Practical Research survey.

Questionnaire is a
Concept Notes ready-made question for data
collection, while a survey refers to
Sampling Data Collection Methods
a process of collecting, recording,
Data Collection - An activity to gather and analyzing data, including
information on research questions or various aspects of traditional ways
objectives using instruments developed or of conducting descriptive research.
adopted by the researcher. ★ Advantage
○ Quantitative Research instruments ○ Quick data collection
include questionnaires, tests, ○ Encourage participants to be
interviews, and observation. open to the researchers
since their identity can be
Data Collection Instruments
made anonymous.
1.) Be clear with your research questions ○ Flexible and convenient.
and the purpose of doing the ★ Disadvantages
investigation. ○ Questions may be
2.) Plan how you will conduct the interpreted differently by
investigation and data collection. participantsQuestionnaires
3.) Use research instruments that are may lack depth, as they do
appropriate for the type of research not allow for further probing
you are conducting into participants' answers,
4.) Collect, tabulate, tally, and analyze the which is beyond the
data. researcher’s control. The
5.) Verify the validity and reliability of the solution is to explain the
collected data. content to the participants.
6.) Report your findings based on the ○ Issues with response rates of
data you collected. the participants, as some of
Questionnaires them may be unable to
complete or return the
A paper-based or electronic tool used to questionnaire by the
gather research data through a list of deadline.
questions or indicators. In quantitative ○ Questionnaires may lack
studies, it often uses scales like the Likert depth, as they do not allow
scale to measure participants' agreement for further probing into
levels, or converts responses (e.g., participants' answers.
"always,” “sometimes,” to "rarely") into
Tests
numerical values (5 to 1).
❖ Structured Questionnaire - uses A quantitative research instrument used
close-ended questions. (it is used in mainly for assessing various skills and types
quantitative studies for easier of behavior as well as for describing certain
standardization, coding, and characteristics.
objective interpretation.) Two Main Types of Tests
❖ Unstructured Questionnaire - uses
open-ended questions. ❖ Standardized Tests - Scored
❖ Semi-Structured Questionnaire - uniformly across different groups and
combines both structured and areas, and used by institutions to
unstructured elements. assess a wide range of people, such
○ important to note !! a as students or test-takers. They are
questionnaire is different from a considered more reliable and valid.
 ❖ Non-standardized Tests - ★ For this reason, structured interviews
Administered to specific sets of people are most applicable in quantitative
and may not be scored uniformly. research, while unstructured,
They are useful for measuring specific semi-structured, informal interviews,
skills or obtaining certain responses. and focus group discussions are used
in qualitative research
Types of Test Questions
Observation
❖ Recall Questions - require
participants to retrieve information Used in quantitative research when the
from memory without an option that characteristics being observed are
they can choose from. quantitative in nature. It measures
e.g Cloze test (“fill-in-the-blank” characteristics like length, width, weight,
test), identification, and enumeration height, temperature, cost, levels, age, and
tests. speed, or assesses performances.
❖ Recognition Questions - provide It also allows to examine actual phenomena
options, making them easier to or behavior in subjects or participants.
answer. However, it has disadvantages, it may be
e.g. multiple choice, matching, and prone to the Hawthorne effect, where
dichotomous response text participants alter behavior due to being
(true/false, or yes or no). observed. Observation is also more
❖ Open-ended Questions - prompt time-consuming than interviews or

participants to answer in greater detail, questionnaires, sometimes requiring years.

allowing freedom-based responses to Types of Observations

express their thoughts and insights on
a certain topic. This is often used in ❖ Controlled Observation - Used in
writing and performance-based tests. experimental research, typically in a
Interview laboratory. The researcher selects the
time, place, participants, and
A quantitative interview is a method of circumstances under a standard
collecting data on an individual's behaviors, procedure. The observer takes a
opinions, values, emotions, and non-participant role with no interaction
demographics using numerical data through with participants.
an interactive exchange between the ➢ Advantages:
researcher and the subject, either ■ Provides reliable data through
face-to-face or otherwise. a structured and well-defined
○ Qualitative Interviews - use process.
open-ended questions to gather data ■ The procedure can be
from a small sample size. replicated, and the data are
○ Quantitative Interviews - use easier to analyze.
close-ended questions, though a few ■ Easier to implement due to its
open-ended questions may be highly structured nature.
included. Must be accompanied by a e.g. researchers move a monkey to a new,
rating scale or rubric, and the controlled environment (such as a lab) to
responses must be numerical in nature. observe its behavior in response to different
They gather data from a large sample stimuli, like changes in temperature or food
size. It allows the researcher to ask availability.
follow-up questions. Furthermore, It is
❖ Natural Observation - Conducted in a
useful when the target participants
non-controlled setting where events
cannot answer a printed or encoded
flow naturally, and the researcher does
questionnaire.
 not control the circumstances. It has
greater ecological validity, which
allows the flexibility of the findings to
be generalized to real-life contexts.

➢ Disadvantage:
■ Its strength in establishing
causal relationships due to
extraneous variables affecting
participant behavior in one
way or another.
e.g. studying animal behavior in their
natural habitat, such as observing
chimpanzees in the wild to understand their
social behavior.
❖ Participant Observation - The
observer becomes a member of the
group or community to which the
participants belong. It can be overt
(participants know they are being
observed and the purpose behind the
observation) or covert (participants are
unaware of the observation purpose).
e.g. joining an ethnic group to study their
cultural practices and social dynamics
Practical Research e.g. In the data set 2, 4, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8,
Concept Notes the modes are 4 and 8, making it
bimodal.
Measures of Central Tendency
e.g. In the data set 3, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7,
It shows how data is grouped around a 8, 9, 9, the modes are 3, 6, 7, and 9,
central value. Common measures include making it multimodal.
the mean, median, and mode, which help
show what is typical in a set of data.

Three Common Measures of Central

Tendency

❖ Mean - The average of all data points,

found by adding them up and dividing
by the total number of points.
e.g. data set: 70, 75, 80, 85, 90
Step 1: Add all the values together in the
data set. 70+75+80+85+90 = 400
Step 2: Count the number of values in the
data set. There are 5 values in the data set.
Step 3: To calculate the mean, divide the
sum by the number of values. MEAN = 400
÷ 5 = 80
○ The mean of the data set (70, 75, 80,
85, 90) is 80.
❖ Median - The middle value in a set of
data. It is useful for data with extreme
values, as it is less affected by outliers
than the mean.
➢ How to Find the Median:
1. Odd Number of Values
e.g. 45, 50, 55, 60, 95
a. Arrange in order (if needed).
b. Pick the middle value.
○ Median: 55
2. Even Number of Values
e.g. 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80
a. Arrange in order (if needed).
b. Find the two middle values (50 and
60).
c. Average them:
50 + 60 =110
110 ÷ 2 = 55
○ Median: 55
❖ Mode - The most frequently
occurring value in a data set. It is
helpful for surveys or questions with
limited response options.
e.g. in the data set 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6,
the mode is 2, making it unimodal
Practical Research value possible below 0 degrees
Concept Notes Kelvin, it is absolute zero. You can
categorize, rank, and infer equal
Levels of Measurement
intervals between neighboring data
❖ Nominal - A variable measured on a points, and there is a true zero point.
"nominal" scale is a variable that does e.g. Height, Age, Weight, and
not really have any evaluative Temperature in Kelvin
distinction. One value is really not any
greater than another. You can LEVELS OF MEAN MEDIA MOD
categorize your data by labeling them MEASUREMEN N E
in mutually exclusive groups, but there T
is no order between the categories. Nominal ✔
e.g. City of birth, Gender, Ethnicity,
Ordinal ✔ ✔
Car brands, and Marital status
❖ Ordinal - Something measured on an Interval ✔ ✔ ✔
"ordinal" scale does have an
evaluative connotation. One value is Ratio ✔ ✔ ✔
greater or larger or better than the
other. Product A is preferred over
product B, and therefore A receives a
value of 1 and B receives a value of 2.
You can categorize and rank your data
in an order, but you cannot say
anything about the intervals between
the rankings.
e.g. Top 5 Olympic medallists,
Language ability (e.g., beginner,
intermediate, fluent), and Likert-type
questions (e.g., very dissatisfied to
very satisfied)
❖ INTERVAL - A variable measured on
an interval scale gives information
about more or betterness as ordinal
scales do, but interval variables have
an equal distance between each
value. You can categorize, rank, and
infer equal intervals between
neighboring data points, but there is
no true zero point.
e.g. Test scores (e.g., IQ or exams),
Personality inventories, and
Temperature in Fahrenheit or
Celsius
❖ RATIO - Something measured on a
ratio scale has the same properties
that an interval scale has except, with
a ratio scaling, there is an absolute
zero point. Temperature measured in
Kelvin is an example. There is no
Practical Research ❖ Bar Chart - Separated by some space,
Concept Notes suggesting that the categories are not
separated by equal intervals.
Levels of Measurement
e.g. Nominal and ordinal
Are also called rating scales (Bhattacherjee, ❖ Pie Chart - A circle divided into several
2012) . They tell you how precisely parts to represent how the total amount
variables are recorded. In scientific of something is divided up. Only of
research, a variable is anything that can value when presenting nominal data.
take on different values across your data set e.g. nominal
(e.g., height or test scores). The most ❖ Histogram - A histogram is a type of
common are binary, likert, semantic, chart that shows the frequency
differential, and guttman. distribution of data points across a
❖ Binary Scale - Are nominal scales continuous range of numerical values.
consisting of binary items that assume A type of graph that uses rectangles of
one of two possible values (yes or no, different lengths, and often different
true or false). Binary scales are often widths
used in social sciences to evaluate the e.g. interval and ratio
direction of an answer, such as whether ❖ Frequency Polygon - A line graph of
someone agrees or disagrees with an class frequency plotted against class
issue. midpoint. It is almost identical to a
❖ Likert Scale - A rating scale used to histogram, which is used to compare
measure survey participants' opinions, sets of data or to display a cumulative
attitudes, motivations, and more. It frequency distribution.
uses a range of answer options ranging e.g. interval and ratio
from one extreme attitude to another,
sometimes including a moderate or
neutral option (strongly disagree to
strongly agree).
❖ Semantic Scale - A composite
(multi-item) scale where respondents
are asked to indicate their opinions or
feelings toward a single statement
using different pairs of adjectives
framed as polar opposites (Semantic
Differential, good-bad, happy-sad,
strong-weak).
❖ Guttman Scale - Uses a series of
items arranged in increasing order of
intensity of the construct of interest,
from least intense to most intense.
Named after Louis Guttman.
example of a guttman scale:

Commonly Used Types of Graph or

Charts