Research Methodology

Unit1:

1. Briefly describe the different steps involved in a research process.

2. “Empirical research in India in particular creates so many problems for the researchers”. State the problems that are usually faced by such researchers.

3. “A research scholar has to work as a judge and derive the truth and not as a pleader who is only eagerto prove his case in favour of his plaintiff.” Discuss the statement pointing out the objectives ofresearch.4. “Research is much concerned with proper fact finding, analysis and evaluation.” Do you agree with this statement? Give reasons in support of your answer

5. Explain the meaning and significance of a Research design.

6. Describe some of the important research designs used in experimental hypothesis-testing research study.7. Give your understanding of a good research design. Is single research design suitable in all research studies? If not, why?. 8. Write a short note on ‘Experience Survey’ explaining fully its utility in exploratory research studies.

Unit 3 :

1. What do you mean by ‘Sample Design’? What points should be taken into consideration by a researcher in developing a sample design for this research project.

2. Distinguish between:(a) Restricted and unrestricted sampling;(b) Convenience and purposive sampling;(c) Systematic and stratified sampling;(d) Cluster and area sampling.

3. Under what circumstances would you recommend:(a) A probability sample?(b) A non-probability sample?(c) A stratified sample?

(d) A cluster sample?

4. Describe the different methods of scale construction, pointing out the merits and demerits of each.

5. “Scaling describes the procedures by which numbers are assigned to various degrees of opinion, attitude and other concepts.” Discuss. Also point out the bases for scale classification.

6. “It is never safe to take published statistics at their face value without knowing their meaning andlimitations.” Elucidate this statement by enumerating and explaining the various points which you wouldconsider before using any published data. Illustrate your answer by examples wherever possible.

7. Discuss interview as a technique of data collection.

8. Critically examine the following:(i) Interviews introduce more bias than does the use of questionnaire.(ii) Data collection through projective techniques is considered relatively more reliable.(iii) In collection of statistical data commonsense is the chief requisite and experience the chief teacher.

9. What is a hypothesis? What characteristics it must possess in order to be a good research hypothesis?A manufacturer considers his production process to be working properly if the mean length of the rodsthe manufactures is 8.5". The standard deviation of the rods always runs about 0.26". Suppose a sampleof 64 rods is taken and this gives a mean length of rods equal to 8.6". What are the null and alternativehypotheses for this problem? Can you infer at 5% level of significance that the process is workingproperly?

10. The procedure of testing hypothesis requires a researcher to adopt several steps. Describe in brief allsuch steps.

11. Point out the important limitations of tests of hypotheses. What precaution the researcher must take while drawing inferences as per the results of the said tests?

12. A sample of 900 members is found to have a mean of 3.47 cm. Can it be reasonably regarded as a simple sample from a large population with mean 3.23 cm. and standard deviation 2.31 cm.?

13. Ten students are selected at random from a school and their heights are found to be, in inches, 50, 52, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 58 and 59. In the light of these data, discuss the suggestion that the mean height of the students of the school is 54 inches. You may use 5% level of significance (Apply t-test as well as A-test).

14. In a test given to two groups of students, the marks obtained were as follows:First Group 18 20 36 50 49 36 34 49 41Second Group 29 28 26 35 30 44 46Examine the significance of difference between mean marks obtained by students of the above twogroups. Test at five per cent level of significance.

15. The heights of six randomly chosen sailors are, in inches, 63, 65, 58, 69, 71 and 72. The heights of 10randomly chosen soldiers are, in inches, 61, 62, 65, 66, 69, 69, 70, 71, 72 and 73. Do these figures indicate that soldiers are on an average shorter than sailors? Test at 5% level of significance.

16. 12 students were given intensive coaching and 5 tests were conducted in a month. The scores of tests 1 and 5 are given below. Does the score from Test 1 to Test 5 show an improvement? Use 5% level of significance.No. of students 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Marks in 1st Test 50 42 51 26 35 42 60 41 70 55 62 38Marks in 5th test 62 40 61 35 30 52 68 51 84 63 72 50

17. What is Chi-square text? Explain its significance in statistical analysis.

18. An experiement was conducted to test the efficiency of chloromycetin in checking typhoid. In a certain hospital chloromycetin was given to 285 out of the 392 patients suffering from typhoid. The number of typhoid cases were as follows: Typhoid No Typhoid Total

Chloromycetin 35 250 285No Chloromycetin 50 57 107

Total 85 307 392

With the help of 2 , test the effectiveness of chloromycetin in checking typhoid. (The c2 value at 5 per cent level of significance for one degree of freedom is 3.841).

19. On the basis of information given below about the treatment of 200 patients suffering from a disease, state whether the new treatment is comparatively superior to the conventional treatment.

No. of patientsTreatment Favourable No Response

Response

New 60 20Conventional 70 50

For drawing inference use the value of 2 for one degree of freedom at the 5 per cent level ofsignificance, viz., 3.84.

20. 200 digits were chosen at random from a set of tables. The frequencies of the digits were:Digit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Frequency 18 19 23 21 16 25 22 20 21 15

Calculate .

21. Five dice were thrown 96 times and the number of times 4, 5, or 6 was thrown wereNumber of dice throwing4, 5 or 6 5 4 3 2 1 0Frequency 8 18 35 24 10 1Find the value of Chi-square.

22. Find Chi-square from the following information:

Condition of homeCondition of child Total

Clean Dirty

Clean 70 50 120Fairly clean 80 20 100Dirty 35 45 80Total 185 115 300

State whether the two attributes viz., condition of home and condition of child are independent (Use Chi-square test for the purpose).

23. In a certain cross the types represented by XY, Xy, xY and xy are expected to occur in a 9 : 5 : 4 : 2 ratio. The actual frequencies were:

XY Xy xY xy180 110 60 50

Test the goodness of fit of observation to theory.

24.. You are given a sample of 150 observations classified by two attributes A and B as follows:

A1 A2 A3 Total

B1 40 25 15 80B2 11 26 8 45B3 9 9 7 25

Total 60 60 30 150

Use the test to examine whether A and B are associated.

25. A survey of 320 families with five children each revealed the following distribution:

No. of boys 5 4 3 2 1 0

No. of girls 0 1 2 3 4 5

No. of families 14 56 110 88 40 12

Is this distribution consistent with the hypothesis that male and female births are equally probable?Apply Chi-square test.

26. . What is Yates’ correction? Find the value of Chi-square applying Yates’ correction to the following data:

Passed Failed TotalDay classes 10 20 30Evening classes 4 66 70Total 14 86 100

Also state whether the association, if any, between passing in the examination and studying in dayclasses is significant using Chi-square test.

27. The number of automobile accidents per week in a certain community were as follows:12, 8, 20, 2, 14, 10, 15, 6, 9, 4

Are these frequencies in agreement with the belief that accident conditions were the same during the 10 week period under consideration?

28. A certain chemical plant processes sea water to collect sodium chloride and magnesium. From scientific analysis, sea water is known to contain sodium chloride, magnesium and other elements in the ratio of 62 : 4 : 34. A sample of 200 tons of sea water has resulted in 130 tons of sodium chloride and 6 tons of magnesium. Are these data consistent with the scientific model at 5 per cent level of significance?

29. A group of 150 College students were asked to indicate their most liked film star from among six different well known film actors viz., A, B, C, D, E and F in order to ascertain their relative popularity. The observed frequency data were as follows:

Actors A B C D E F TotalFrequencies 24 20 32 25 28 21 150

Test at 5 per cent whether all actors are equally popular.

30. (a) Explain the meaning of analysis of variance. Describe briefly the technique of analysis of variance for one-way and two-way classifications. (b) State the basic assumptions of the analysis of variance.

31. What do you mean by the additive property of the technique of the analysis of variance?

Explain how this technique is superior in comparison to sampling.32. Below are given the yields per acre of wheat for six plots entering a crop competition, there of the plots being sown with wheat of variety A and three with B.

Variety Yields in fields per acre1 2 3

A 30 32 22B 20 18 16

Set up a table of analysis of variance and calculate F. State whether the difference between the yields of two varieties is significant taking 7.71 as the table value of F at 5% level for v1 = 1 and v2 = 4.

33. A certain manure was used on four plots of land A, B, C and D. Four beds were prepared in each plot and the manure used. The output of the crop in the beds of plots A, B, C and D is given below:

Output on PlotsA B C D

8 9 3 312 4 8 71 7 2 83 1 5 2

Find out whether the difference in the means of the production of crops of the plots is significant or not.

34. Test the hypothesis at the 0.05 level of significance that m1 = m2 = m3 for the following data:Samples

No. one No. two No. three(1) (2) (3)

6 2 67 4 86 5 9– 3 5– 4 –

Total 19 18 28

35.. Three varieties of wheat W1, W2 and W3 are treated with four different fertilizers viz., f1, f2, f3 and f4. The yields of wheat per acre were as under:

Fertilizer treatment Varieties of wheat TotalW1 W2 W3

f1 55 72 47 174f2 64 66 53 183f3 58 57 74 189f4 59 57 58 174

Total 236 252 232 720

Set up a table for the analysis of variance and work out the F-ratios in respect of the above. Are theF-ratios significant?

36. The following table gives the monthly sales (in thousand rupees) of a certain firm in three states by its four salesmen:

States Salesmen Total

A B C DX 5 4 4 7 20Y 7 8 5 4 24Z 9 6 6 7 28

Total 21 18 15 18 72

Set up an analysis of variance table for the above information. Calculate F-coefficients and state whether the difference between sales affected by the four salesmen and difference between sales affected in three States are significant.

37.. The following table illustrates the sample psychological health ratings of corporate executives in the field of Banking. Manufacturing and Fashion retailing:

Banking 41 53 54 55 43Manufacturing 45 51 48 43 39Fashion retailing 34 44 46 45 51

Can we consider the psychological health of corporate executives in the given three fields to be equal at 5% level of significance?

38. The following table shows the lives in hours of randomly selected electric lamps from four batches:

Batch Lives in hours

1 1600 1610 1650 1680 1700 1720 18002 1580 1640 1640 1700 17503 1450 1550 1600 1620 1640 1660 1740 18204 1510 1520 1530 1570 1600 1680

Perform an analysis of variance of these data and show that a significance test does not reject their homogeneity.

Unit 4:

1. While determining the length of the report (since research reports vary greatly in length), one should keep in view the fact that it should be long enough to cover the subject but short enough to maintain interest. In fact, report-writing should not be a means to learning more and more about less and less.

2. A research report should not, if this can be avoided, be dull; it should be such as to sustain reader’s interest.

3. Abstract terminology and technical jargon should be avoided in a research report. The report should be able to convey the matter as simply as possible. This, in other words, means that report should be written in an objective style in simple language, avoiding expressions such as “it seems,” “there may be” and the like.

4. Readers are often interested in acquiring a quick knowledge of the main findings and as such the report must provide a ready availability of the findings. For this purpose, charts, graphs and the statistical tables may be used for the various results in the main report in addition to the summary of important findings.

5. The layout of the report should be well thought out and must be appropriate and in accordance with the objective of the research problem.

6. The reports should be free from grammatical mistakes and must be prepared strictly in accordance with the techniques of composition of report-writing such as the use of quotations, footnotes, documentation, proper punctuation and use of abbreviations in footnotes and the like.

7. The report must present the logical analysis of the subject matter. It must reflect a structure wherein the different pieces of analysis relating to the research problem fit well.

8. Towards the end, the report must also state the policy implications relating to the problem under consideration. It is usually considered desirable if the report makes a forecast of the probable future of the subject concerned and indicates the kinds of research still needs to be done in that particular field.

9 . Appendices should be enlisted in respect of all the technical data in the report.

10. Bibliography of sources consulted is a must for a good report and must necessarily be given.

11 . Index is also considered an essential part of a good report and as such must be prepared and appended at the end.

12. Report must be attractive in appearance, neat and clean, whether typed or printed.

13. Calculated confidence limits must be mentioned and the various constraints experienced in conducting the research study may also be stated in the report.