Activity 1 Quantitative Research: I. Image Intensifier [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

ACTIVITY 1 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH I.

Image Intensifier

Which between these two sets of statements is easier or quicker to understand? Justify your point inside the box. Set A – Ninety-five (95%) of the examinees passed the licensure exams. Twenty pages of the book contain grammatically incorrect sentences. Set B – A big number of examinees passed the licensure exams. Several pages of the book contain grammatically incorrect sentences. For me, set A statement is easier to understand because it presents the percentage of an examinees that passed the licensure exam. Also, the number of pages of the book that contain grammatically incorrect sentences was stated there which is twenty. Unlike in the set B that only words were used to explain. There is no exact numerical data stated. So, it is easier to understand statements which has an exact data in the form of stating its number or percentage than using only words to explain.

II.

Answer the following questions

1. What is quantitative research? -Quantitative research is a type of research that involves measurement of data that presents research findings in reference to numerical forms. -Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across group of people or to explain a particular phenomenon. (http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide ) 2. What are the characteristics of quantitative research? - It is objective - Research questions are clearly defined. - Research instrument is clearly structured. - Numerical presentation of data. - Large sample sizes. -Replicate but not duplicate.

-Data can be used to predict future outcomes or forecast. -Data can be used to verify existing facts and develop new concepts.

3. Discuss the strengths of quantitative research -Objective and provides numerical data. -Data can be gathered in a quick and easy way. -Data can be analyzed in a quick and easy way. -Replicable -It is real and unbiased.

4. Discuss the weaknesses of quantitative research. -Research instruments preparation and validation may take time if no standardized tools are available. -Information with sensitive issues are difficult to gather. -Costly -Time consuming -If not done seriously and correctly, data from questionnaires may be incomplete and inaccurate.

III.

DETERMINATION. Determine if the description given below is a strength or weakness of a quantitative research. Write your answer on the blank provided for. 1. The most reliable and valid way of concluding results, giving way to a new hypothesis or to disproving it. STRENGTH 2. Since, there are more respondents compared to qualitative research, the expenses will be greater in reaching out to these people and in reproducing questionnaires. _WEAKNESS

3. If not done seriously and correctly, data from questionnaires may be incomplete and inaccurate. WEAKNESS 4. Standardized approaches allow the study to be replicated in different areas or over time with formulation of comparable findings. STRENGTH 5. Quantitative experiments are useful for testing the results gained by a series of qualitative experiments, leading to a final answer, and narrowing down of possible directions to follow. STRENGHT 6. It is assumed that the larger the sample is, the more statistically accurate the findings are. WEAKNESS 7. Researchers must be on the look-out on respondents who are just guessing in answering the instrument. WEAKNESS 8. It does not consider the distinct capacity of the respondents to share and elaborate further information unlike the qualitative research. WEAKNESS 9. It is real and unbiased. STRENGTH 10. It is costly. WEAKNESS

IV. TRUE or FALSE. Write QUANTITATIVE after the item when the sentence is true while QUALITATIVE if the statement is false. 1. In quantitative research, researchers know in advance what they are looking for. QUANTITATIVE 2. Quantitative research can be easily misinterpreted because it provides numerical data. QUANTITATIVE 3. Quantitative research puts emphasis on proof, rather than discovery. QUANTITATIVE 4. Normative research is conducted by researcher whose aim would be to find out the direction and/or relationship between different variables or group of respondents under study. QUALITATIVE

5. Qualitative research requires a large number of respondents. It assumes that the larger the sample is, the more statistically accurate the findings are. QUALITATIVE 6. Evaluation describes the status of a phenomenon at a particular time. It describes without value judgment a situation that prevents. ____________________ 7. Correlational is conducted by researchers whose aim would be to find out the direction and/or relationship between different variables or groups of respondents under study. QUANTITATIVE 8. Methodological is the implementation of a variety of methodologies that forms a critical part of achieving the goal of developing a scaled-matched approach, where data from different disciplines can be integrated. QUANTITATIVE 9. One characteristics of quantitative research is that its method can be repeated to verify findings in another setting, thus, reinforcing validity findings. QUANTITATIVE 10. In quantitative experiments it filters out external factors, if properly designed, and so the results gained can be seen, as real and unbiased. QUANTITATIVE

Put a tick (/) if it describes the characteristics of a Quantitative Research. ______1. Data is in the form of words, pictures or objects. ___/___2. The data is usually gathered using structured research instruments. ______3. It is not based upon numerical measurements and does not use numbers and statistical methods as key research indicators and tools. ______4. It tends to be associated with small-scale studies and a holistic perspective, often studying a single occurrence or small number of occurrences/case studies in great depth. ___/___5. The research study can usually be replicated or repeated, given its high reliability. ___/___6. Data are in the form of numbers and statistics, often arranged in tables, charts, figures, or other non-textual forms. ______7. Emphasis is on discovery rather than proof.

___/___8. The results are based on larger sample sizes that are representative of the population. ______9. It tends to be associated with emergent research design, using a wide range of approaches ___/___10. Researcher has a clearly defined research question to which objective.

ACTIVITY 2 VARIABLES IN RESEARCH Variables are “changing qualities or characteristics” of persons or things like age, gender, intelligence, ideas, achievements, confidence, and so on that are involved in your research study. Made up of the root or base word “vary” which means to undergo changes or to differ from, variables have different or varying values in relation to time and situation. For instance, as years go by, your age or intelligence increases. But placed in a situation where you are afflicted with a disease or have no means of reading or no access to any sources of knowledge, your intelligence tends to decrease. (Suter 2013, p. 137) In research, especially in a quantitative research, one important thing you have to focus on at the start of your study is to determine the variables involved in your study. Unless you spend some time pondering on variables in your research, your work has no chance of attaining its goal. Your research problem or research topic to which you devote much of your initial research time finalizing stands great, if it has wordings on the basic variables involved in your study. The term ‘variable’ has been mentioned several times so that it is necessary to define it here. In research, a variable refers to a “characteristics that has two or more mutually exclusive values or properties” (Sevilla and Other, 1988). Sex, for instance, has two properties which are maleness and femaleness. The ages of different persons have different values; so with their size, height, weight and income. The phenomenon of variety is what makes life interesting; it is one of the motivating factors of the research undertaking. The root word of the word variable is “vary” or simply “can change”. These variables are among the fundamental concepts of research, alongside with measurement, validity,

reliability, cause and effect; and theory. Bernard (1994) defines a variable as something that can take more than one value, and values can be words or numbers. A variable specifically refers to characteristics, or attribute of an individual or an organization that can be measured or observed and that varies among the people or organization being studied (Creswell, 2002) .

BASIC TYPES (ALLEN, TITSWORTH, HUNT, 2009) I.

CONTINUOUS VARIABLES – A variable that can take infinite number on the value that can occur within the population. Its values can be divided into fractions. Examples of this type of variable include age, height, and temperature. Continuous variables can be further categorized as:

A. INTERVAL VARIABLES – It have values that lie along an evenly dispersed range of numbers. It is a measurement where the difference between two values does have meaning. Examples of interval data include temperature, a person’s net worth (how much money you have when you subtract your debt from your assets), etc. In temperature, this may illustrate as the difference between a temperature of 60 degrees and 50 degrees is the same as difference between 30 degrees and 20 degrees. The interval between values makes sense and can be interpreted.

B. RATIO VARIABLES – It have values that lie along an evenly dispersed range of numbers when there is absolute zero. It possesses the properties of interval variable and has a clear definition of zero, indication that there is none of that variable. Examples of which are height, weight, and distance. Most scores stemming from response to survey items are ratiolevel values because they typically cannot go below zero. Temperature measured in degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit is not a ratio variable because 0 under these temperatures scales does not mean no temperature at all.

II.

DISCRETE VARIABLES – This is also known as categorical or classificatory variable. This is any variable that has limited number of distinct values and which cannot be divided into fractions like sex, blood group, and number of children in family. Discrete variable may also have categorized into:

A. NOMINAL VARIABLE – It represent categories that cannot be ordered in any particular way. It is a variable with no quantitative value. It has two or more categories but does not imply ordering of cases. Common examples of this variable include eye color, business type, religion, biological sex, political affiliation, basketball fan affiliation, etc. A sub-type of nominal scale with only two categories just like sex is known as dichotomous.

B. ORDINAL VARIABLE – It represent categories that can be ordered from greatest to smallest. This variable has two or more categories which can be ranked. Examples of ordinal variable include education level, income brackets, etc. An illustration of this is, if you asked people if they liked listening to music while studying and they could answer either “NOT VERY MUCH”, “MUCH”, “VERY MUCH” then you have an ordinal variable. While you can rank them, we cannot place a value to them. In this type, distances between attributes do not have any meaning. For example, you used educational attainment as a variable on survey, you might code elementary school graduates = 1, high graduates = 2, college undergraduate = 3, and college graduate = 4. In this measure, higher number means greater education. Even though we can rank these from lowest to highest, the spacing between the values may not be the same across the levels of the variables. The distance between 3 and 4 is not the same with the distance between 1 and 2.

KINDS OF VARIABLES Several experts have lumped together the following as the major kinds of variables: 1. INDEPENDENT VARIABLES – Those that probably cause, influence, or affect outcomes. They are invariably called treatment, manipulated, antecedent or predictor variables. This is the cause variable or the one responsible for the conditions that act on something else to bring about changes.

EXAMPLE: A study is on the relationship of study habits and academic performance of UTNHS senior high school students. STUDY HABITS is the independent variable because it influenced the outcome or the performance of the students 2. DEPENDENT VARIABLES – those that depend on the independent variables; they are the outcomes or results of the influence of the independent variable. That is why it is also called outcome variable. EXAMPLE: A study is on the relationship of study habits and academic performance of UTNHS senior high school students. ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE is the dependent variable because it is depending on the study habits of the students; if the students change their study habit the academic performance also change. 3. INTERVENING OR MEDLING VARIABLES – Variables that “stand between” the independent and dependent variables, and they show the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable. EXAMPLE: Consider the given below. Even if farm production is good, if the attitude towards payment is negative, loan repayment would be low, whereas, if the attitude towards repayment is positive or favorable, loan repayment would be high.

4. CONTROL VARIABLES – A special types of independent variables that are measured in the study because they potentially influence the dependent variable. Researchers use statistical procedures (e.g. analysis of covariance) to control these variables. They may be demographic or personal variables that need to be “controlled” so that the true influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable can be determined. 5. CONFOUNDING VARIABLES – Variables that are not actually measured or observed in a study. They exist but their influence cannot be directly detected in a study. Researchers comment on the influence of confounding variables after the study has been completed, because these variables may have operated to explain the

relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable, but they were not or could not be easily assessed.

I.

Image Intensifier.

Think about this title of the reading material that you will soon read: Variables. What comes to your mind upon hearing this word? Ask questions to express your curiosity about this word. 1. 2. 3. 4.

II.

What is the importance of variables in research? Why do it has a lot of kinds and types of variable in research? Do variables really important in research? What is the purpose of variable in research?

Identification. Identify what is being asked in each number. Write your answer after the statement. Choose your answer from the box below.

VARIABLE

DEPENDENT

CONTINUOUS INTERVAL

INDEPENDENT CONTROL INTERVENING

NOMINAL

CONFOUNDING ORDINAL

RATIO ABSTRACT

1. It refers to the characteristics that have two or more mutually exclusive values or properties. VARIABLE 2. Variables that represent categories that cannot be ordered in any particular way. NOMINAL 3. Special kind of independent variables that are measured in a study because they potentially influence the dependent variable. CONTROL

4. Variables that have values that lie along an evenly dispersed range of numbers when there is an absolute zero, as opposed to net worth, which can have a negative debt-to-income ratio-level variable. RATIO 5. Kind of variable that are not actually measured or observed in a study. They exist but their influence cannot be directly detected in a study. CONFOUNDING 6. It “stands between” the independent and dependent variables, and they show the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable. INTERVENING 7. Variables that represent categories that can be ordered from greatest to smallest. ORDINAL 8. Kind of variable that probably cause, influence, or effect outcomes. They are variably called treatment, manipulated, antecedent or predictor variables. INDEPENDENT 9. Variables that depend on independent variables; they are the outcomes or results of the influence of the independent variable. DEPENDENT 10. Variables that have values that lie along an evenly dispersed range of numbers. INTERVAL

III. Determination. Determine if what type of variable are the following. Write I if the variable is Interval, N if Nominal, R if Ratio and O if Ordinal. 1. Military Title

_____O______

2. Temperature in degree Celsius

______I_____

3. Birthplace

___________

4. Year Level

_____O______

5. Favorite Type of Music

___________

6. Clothing such as hat, shirt, shoes

______N_____

7. A score in 5- item quiz in Math

______R_____

8. Feeling for today

______I_____

9. Means of Transportation

_____R______

10. How internet is used at home

_____N______

11. Freshman, Sophomore

_____O______

12. Person’s net worth

_____I______

13. Male or female

_____N______

14. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

_____O______

15. Political Affiliation

_____N______

ACTIVITY 3

HYPOTHESES Directions: Write Ho on the line if the statement is a null hypothesis for the given research problem; Hi, if it is an alternative hypothesis; and X if it is not a hypothesis. Quantitative Research Problem: In what order should the 18 senatorial candidates be ranked on the basis of their experience on legal management? ____Hi___ 1. One-half of the senatorial candidates are knowledgeable about law. ____Ho__ 2. Two-thirds of the senatorial candidates have no knowledge about law. ____Hi___ 3. Being lawyers means having rich background knowledge on law. ____X___ 4. The lone lawyer among the candidates will be in rank one.

____Ho___ 5. The only lawyer in the group will not be number one in the rank.