BUS 802 (BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS)

ASSIGNMENT

PREPARED BY

TOCHUKWU NWAOGWUGWU COLLINS

SPECIALIZATION: OPERATIONS PRODUCTIONS

MANAGEMENT

MAT NO. 169023213

April 19, 2018

Assignment Questions
Research on the Following
1. Sampling Techniques
a. Probability Sampling
b. Non probability Sampling
2. Research Measurements
-Scales & Measurement
- Types of Scale
- Reliability and Validity
- Questionnaire Construction

SAMPLING

Sampling is the selection of a subset (a statistical sample) of individuals from within a statistical
population to estimate characteristics of the whole population.
A sample can be defined as a group of relatively smaller number of people selected from a
population for investigation purpose. The members of the sample are called as participants
Two advantages of sampling are that the cost is lower and data collection is faster than
measuring the entire population. Each observation measures one or more properties (such as
weight, location, color) of observable bodies distinguished as independent objects or individuals.
In survey sampling, weights can be applied to the data to adjust for the sample design,
particularly stratified sampling.

ESSENCE OF SAMPLING
The process through which a sample is extracted from a population is called as sampling. In
investigation it is impossible to assess every single element of a population so a group of people
(smaller in number than the population) is selected for the assessment. On the basis of
information obtained from the sample, the inferences are drawn for the population. The more the
sample is representative of the population, the higher is the accuracy of the inferences and better
are the results generalizable.
A sample is said to be representative when the characteristics of elements selected are similar to
that of entire target population. The results are said to be generalizable when the findings
obtained from sample are equally true for the entire target population. Sampling process may
encounter the problem of systematic errors and sampling biases.
Systematic errors can be defined as incorrect or false representation of the sample. These errors
are caused by over representation of one characteristic and/or under representation of the others.
Sampling bias is said to occur when the selected sample does not truly reflect the characteristics
of population.
For instance, a research takes into account the people at a hospital; the researches judges which
person might be willing to be a participant of his research. In this way people who look friendly
and less disturbed are more likely to be a part of the research. This sample would not be
reflective of the whole hospital population; more aggressive, unfriendly and disturbed people are
also a part of the target population. Thus this sampling is biased by researcher’s subjective
judgment. Systematic error has occurred by the over representation of friendly people.

TYPES OF SAMPLING
Sampling techniques are broadly categorized into two major types:
1) Probability sampling methods
2) Non-probability sampling methods

PROBABILITY SAMPLING
A probability sample is a sample in which every unit in the population has a chance (greater than
zero) of being selected in the sample, and this probability can be accurately determined. The
combination of these traits makes it possible to produce unbiased estimates of population totals,
by weighting sampled units according to their probability of selection.

Probability Sampling Methods

Probability sampling is also called as random sampling or representative sampling. In
probability sampling every member of the population has a known (non-zero) probability of
being included in the sample. Some form of random selection is used. The probabilities can be
assigned to each unit of the population objectively. These techniques need population to be very
precisely defined. These techniques cannot be used for the population that is too general a
category found almost everywhere in the world. For instance if our target population is defined
as college students. It means person studying at any college of the world is an element of our
population. In this case how a sample can be extracted through probability sampling technique.
Contrastingly, if the target population is defined as students of 2015-16 badge of Royal
College. It means only those students constitute our population who study at the college during
the mentioned period.
In this case probability sampling can be done as the population is precisely defined and limited
to an infinite number of elements.

Example: We want to estimate the total income of adults living in a given street. We visit each
household in that street, identify all adults living there, and randomly select one adult from each
household. (For example, we can allocate each person a random number, generated from a
uniform distribution between 0 and 1, and select the person with the highest number in each
household). We then interview the selected person and find their income.

People living on their own are certain to be selected, so we simply add their income to our
estimate of the total. But a person living in a household of two adults has only a one-in-two
chance of selection. To reflect this, when we come to such a household, we would count the
selected person's income twice towards the total. (The person who is selected from that
household can be loosely viewed as also representing the person who isn't selected.)

In the above example, not everybody has the same probability of selection; what makes it a
probability sample is the fact that each person's probability is known. When every element in the
population does have the same probability of selection, this is known as an 'equal probability of
selection' (EPS) design. Such designs are also referred to as 'self-weighting' because all sampled
units are given the same weight.

Probability sampling includes: Simple Random Sampling, Systematic Sampling, Stratified

Sampling, Probability Proportional to Size Sampling, and Cluster or Multistage Sampling. These
various ways of probability sampling have two things in common:

Every element has a known nonzero probability of being sampled and involves random
selection at some point.

Advantages:
 This sampling technique reduces the chance of systematic errors.
 The methods minimize the chance of sampling biases.
 A better representative sample is produced using probability sampling techniques.
 Inferences drawn from sample are generalizable to the population.
Disadvantages:
 The techniques need a lot of efforts
  A lot of time is consumed.
 They are expensive.
TYPES OF PROBABILITY SAMPLING METHODS
Following methods are used for probability sampling
1. Simple Random Sampling
2. Systematic Random Sampling
3. Stratified Random Sampling
4. Cluster Sampling
5. Multistage Sampling

NONPROBABILITY SAMPLING

Nonprobability sampling is any sampling method where some elements of the population have
no chance of selection (these are sometimes referred to as 'out of coverage'/'under covered'), or
where the probability of selection can't be accurately determined. It involves the selection of
elements based on assumptions regarding the population of interest, which forms the criteria for
selection. Hence, because the selection of elements is nonrandom, nonprobability sampling does
not allow the estimation of sampling errors. These conditions give rise to exclusion bias, placing
limits on how much information a sample can provide about the population. Information about
the relationship between sample and population is limited, making it difficult to extrapolate from
the sample to the population.

Example: We visit every household in a given street, and interview the first person to answer
the door. In any household with more than one occupant, this is a nonprobability sample, because
some people are more likely to answer the door (e.g. an unemployed person who spends most of
their time at home is more likely to answer than an employed housemate who might be at work
when the interviewer calls) and it's not practical to calculate these probabilities.

Nonprobability sampling methods include convenience sampling, quota sampling and purposive
sampling. In addition, nonresponse effects may turn any probability design into a nonprobability
design if the characteristics of nonresponse are not well understood, since nonresponse
effectively modifies each element's probability of being sampled.

Probability sampling is also known as judgment or non-random sampling.

Every unit of population does not get an equal chance of participation in the investigation. No
random selection is made. The selection of the sample is made on the basis of subjective
judgment of the investigator. These techniques need not population to be very precisely defined.
These techniques can be used for both types of population: the population that is too general a
category, and the population that is a specific category (precisely defined). For instance if our
target population is defined as college students. It means person studying at any college of the
world is an element of our population. It is too general a category consisting of infinite number
of elements. Contrastingly, if the target population is defined as students of 2015-16 badge of
Royal College. It means only those students constitute our population who study at the college
during the mentioned period. It is a specific type consisting of finite number of elements. Thus,
non-probability techniques make it possible to take a sample of population the elements of which
are infinite in number. Non-probability sampling is well suited for exploratory research intended
to generate new ideas that will be systematically tested later. Probability sampling is well suited
for research that is intended to develop the understanding of a population.

Advantages:
 The techniques need less effort.
 These techniques need less time to finish up.
 They are not much costly.
Disadvantages:
 The sampling techniques are prone to encounter with systematic errors and sampling
biases.
 The sample cannot be claimed to be a good representative of the population.
 Inferences drawn from sample are not generalizable to the population.

TYPES OF NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

Following methods of sampling are included in the non-probability sampling:
1. Volunteer sampling
2. Convenient sampling
3. Purposive sampling
4. Quota sampling (proportional and non-proportional)
5. Snowball sampling
6. Matched Sampling
7. Genealogy Based Sampling

REASEARCH MEASUREMENT CONCEPT

Measurement is the process observing and recording the observations that are collected as part of
a research effort. There are two major issues that will be considered here.

First, you have to understand the fundamental ideas involved in measuring. Here we consider
two of major measurement concepts. In Levels of Measurement, I explain the meaning of the
four major levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Then we move on to the
reliability of measurement, including consideration of true score theory and a variety of
reliability estimators. Second, you have to understand the different types of measures that you
might use in social research. We consider four broad categories of measurements. Survey
research includes the design and implementation of interviews and questionnaires. Scaling
involves consideration of the major methods of developing and implementing a scale. Qualitative
research provides an overview of the broad range of non-numerical measurement approaches.
And unobtrusive measures presents a variety of measurement methods that don't intrude on or
interfere with the context of the research.

SCALES AND MEASUREMENT

Scaling is the branch of measurement that involves the construction of an instrument that
associates qualitative constructs with quantitative metric units. Scaling evolved out of efforts in
psychology and education to measure "unmeasurable" constructs like authoritarianism and self-
esteem. In many ways, scaling remains one of the most arcane and misunderstood aspects of
social research measurement. And, it attempts to do one of the most difficult of research tasks --
measure abstract concepts.

Most people don't even understand what scaling is. The basic idea of scaling is described in
General Issues in Scaling, including the important distinction between a scale and a response
format. Scales are generally divided into two broad categories: unidimensional and
multidimensional. The unidimensional scaling methods were developed in the first half of the
twentieth century and are generally named after their inventor. We'll look at three types of
unidimensional scaling methods here:

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, measurement theorists developed more advanced techniques
for creating multidimensional scales. Although these techniques are not considered here, you
may want to look at the method of concept mapping that relies on that approach to see the power
of these multivariate methods.

PURPOSES OF SCALING

Why do we do scaling? Why not just create text statements or questions and use response
formats to collect the answers? First, sometimes we do scaling to test a hypothesis. We might
want to know whether the construct or concept is a single dimensional or multidimensional one
(more about dimensionality later). Sometimes, we do scaling as part of exploratory research. We
want to know what dimensions underlie a set of ratings. For instance, if you create a set of
questions, you can use scaling to determine how well they "hang together" and whether they
measure one concept or multiple concepts. But probably the most common reason for doing
scaling is for scoring purposes. When a participant gives their responses to a set of items, we
often would like to assign a single number that represents that's person's overall attitude or belief.
For the figure above, we would like to be able to give a single number that describes a person's
attitudes towards immigration, for example.
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

We often think of reliability and validity as separate ideas but, in fact, they're related to each
other. Here, I want to show you two ways you can think about their relationship.
One of my favorite metaphors for the relationship between reliability is that of the target. Think
of the center of the target as the concept that you are trying to measure. Imagine that for each
person you are measuring, you are taking a shot at the target. If you measure the concept
perfectly for a person, you are hitting the center of the target. If you don't, you are missing the
center. The more you are off for that person, the further you are from the center.

The figure above shows four possible situations. In the first one, you are hitting the target
consistently, but you are missing the center of the target. That is, you are consistently and
systematically measuring the wrong value for all respondents. This measure is reliable, but no
valid (that is, it's consistent but wrong). The second, shows hits that are randomly spread across
the target. You seldom hit the center of the target but, on average, you are getting the right
answer for the group (but not very well for individuals). In this case, you get a valid group
estimate, but you are inconsistent. Here, you can clearly see that reliability is directly related to
the variability of your measure. The third scenario shows a case where your hits are spread
across the target and you are consistently missing the center. Your measure in this case is neither
reliable nor valid. Finally, we see the "Robin Hood" scenario -- you consistently hit the center of
the target. Your measure is both reliable and valid (I bet you never thought of Robin Hood in
those terms before).
Another way we can think about the relationship between reliability and validity is shown in the
figure below. Here, we set up a 2x2 table. The columns of the table indicate whether you are
trying to measure the same or different concepts. The rows show whether you are using the same
or different methods of measurement. Imagine that we have two concepts we would like to
measure, student verbal and math ability. Furthermore, imagine that we can measure each of
these in two ways. First, we can use a written, paper-and-pencil exam (very much like the SAT
or GRE exams). Second, we can ask the student's classroom teacher to give us a rating of the
student's ability based on their own classroom observation.
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