameter.

Hypothesis Tests

Hypothesis tests also address the uncertainty of the sample estimate. However, instead of providing an interval, a hypothesis test attempts to refute a specific claim about a population parameter based on the sample data.

For example, the hypothesis might be one of the following:

the population mean is equal to 10

the population standard deviation is equal to 5

the means from two populations are equal

the standard deviations from 5 populations are equal

To reject a hypothesis is to conclude that it is false. However, to accept a hypothesis does not mean that it is true, only that we do not have evidence to believe otherwise. Thus hypothesis tests are usually stated in terms of both a condition that is doubted (null hypothesis) and a condition that is believed (alternative hypothesis).

A common format for a hypothesis test is:

H0: A statement of the null hypothesis, e.g., two population means are equal.

Ha: A statement of the alternative hypothesis, e.g., two population means are not equal.

Test Statistic

The test statistic is based on the specific hypothesis test.

Significance Level

The significance level, alpha, defines the sensitivity of the test. A value of alpha = 0.05 means that we inadvertently reject the null hypothesis 5% of the time when it is in fact true. This is also called the type I error. The choice of alpha is somewhat arbitrary, although in practice values of 0.1, 0.05, and 0.01 are commonly used.

Critical Region

The critical region encompasses those values of the test statistic that lead to a rejection of the null hypothesis. Based on the distribution of the test statistic and the significance level, a cut-off value for the test statistic is computed. Values either above or below or both (depending on the direction of the test) this cut-off define the critical region.

Practical Versus Statistical Significance

It is important to distinguish between statistical significance and practical significance. Statistical significance simply means that we reject the null hypothesis. The ability of the test to detect differences that lead to rejection of the null hypothesis depends on the sample size. For example, for a particularly large sample, the test may reject the null hypothesis that two process means are equivalent. However, in practice the difference between the two means may be relatively small to the point of having no real engineering significance. Similarly, if the sample size is small, a difference that is large in engineering terms may not lead to rejection of the null hypothesis. The analyst should not just blindly apply the tests, but should combine engineering judgement with statistical analysis.

Location

Measures of Location

Confidence Limits for the Mean and One Sample t-Test

Two Sample t-Test for Equal Means

One Factor Analysis of Variance

Multi-Factor Analysis of Variance

Scale (or variability or spread)

Measures of Scale

Bartlett's Test

Chi-Square Test

F-Test

Levene Test

Skewness and Kurtosis

Measures of Skewness and Kurtosis

Randomness

Autocorrelation

Runs Test

Distributional Measures

Anderson-Darling Test

Chi-Square Goodness-of-Fit Test

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test

7.3 systematically analyse research techniques issues including bias in question in question technique, ethics and impartiality.

Design bias

Research design bias is introduced NOT when the study fails to control for threats to internal and external validity BUT RATHER when the study fails to identify the validity problems OR when publicity about the research fails to incorporate the researchers cautions.

Study dropouts

People who drop out may be the ones who needed it most alternately, people also drop out when the program works unless your report addresses the problem of attrition or experimental mortality, it will be a biased report

Measurement bias

Measurement bias exists when researcher fails to control for the effects of data collection and measurement

tendency of people to give socially desirable answers

big problems when asking about violence, money, criminal behavior, or when the person perceives there is something to loose by their answer

using self report is often biased by social desirability

in self report, we often use a "lie scale" or a social desirability index to control for "impression management"

I always know the difference between right and wrong

the score on the social desirability or lie scale is then used to statistically control for self-reporting bias

Using an invalid measure

the "self esteem" problem: tendency to think self esteem covers everything

Sampling bias

Sampling bias exists when the sampling procedure introduces bias in

omission of women

minorities from samples

studying only minorities

targeting the most desirable

only accessible sample

Procedural bias

Procedural bias exists most often when we administer the research interview or questionnaire under adverse conditions

using students for course credit

paying subjects

administering questionnaires in a brief interval