Questions Research Methodology Unit-1 Briefly describe the different steps involved in a research process.

What do you mean by research? Explain its significance in modern times. Distinguish between Research methods and Research methodology. Describe the different types of research, clearly pointing out the difference between an experiment and a survey. 5. Write short notes on: a. Design of the research project; b. Ex post facto research; c. Motivation in research; d. Objectives of research; e. Criteria of good research; f. Research and scientific method. 6. Empirical research in India in particular creates so many problems for the researchers. State the problems that are usually faced by such researchers. 1. 2. 3. 4. 7. A research scholar has to work as a judge and derive the truth and not as a pleader who is only eager to prove his case in favour of his plaintiff. Discuss the statement pointing out the objectives of research. 8. Creative management, whether in public administration or private industry, depends on methods of inquiry that maintain objectivity, clarity, accuracy and consistency. Discuss this statement and examine the significance of research. 9. Research is much concerned with proper fact finding, analysis and evaluation. Do you agree with this statement? Give reasons in support of your answer. 10. It is often said that there is not a proper link between some of the activities under way in the world of academics and in most business in our country. Account for this state of affairs and give suggestions for improvement. 11. Describe fully the techniques of defining a research problem. 12. What is research problem? Define the main issues which should receive the attention of the researcher in formulating the research problem. Give suitable examples to elucidate your points. 13. How do you define a research problem? Give three examples to illustrate your answer. 14. What is the necessity of defining a research problem? Explain. 15. Write short notes on: 16. Experience survey; 17. Pilot survey; 18. Components of a research problem; 19. Rephrasing the research problem. 20. The task of defining the research problem often follows a sequential pattern. Explain. 21. Knowing what data are available often serves to narrow down the problem itself as well as the technique that might be used. Explain the underlying idea in this statement in the context of defining a research problem. 22. Write a comprehensive note on the Task of defining a research problem.

23. Explain the meaning and significance of a Research design. 24. Explain the meaning of the following in context of Research design. (a) Extraneous variables; (b) Confounded relationship; (c) Research hypothesis; (d) Experimental and Control groups; (e) Treatments. 25. Describe some of the important research designs used in experimental hypothesis-testing research study. 26. Research design in exploratory studies must be flexible but in descriptive studies, it must minimise bias and maximise reliability. Discuss. 27. Give your understanding of a good research design. Is single research design suitable in all research studies? If not, why? 28. Explain and illustrate the following research designs: (f) Two group simple randomized design; (g) Latin square design; (h) Random replications design; (i) Simple factorial design; (j) Informal experimental designs. 29. Write a short note on Experience Survey explaining fully its utility in exploratory research studies. 30. What is research design? Discuss the basis of stratification to be employed in sampling public opinion on inflation.

Unit-2
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. How would you differentiate between simple random sampling and complex random sampling designs? 3. Explain clearly giving examples. 4. Why probability sampling is generally preferred in comparison to non-probability sampling? Explain the procedure of selecting a simple random sample. 5. Under what circumstances stratified random sampling design is considered appropriate? How would you select such sample? Explain by means of an example. 6. Distinguish between: (a) Restricted and unrestricted sampling; (b) Convenience and purposive sampling; (c) Systematic and stratified sampling; (d) Cluster and area sampling. 7. Under what circumstances would you recommend: (e) A probability sample? (f) A non-probability sample? (g) A stratified sample? (h) A cluster sample? 8. Explain and illustrate the procedure of selecting a random sample. 9. A systematic bias results from errors in the sampling procedures. What do you mean by such a systematic bias? Describe the important causes responsible for such a bias. (a) The following are the number of departmental stores in 10 cities: 35, 27, 24, 32, 42, 30, 34, 40, 29 and 38. If we want to select a sample of 15 stores using cities as clusters and selecting within clusters proportional to size, how many stores from each city should be chosen? (Use a starting point of 4). 1.

(b)What sampling design might be used to estimate the weight of a group of men and women? 10. A certain population is divided into five strata so that N1 = 2000, N2 = 2000, N3 = 1800, N4 = 1700, and 11. N5 = 2500. Respective standard deviations are: 1 1.6 , 2 2.0 , 3 4.4 , 4 4.8 , 5 6.0 and further the expected sampling cost in the first two strata is Rs 4 per interview and in the remaining three strata the sampling cost is Rs 6 per interview. How should a sample of size n = 226 be allocated to five strata if we adopt proportionate sampling design; if we adopt disproportionate sampling design considering (i) only the differences in stratum variability (ii) differences in stratum variability as well as the differences in stratum sampling costs. 12. What is the meaning of measurement in research? What difference does it make whether we measure in terms of a nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio scale? Explain giving examples. 13. Are you in agreement with the following statements? If so, give reasons: a. Validity is more critical to measurement than reliability. b. Stability and equivalence aspects of reliability essentially mean the same thing. c. Content validity is the most difficult type of validity to determine. d. There is no difference between concept development and concept specification. e. Reliable measurement is necessarily a valid measurement. 14. Point out the possible sources of error in measurement. Describe the tests of sound measurement. 15. Are the following nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio data? Explain your answers. a. Temperatures measured on the Kelvin scale. b. Military ranks. c. Social security numbers. d. Number of passengers on buses from Delhi to Mumbai. e. Code numbers given to the religion of persons attempting suicide. 16. Discuss the relative merits and demerits of: a. Rating vs. Ranking scales. b. Summated vs. Cumulative scales. c. Scalogram analysis vs. Factor analysis. 17. The following table shows the results of a paired-comparison preference test of four cold drinks from a sample of 200 persons: Name Coca Cola Limca Goldspot Thumps up Coca Cola 60* 105 45 Limca 160 150 70 Goldspot 75 40 65 Thumps up 165 120 145
i. To be read as 60 persons preferred Limca over Coca Cola.

18.

19.

20. 21. 22. 23.

24. 25. 26.

(a) How do these brands rank in overall preference in the given sample. (b) Develop an interval scale for the four varieties of cold drinks. (1) Narrate the procedure for developing a scalogram and illustrate the same by an example. (2)Workout Guttmans coefficient of reproducibility from the following information: Number of cases (N) = 30 Number of items (n) = 6 Number of errors (e) = 10 Interpret the meaning of coefficient you work out in this example. Write short notes on: a. Semantic differential scale; b. Scalogram analysis; c. Likert-type scale; d. Arbitrary scales; e. Multidimensional scaling (MDS). Describe the different methods of scale construction, pointing out the merits and demerits of each. 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. Enumerate the different methods of collecting data. Which one is the most suitable for conducting enquiry regarding family welfare programme in India? Explain its merits and demerits. It is never safe to take published statistics at their face value without knowing their meaning and limitations. Elucidate this statement by enumerating and explaining the various points which you would consider before using any published data. Illustrate your answer by examples wherever possible. Examine the merits and limitations of the observation method in collecting material. Illustrate your answer with suitable examples. Describe some of the major projective techniques and evaluate their significance as tools of scientific social research. How does the case study method differ from the survey method? Analyse the merits and limitations of case study method in sociological research.

27. Clearly explain the difference between collection of data through questionnaires and schedules. 28. Discuss interview as a technique of data collection. 29. . Write short notes on: (a) Depth interviews; (b) Important aspects of a questionnaire; (c) Pantry and store audits; (d) Thematic Apperception Test; (e) Holtzman Inkbolt Test. 30. What are the guiding considerations in the construction of questionnaire? Explain. 31. 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. 32. Distinguish between an experiment and survey. Explain fully the survey method of research. 33. Experimental method of research is not suitable in management field. Discuss, what are the problems in the introduction of this research design in business organisation?

Unit-3
1. Processing of data implies editing, coding, classification and tabulation. Describe in brief these four operations pointing out the significance of each in context of research study. 2. Classification according to class intervals involves three main problems viz., how many classes should be there? How to choose class limits? How to determine class frequency? State how these problems should be tackled by a researcher. 3. Why tabulation is considered essential in a research study? Narrate the characteristics of a good table. 4. (a) How the problem of DK responses should be dealt with by a researcher? Explain. (b) What points one should observe while using percentages in research studies? 5. Write a brief note on different types of analysis of data pointing out the significance of each. 6. What do you mean by multivariate analysis? Explain how it differs from bivariate analysis. 7. How will you differentiate between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics? Describe the important statistical measures often used to summarise the survey/research data. 8. What does a measure of central tendency indicate? Describe the important measures of central tendency pointing out the situation when one measure is considered relatively appropriate in comparison to other measures. 9. Describe the various measures of relationships often used in context of research studies. Explain the meaning of the following correlation coefficients: (i) ryx, (ii) ryx1 x2 , (iii) Ryx1x2 10. Write short notes on the following: (i) Cross tabulation; (ii) Discriminant analysis; (iii) Coefficient of contingency; (iv) Multicollinearity; (v) Partial association between two attributes. 11. The analysis of time series is done to understand the dynamic conditions for achieving the short-term and long-term goals of business firms. Discuss. 12. Changes in various economic and social phenomena can be measured and compared through index numbers. Explain this statement pointing out the utility of index numbers. 13. Distinguish between: (i) Field editing and central editing; (ii) Statistics of attributes and statistics of variables; (iii) Exclusive type and inclusive type class intervals; (iv) Simple and complex tabulation; (v) Mechanical tabulation and cross tabulation. 14. Discriminate use of average is very essential for sound statistical analysis. Why? Answer giving examples. 15. Explain how would you work out the following statistical measures often used by researchers? (i) Coefficient of variation; (ii) Arithmetic average; (iii) Coefficient of skewness; (iv) Regression equation of X on Y; (v) Coefficient of ryx2 x1 .

1. Explain the meaning and significance of the concept of Standard Error in sampling analysis. 2. Describe briefly the commonly used sampling distributions. 3. State the reasons why sampling is used in the context of research studies. 4. Explain the meaning of the following sampling fundamentals: (a) Sampling frame; (b) Sampling error; (c) Central limit theorem; (d) Students t distribution; (e) Finite population multiplier. 5. Distinguish between the following: (a) Statistic and parameter; (b) Confidence level and significance level; (c) Random sampling and non-random sampling; (d) Sampling of attributes and sampling of variables; (e) Point estimate and interval estimation. 6. Write a brief essay on statistical estimation. 7. 500 articles were selected at random out of a batch containing 10000 articles and 30 were found defective. How many defective articles would you reasonably expect to find in the whole batch? 8. In a sample of 400 people, 172 were males. Estimate the population proportion at 95% confidence level. 9. A smaple of 16 measurements of the diameter of a sphere gave a mean X 4.58 inches and a standard deviation s 0.08 inches. Find (a) 95%, and (b) 99% confidence limits for the actual diameter. 10. A random sample of 500 pineapples was taken from a large consignment and 65 were found to be bad. Show that the standard error of the population of bad ones in a sample of this size is 0.015 and also show that the percentage of bad pineapples in the consignment almost certainly lies between 8.5 and 17.5. 11. From a packet containing iron nails, 1000 iron nails were taken at random and out of them 100 were found defective. Estimate the percentage of defective iron nails in the packet and assign limits within which the percentage probably lies. 12. A random sample of 200 measurements from an infinite population gave a mean value of 50 and a standard deviation of 9. Determine the 95% confidence interval for the mean value of the population. 13. In a random sample of 64 mangoes taken from a large consignment, some were found to be bad. Deduce that the percentage of bad mangoes in the consignment almost certainly lies between 31.25 and 68.75 given that the standard error of the proportion of bad mangoes in the sample 1/16. 14. A random sample of 900 members is found to have a mean of 4.45 cms. Can it be reasonably regarded as a sample from a large population whose mean is 5 cms and variance is 4 cms? 15. It is claimed that Americans are 16 pounds overweight on average. To test this claim, 9 randomly selected individuals were examined and the average excess weight was found to be 18 pounds. At the 5% level of significance, is there reason to believe the claim of 16 pounds to be in error? 16. The foreman of a certain mining company has estimated the average quantity of ore extracted to be 34.6 tons per shift and the sample standard deviation to be 2.8 tons per shift, based upon a random selection of 6 shifts. Construct 95% as well as 98% confidence interval for the average quantity of ore extracted per shift. 17. A sample of 16 bottles has a mean of 122 ml. (Is the sample representative of a large consignment with a mean of 130 ml.) and a standard deviation of 10 ml.? Mention the level of significance you use. 18. A sample of 900 days is taken from meteorological records of a certain district and 100 of them are found to be foggy. What are the probable limits to the percentage of foggy days in the district? 19. Suppose the following ten values represent random observations from a normal parent population: 2, 6, 7, 9, 5, 1, 0, 3, 5, 4. Construct a 99 per cent confidence interval for the mean of the parent population. 20. A survey result of 1600 Playboy readers indicates that 44% finished at least three years of college. Set 98% confidence limits on the true proportion of all Playboy readers with this background. 21. (a) What are the alternative approaches of determining a sample size? Explain. (b) If we want to draw a simple random sample from a population of 4000 items, how large a sample do we need to draw if we desire to estimate the per cent defective within 2 % of the true value with 95.45% probability. 22. (a) Given is the following information: (i) Universe with N =10,000. (ii) Variance of weight of the cereal containers on the basis of past records = 8 kg. Determine the size of the sample for estimating the true weight of the containers if the estimate should be within 0.4 kg. of the true average weight with 95% probability. (b)What would be the size of the sample if infinite universe is assumed in question number 22 (a) above? 23. Annual incomes of 900 salesmen employed by Hi-Fi Corporation is known to be approximately normally distributed. If the Corporation wants to be 95% confident that the true mean of this years salesmens income does not differ by more than 2% of the last years mean income of Rs 12,000, what sample size would be required assuming the population standard deviation to be Rs 1500? 24. Mr. Alok is a purchasing agent of electronic calculators. He is interested in determining at a confidence level of 95% what proportion (within plus or minus 4%), is defective. Conservatively, how many calculators should be tested to find the proportion defective?

25. A team of medico research experts feels confident that a new drug they have developed will cure about 80% of the patients. How large should the sample size be for the team to be 98% certain that the sample proportion of cure is within plus and minus 2% of the proportion of all cases that the drug will cure? 26. Mr. Kishore wants to determine the average time required to complete a job with which he is concerned. As per the last studies, the population standard deviation is 8 days. How large should the sample be so that Mr. Kishore may be 99% confident that the sample average may remain within 2 days of the average?

Unit-4
1.Write a brief note on the task of interpretation in the context of research methodology. 2. Interpretation is a fundamental component of research process, Explain. Why so? 3. Describe the precautions that the researcher should take while interpreting his findings. 4. Interpretation is an art of drawing inferences, depending upon the skill of the researcher. Elucidate the given statement explaining the technique of interpretation. 5. It is only through interpretation the researcher can expose the relations and processes that underlie his findings. Explain, giving examples. 6. Explain the significance of a research report and narrate the various steps involved in writing such a report. 7. Describe, in brief, the layout of a research report, covering all relevant points. 8. Write a short note on Documentation in the context of a research report. 9. Mention the different types of report, particularly pointing out the difference between a technical report and a popular report. 10. Explain the technique and importance of oral presentation of research findings. Is only oral presentation sufficient? If not, why? 11. (a) What points will you keep in mind while preparing a research report? Explain. (b)What are the different forms in which a research work may be reported. Describe. 12. We can teach methods of analysis, yet any extensive research... requires something equally important: an organisation or synthesis which provides the essential structure into which the pieces of analysis fit. Examine this statement and show how a good research report may be prepared. 13. Write short notes on the following: (a) The techniques of writing report; (b) Characteristics of a good research report; (c) Bibliography and its importance in context of research report; (d) Rewriting and polishing of report. 14. Report writing is more an art that hinges upon practice and experience. Discuss.