BRM - Unit - 2 Measurement

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UNIT – 2

MEASUREMENT

DEFINITION OF MEASUREMENT :

According to G.C. Helmstadter:


"Measurement is a process of obtaining a numerical
description of the extent to which a person or object
possesses some characteristics".

According to Kerlinger:
"Measurement is the assignment of numerals to objects or
events according to rules”.
According to Miller (1962):
Measurement can be defined as ‘assigning numbers to
things according to explicit rules’
It refers to the process of giving identification tags to
elements of our research data in order to arrange them
for study.

MEANING OF MEASUREMENT:
Measurement is the process of quantifying and
assigning numerical values to attributes or properties of
objects, events, or phenomena in a structured and
standardized manner.
HOW DO MEASURE ATTITUDE ?
Measurement is the process by which the organization
observes and records the observations that have been
gathered as a result of some research activities.

In other words, measurement can be understood as


"the process of mapping the aspects of an area into
some other areas as per some rules".

For example : We can measure height, weight, length,


width, income (quantitative measurement) and at the same
time, we can measure attitude, personality, perception,
intelligence, preference (qualitative measurement)
FUNCTIONS OF MEASUREMENT

1) Allows to Summaries Information


The framing of proper measurement allows the information
to be summarized and presented in a better way. This also
allows researchers to use various graphs, tables, and, charts to
represent the data properly.

2) Provides Better Understanding of a Situation


Measurement allows better understanding of a situation as
compared to a scenario where there is no measurement at all.

For example, various data about population is obtained only


when it is measured, Until and unless the data is measured, it
does not provide in-depth understanding of the situation.
3) Allows to Quantify Data and Statistical Sophistication :
The process of measurement allows the researcher to quantify
the abstract variables and research parameters. the degree of
statistical treatment of the data depends upon the measurement
scale adopted to quantify the data.

4) Important for Research Approach :


Selection of measurement techniques determines the research
approach and the way a researcher will tend to solve the
research problems. Deciding the measurement is thus an
essential part of the research activity. The selection of proper
measures goes a long way towards making the research a better
planned end organised activity.
ADVANTAGES OF MEASUREMENT:

1. Accurate data: Measurement and evaluation tools


provide precise and reliable information about various
aspects of the construction process. This allows construction
professionals and civil engineers to make informed
decisions and ensure project success.

2. Improved efficiency: These tools enable construction


professionals to track and measure progress, identify
bottlenecks, and optimize resource allocation. This leads to
increased productivity, reduced costs, and timely project
completion.
3. Quality control: Measurement and evaluation helps in
maintaining and improving the quality of construction
projects. They help identify deviations from standards,
allowing for timely corrective actions to be taken, ensuring
that the final product meets or exceeds the required quality
standards.

4. Performance benchmarking: These tools allow


construction professionals to compare the performance of
different projects, teams, or contractors. This helps in
identifying best practices, areas of improvement, and
promoting healthy competition within the industry.
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF MEASUREMENT:

1. Cost and complexity: Implementing measurement and


evaluation tools requires investment in technology, training,
and maintenance. Additionally, these tools can be complex
to set up and operate, requiring skilled personnel to ensure
accurate data collection and analysis.

2. Data overload: With the abundance of data collected by


these tools, there is a risk of information overload. It can be
challenging for construction professionals to interpret and
prioritize the data effectively, potentially leading to decision
paralysis or overlooking critical insights.
3. Limited scope: Measurement and evaluation tools may
not capture all aspects of construction projects, especially
those that are qualitative or subjective in nature. This
limitation can hinder a holistic understanding of the project
and may require supplementary evaluation methods.

4. Reliability and validity: The accuracy and reliability of


measurement and evaluation tools depend on the quality of
data input and the calibration of the tools themselves.
Inaccurate or biased data can lead to flawed analysis and
misleading conclusions.
CRITERIA’S OR QUALITIES FOR GOOD
MEASUREMENT

1. Reliability: The degree to which measures are free from


error gives more consistent results.
The reliability of a measure indicates the stability and
consistency with which the instrument measures the
concept.
Example: imperfections in the measuring process that affect
the assignment of scores or numbers in different ways each
time a measure is taken, such as a respondent who
misunderstands a question are the cause of low reliability.
2. Validity: Validity is a test of how well an instrument that
is concerned with whether we measure right concept.
There are 2 types of validity
a) Internal validity: concerned with issue of the authenticity
of the cause-and-effect relationships
b) External validity: concerned with issue of the
generalizability to the external environment.
3. Practicability: It should be feasible & usable. Quality of
being usable in context to the objective to be achieved.

4.Usability: (practicality) ease in administration, scoring,


interpretation and application, low cost, proper mechanical
make – up

5.Measureability: - It should measure the objective to be


achieved.
SCALE
MEANING OF SCALE:
A scale is basically a concept, device or procedure used in arranging,
measuring or quantifying events, objects, or phenomenon in any
sequence.
LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT SCALE
OR
CLASSIFICATION OF MEASUREMENT
SCALE:

1. Nominal Scale
2. Ordinal Scale
3. Interval Scale
4. Ratio Scale
1. NOMINAL SCALE:
A Nominal scale is also known as categorical variable.
These scales are codes assigned to objects as labels
And to identify people either belong to a group or not.

- Assign responses to different categories


- No numerical differences between categories.

EXAMPLES
➢ Gender
➢ Martial Status
➢ State of residence
➢ College
➢ Zip code
➢ Student ID
• The numbers serve only as labels or tags for identifying
and classifying objects.
• When used for identification, there is a strict one-to-one
correspondence between the numbers and the objects.
• The numbers do not reflect the amount of the characteristic
possessed by the objects.
• The only permissible operation on the numbers in a
nominal scale is counting.
• Only a limited number of statistics, all of which are based
on frequency counts, are permissible, e.g., percentages, and
mode.
Nominal – Categorical Scale example
What is your gender? ___ Male ___Female
Nominal scale is simply a system of assigning number
symbols to events in order to label them.
The usual example of this is the assignment of numbers of
basketball players in order to identify them.
Such numbers cannot be considered to be associated with an
ordered scale for their order is of no consequence; the
numbers are just convenient labels for the particular class of
events and as such have no quantitative value.
Nominal scales provide convenient ways of keeping track of
people, objects and events. One cannot do much with the
numbers involved.
For example, one cannot usefully average the numbers on
the back of a group of football players and come up with a
meaningful value.
Neither can one usefully compare the numbers assigned to
one group with the numbers assigned to another.
The counting of members in each group is the only possible
arithmetic operation when a nominal scale is employed.
Accordingly, we are restricted to use mode as the measure of
central tendency.
There is no generally used measure of dispersion for
nominal scales.
Chi-square test is the most common test of statistical
significance that can be utilized, and for the measures of
correlation, the contingency coefficient can be worked out.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NOMINAL SCALE
1. In nominal scale a variable is divided into two or more
categories, for example, agree/disagree, yes or no etc. It’s is
a measurement mechanism in which answer to a particular
question can fall into either category.
2. Nominal scale is qualitative in nature, which means numbers
are used here only to categorize or identify objects. For
example, football fans will be really excited, as the football
world cup is around the corner! Have you noticed numbers
on a jersey of a football player? These numbers have nothing
to do with the ability of players, however, they can help
identify the player.
3. In nominal scale, numbers don’t define the characteristics
related to the object, which means each number is assigned
to one object. The only permissible aspect related to
numbers in a nominal scale is “counting.”
EXAMPLES OF NOMINAL SCALE:

Males = 1, Females = 2
Sales zone A = Islamabad, Sales zone B = Rawalpindi
Drink A = Pepsi
Drink B = 7 – Up
Drink C = Miranda
From a statistics point of view this scale is one of the
easiest to understand measurement scale. As
mentioned earlier, it is assigned to items that are
not quantitative or number oriented.
✓ For example, let’s assume we have 5 colours,
orange, blue, red, black and yellow. We could
number them in any order we like either 1 to 5 or 5
to 1 in ascending or descending order. Here
numbers are assigned to colours only to identify
them. Another example of nominal scale from a
research activity point to view is YES/NO scale.
It essentially has no order.
ADVANTAGES OF NOMINAL SCALE:
1. It offers the freedom to respondents to freely express
their opinion.
2. The research is easy to conduct when there are close-
ended questions.
3. One can collect a large number of answers to questions
very quickly.
4. It has increased reliability as it is solely dependent on
the choice of answers made by the respondents.
5. It is not time-consuming and can be done by anyone
with minimum expertise.
6. It is also cost-effective as only what is needed is a set of
questions and a questionnaire.
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF NOMINAL SCALE:
1. It isn't quantifiable: You can't quantify nominal data,
as it's only qualitative and can't be measured
numerically.
2. It has a low level of measurement: Nominal data has
the lowest level of measurement out of the data types,
as you can only assign names to variables.
3. It can't be ordered: Generally, you can't order nominal
data, which can be a disadvantage for some research
projects.
2. ORDINAL SCALE
This scale has the ability to rank the individual attributes of
to items in same group but unit of measurement is not
available in this scale, like Student A is taller than Student B
but their actual heights are not available.

➢ Designates an ordering: greater than, less than


➢ Does not assume that the intervals between numbers are
equal.
ORDINAL SCALE
- Set of categories that are ordered from least to most
- Don’t know numerical distance from each category to the
next.
EXAMPLES:
❑ Miss America results – 1st Place, 2nd Place and 3rd Place
❑ Military Rank
❑ Letter grade in class
❑ Degrees held
❑ Medical condition (satisfactory, serious, guarded,
official)
❑ Rank order of your preferences from 1 to 4.
Ordinal Scale Example –
Please rank order the following as to how often you recycle
each item where 1=item you most often recycle, 7=item you
recycle the least.
___Cardboard ___Glass
___Newspaper ___Plastic
___Other Paper Products ___ Aluminum
___Other, please specify_______________
A student’s rank in his graduation class involves the use of
an ordinal scale. One has to be very careful in making
statement about scores based on ordinal scales.
For instance, if Ram’s position in his class is 10 and
Mohan’s position is 40, it cannot be said that Ram’s position
is four times as good as that of Mohan.
The statement would make no sense at all.
Ordinal scales only permit the ranking of items from highest
to lowest. Ordinal measures have no absolute values, and the
real differences between adjacent ranks may not be equal.
All that can be said is that one person is higher or lower on
the scale than another, but more precise comparisons cannot
be made
The use of an ordinal scale implies a statement of ‘greater
than’ or ‘less than’ (an equality statement is also acceptable)
without our being able to state how much greater or less.
The real difference between ranks 1 and 2 may be more or
less than the difference between ranks 5 and 6.
Since the numbers of this scale have only a rank meaning,
the appropriate measure of central tendency is the median.
A percentile or quartile measure is used for measuring
dispersion.
Correlations are restricted to various rank order methods.
Measures of statistical significance are restricted to the non-
parametric methods
For example of ordinal scale

•“How satisfied are •“How happy are you


you with our with the customer
products?” service?”
•1- Totally Satisfied •1- Very Unhappy
•2- Satisfied •2- Unhappy
•3- Neutral •3- Neutral
•4- Dissatisfied •4- Unhappy
•5- Totally Dissatisfied •5- Very Unhappy
ADVANTAGES OF ORDINAL SCALE:
1) The primary advantage of using ordinal scale is
the ease of comparison between variables.
2) Extremely convenient to group the variables
after ordering them.
3) Effectively used in surveys, polls
and questionnaires due to the simplicity of
analysis and categorization. Collected responses
are easily compared to draw impactful
conclusions about the target audience.
4) As the values are indicated in a relative manner
using a linear rating scale the results are more
informative than the nominal data.
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF ORDINAL SCALE:
The options do not have a standardized interval
scale. Therefore, respondents are not able to
effectively gauge their options before responding.
The responses are often so narrow in relation to the
question that they create or magnify bias that is not
factored into the survey.
3. INTERVAL SCALE:
It is defined as a quantitative measurement scale in
which the difference between the two variables is
meaningful.

In other words, the variables are measured in an


exact manner, not as in a relative way in which the
presence of zero is arbitrary.
Characteristics of Interval Scale:
1. The interval scale is quantitative as it can quantify
the difference between the values
2. It allows calculating the mean and median of the
variables
3. To understand the difference between the
variables, you can subtract the values between the
variables
4. The interval scale is the preferred scale in
Statistics as it helps to assign any numerical values
to arbitrary assessment such as feelings, calendar
types, etc.
5. The interval scale is preferred to nominal scale
or ordinal scale because the latter two are qualitative
scales. The interval scale is quantitative in the sense
that it can quantify the difference between values.

6. Interval data can be discrete with whole numbers


like 8 degrees, 4 years, 2 months, etc., or continuous
with fractional numbers like 12.2 degrees, 3.5 weeks
or 4.2 miles.

7. You can subtract values between two variables


that help understand the difference between two
variables.
8. Interval measurement allows you to calculate the
mean and median of variables.

9. Interval data is especially useful in business,


social, and scientific analysis and strategy because it
is straightforward and quantitative.

10.This is a preferred scale in statistics because you


can assign a numerical value to any arbitrary
assessment, such as feelings and sentiments.
Examples of Interval scale:
Likert Scale
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Bipolar Matrix Table

In the case of interval scale, the intervals are


adjusted in terms of some rule that has been
established as a basis for making the units equal.
The units are equal only in so far as one.
The units are equal only in so far as one accepts the
assumptions on which the rule is based.

Interval scales can have an arbitrary zero, but it is


not possible to determine for them what may be
called an absolute zero or the unique origin.

The primary limitation of the interval scale is the


lack of a true zero; it does not have the capacity to
measure the complete absence of a trait or
characteristic.
Interval scales provide more powerful measurement
than ordinal scales for interval scale also
incorporates the concept of equality of interval.
As such more powerful statistical measures can be
used with interval scales.
Mean is the appropriate measure of central
tendency, while standard deviation is the most
widely used measure of dispersion.
Product moment correlation techniques are
appropriate and the generally used tests for
statistical significance are the ‘t’ test and ‘F’ test.
Interval scale examples
Questions that can be measured on the interval scale
are the most commonly used question types in
research studies. To receive answers in the form of
interval data, you need to limit feedback options to
variables that can be assigned a numerical value
where the difference between the two variables is
equal.
You have probably seen the following scales used in
a research study: agreement, satisfaction levels, or
likelihood.

The survey needs to be scaled so variables can meet


the criteria of interval measurement. Otherwise, the
data you receive in feedback will be difficult to
quantify.

Consider these questions as you write your next


survey. They are all compatible with the interval
scale and offer actionable data:
➢ LIKERT SCALE
One of the most commonly used interval scale
questions is arranged on a five-point Likert
Scale question, where each emotion is denoted with
a number, and the variables range from extremely
dissatisfied to extremely satisfied.

➢ NET PROMOTER SCORE (NPS)
In a Net Promoter Score (NPS) question,
the respondents reply on a scale of 1-10 rating
how likely they are to refer a
company/product/service to a peer.
➢BIPOLAR MATRIX TABLE
When you include this type of question, participants
assess an object on a bipolar matrix table using a
five-point rating scale that helps you quantify
sentiments by creating a ranking system.
The interval scale gives survey strategists the ability
to quantify and differentiate options so your
feedback can contribute to meaningful goals and
results.

It’s often more effective for most businesses and


scientific studies than the nominal scale or ordinal
scale, as it can account for quantitative outcomes.
EXAMPLE OF INTERVAL SCALE :
Consider this interval scale example: temperature in
degrees Fahrenheit. If you're analyzing temperatures
in degrees Fahrenheit, say 20-40 degrees and 40-60
degrees, there is order and difference between
variables is meaningful, but the presence of zero is
arbitrary. How is zero arbitrary?
4. RATIO SCALE:
A ratio scale is a quantitative scale where there is a true zero
and equal intervals between neighboring points. Unlike on
an interval scale, a zero on a ratio scale means there is a total
absence of the variable you are measuring.

What is a true zero?


On a ratio scale, a zero means there’s a total absence of the
variable of interest.

For example, the number of children in a household or years


of work experience are ratio variables: A respondent can
have no children in their household or zero years of work
experience.
MEANING OF RATIO SCALE:
Ratio scale is a type of variable measurement scale
which is quantitative in nature. It allows any
researcher to compare the intervals or differences.
Ratio scale is the 4th level of measurement and
possesses a zero point or character of origin.
This is a unique feature of this scale.
For example, the temperature outside is 0-degree
Celsius. 0 degree doesn’t mean it’s not hot or cold, it
is a value.
With a true zero in your scale, you can calculate ratios of
values. For example, you can say that 4 children is twice as
many as 2 children in a household. Similarly, 8 years is
double 4 years of experience.

Some variables, such as temperature, can be measured on


different scales. While Celsius and Fahrenheit are interval
scales, Kelvin is a ratio scale.

In all 3 scales, there are equal intervals between


neighbouring points. However, unlike the Celsius and
Fahrenheit scales where zero is just another temperature
value, the Kelvin scale has a true zero (0 K) where nothing
can be colder.
Examples of ratio scales
Many variables in the natural and social sciences are measured using
ratio scales.
Like interval variables, ratio variables can be discrete or continuous.
A discrete variable is expressed only in countable numbers (e.g.,
integers) while a continuous variable can potentially take on an
infinite number of values.
Ratio variable Discrete or continuous?
Number of vehicles owned in the last 10 Discrete
years

Number of people in a household Discrete


Number of students who identify as Discrete
religious

Reaction time in a computer task Continuous


Years of work experience Continuous
Speed in miles per hour Continuous
Following example of ratio level of measurement to
help understand the scale better.
Please select which age bracket do you fall in?
• Below 20 years
• 21-30 years
• 31-40 years
• 41-50 years
• 50 years and above
Ratio scale has most of the characteristics of the other
three variable measurement scale i.e nominal, ordinal and
interval.

Nominal variables are used to “name,” or label a series of


values. Ordinal scales provide a sufficiently good amount of
information about the order of choices, such as one would be
able to understand from using a customer satisfaction survey.

Interval scales give us the order of values and also about the
ability to quantify the difference between each one.

Ratio scale helps to understand the ultimate-order, interval,


values, and the true zero characteristic is an essential factor in
calculating ratios.
A ratio scale is the most informative scale as it tends
to tell about the order and number of the object
between the values of the scale.
The most common examples of this scale are height,
money, age, weight etc. With respect to market
research the common examples that are observed
are sales, price, number of customers, market share
etc.
Characteristics of Ratio Scale:
1. Ratio scale, as mentioned earlier has an absolute
zero characteristic. It has orders and equally
distanced value between units. The zero point
characteristic makes it relevant or meaningful to
say, “one object has twice the length of the
other” or “is twice as long.”
2. Ratio scale doesn’t have a negative number,
unlike interval scale because of the absolute zero
or zero point characteristic. To measure any
object on a this scale, researchers must first see if
the object meets all the criteria for interval scale
plus has an absolute zero characteristic.
3. Ratio scale provides unique possibilities
for statistical analysis plan. In this scale, variables can
be systematically added, subtracted, multiplied and
divided (ratio). All statistical analysis including mean,
mode, the median can be calculated using it. Also, chi-
square can be calculated on this scale variable.
4. Ratio scale has units which have several unique and
useful properties. One of them is they allow unit
conversion. Take an example of calculation of energy
flow. Several units of energy occur like Joules, gram-
calories, kilogram-calories, British thermal units. Still
more units of energy per unit time (power) exist
kilocalories per day, liters of oxygen per hour, ergs, and
Watts.
Ratio Scale Examples
The following are the most commonly used examples:

1. What is your height in feet and inches?


Less than 5 feet.
5 feet 1 inch – 5 feet 5 inches
5 feet 6 inches- 6 feet
More than 6 feet

2. What is your weight in kg’s?


Less than 50 kg’s
51- 70 kg’s
71- 90 kg’s
91-110 kg’s
More than 110 kg’s
3. How much time do you spend daily watching
television?
Less than 2 hours
3-4 hours
4-5 hours
5-6 hours
More than 6 hours
Let us take the example of speed to understand this
Ratio scale better.
Physics defines speed as speed is the distance
travelled per unit time. Here the unit for time can be
kept constant and a unit for distance travelled can
vary, for example, can be in kilometers or miles
which means 20 km/hour is equivalent to 12.43
mph.
If you have seen cars in Canada, the speedometer in
the car has both miles and km on it.
ADVANTAGES OF RATIO SCALE:
1. A ratio scale has a point zero characteristic, where the
value of the variable has no value at all. Weight, height
etc can be calculated on it because they have a real zero
value. However, the temperature cannot be measured on
this scale because zero degree celsius doesn’t mean
there is no cold or heat for that matter. But most of the
scientific variables can be measured on this scale.
2. Point zero is an essential characteristic to measure a
ratio between any two variables because in the absence
of zero there is no ratio. So without a zero would it
make any sense to say, “Tom is driving at a speed of 100
km/hour, which is double the speed at which Thelma is
driving, which is 50 Km/hr?”
3. This scale is used to calculate all the scientific variables.
In fact, in the absence of a ratio scale, scientific
variables cannot be measured.
ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT SCALES:

MEANING:
Attitude is an established way of thinking or feeling
reflected in a person’s behaviour towards others.

Attitude is a tendency to respond positively or


negatively towards a certain idea, object, person or
situation.

Attitude is what a person believes in or what a


person feels.
DEFINITION OF ATTITUDE:
“An attitude is normally defined as a perceptual
orientation and response readiness in relation to a
particular object or class of objects”.

“An attitude is a dispositional readiness to respond


to certain situations, persons or objects in a
consistent manner which has been learned and
becomes one’s typical mode of response”.
DEFINITION OF ATTITUDE:
Attitudes refer to our overall evaluations of people, groups,
and objects in our social world. Reporting an attitude
involves making a decision concerning liking versus
disliking or favouring versus dis-favouring an attitude
object. Attitudes are important because they affect both the
way we perceive the world and how we behave.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTITUDE:
1. Attitudes are the complex combination of things we
call personality, beliefs, values, behaviors, and
motivations.
2. It can fall anywhere along a continuum from very
favourable to very unfavourable.
3. All people, irrespective of their status or
intelligence, hold attitudes.
4. An attitude exists in every person’s mind. It helps to
define our identity, guide our actions, and influence
how we judge people.
5. Although the feeling and belief components of
attitude are internal to a person, we can view a
person’s attitude from their resulting behavior.
Attitude scales in research measure attitudes towards
an issue, they are the most distinctive concept in
modern social psychology.
Attitude scales help social psychologists understand
the characteristics of individuals by placing them on
a scale that best represent those characteristics.
It is a special type of questionnaire that can measure
the intensity as well as direction of peoples attitude
towards something
• In any scale there are two points from extreme
low to extreme high or vice versa. In between
these two points there are some points at fixed
interval. Each successive point on the scale has a
fixed value that increases in an ordered and
sequential manner.
• Scales are by far the best way to measure attitude
of people towards an idea, product, an event, or a
situation. There are though pros and cons of each
attitude scale. The following describes the use of
attitude scales in social and behavioral
psychology.
The following describes the use of attitude scales in social
and behavioural psychology.
• Attitude scales are used to measure people’s attitude
towards a product in market. Products are often measured
using product rating in consumer research.
• They are also used for measuring attitude towards an idea
that is related to some social issue.
• Attitude scales can measure peoples attitude towards an
event that happened in past.
• It can also measure employee’s job-related satisfaction or
performance.
Attitudes have three components:
1) Affective, which deals with a person's feelings
and emotions
2) Cognitive, which deals with a person's
awareness and knowledge
3) Behavioural, which deals with a person's actions
RATING AND RANKING SCALES:

1. Thurston Scaling
2. Likert Scaling
3. Semantic Differential Scaling
1. THURSTON SCALING:
It is the method of equal appearing intervals. It is
made up of statements about a particular issue, and
each statement has a numerical value indicating
how favourable or unfavourable it is judged to be.
People check each of the statements to which they
agree, and a mean score is computed, indicating
their attitude.
1. THURSTON SCALING:
These are also known as equal appearing interval
scales. They are used to measure the attitude towards a
given concept or construct.
For this purpose a large number of statements are
collected that relate to the concept or construct being
measured.
The judges rate these statements along an 11 category
scale in which each category expresses a different
degree of favourableness towards the concept. The
items are then ranked according to the mean or median
ratings assigned by the judges and are used to construct
questionnaire of twenty to thirty items that are chosen
more or less evenly across the range of ratings.
1. THURSTON SCALING:
The statements are worded in such a way so that a
person can agree or disagree with them. The scale is
then administered to assemble of respondents
whose scores are determined by computing the
mean or median value of the items agreed with. A
person who disagrees with all the items has a score
of zero. So, the advantage of this scale is that it is
an interval measurement scale. But it is the time
consuming method and labour intensive. They are
commonly used in psychology and education
research.
1. THURSTON SCALING:
Thurston scale is defined as a uni-dimensional scale
that is used to track respondent’s behaviour, attitude
or feeling towards a subject.
This scale consists of statements about a particular
issue or topic where each statement has a numerical
value that indicates the respondents attitude towards
the topic as favorable or unfavorable.
Respondents indicate the statements that they agree
with, and an average is computed. A mean score of
the agreements or disagreements is calculated as the
attitude of the respondent towards the topic.
1. THURSTON SCALING:
This scale was developed by Robert Thurstone to
approximate measurement in equal-
appearing interval levels.

The Thurston scale is built upon the fundamentals


of the Likert scale, but this method of constructing
an attitude scale not only takes value of each item
of into consideration while evaluating the final
attitude score but also caters to neutral items.
1. THURSTON SCALING:
How to conduct a Thurstone Scale Survey with
an Example
An example of a Thurstone scale survey is to
understand the attitude of employees in an
organization towards diversity hiring in that
organization. There are 2 distinct milestones in the
Thurstone scale question; to derive the final
questions and administer the Thurstone scale
question and conduct its analysis.
1. THURSTON SCALING:
Derive the Final Question
There are 5 distinctive steps to derive the final
question. They are:
Step 1 – Develop statements: Develop a large number
of agree/disagree statements on a certain topic. For
example, if you wanted to find out people’s attitudes
towards the policy of diversity hiring in an
organization, your statements may include:
Policy on diversity hiring is wrong.
Diversity hiring takes away jobs from deserving candidates.
Diversity hiring brings different viewpoints to the team.
Diversity hiring brings out the best in the local community.
Diversity hiring aids in increasing the reputation of a brand.
1. THURSTON SCALING:
Step 2 – Rank each statement with a panel of
judges: The next step would be to have a panel of
judges rate each item on a scale of 1 to 11 where 1
is the least favourable attitude towards the common
vector – diversity hiring and 11 is an extremely
favourable attitude. It is important to note that the
judges are required to rate each option and not
agree or disagree with them.
1. THURSTON SCALING:
Step 3 – Calculate median and/or mean and
Interquartile range (IQR): The data collected
from all judges is to then be analysed to draw up a
table with the mean or median values in the
ascending order. Using median or mean is a
personal choice and the options throw up accurate
results in the use of either. If you have 50
statements, you need to have 50 means/medians and
50 IQR’s.*
Step 4 – Sorting the table: The data has to be sorted on the basis of
1. THURSTON SCALING:
smallest to largest
1.median/mean and the IQR’s for each median/mean have to be in a
descending order.
2.This can be represented as:
Median or
Statement IQR
Mean
43 1 1.25
21 1 1
16 1.5 1
3 3 2
6 5 2
28 6 1
37 7 3
9 7.5 1.5
18 9 2
26 11 2
1. THURSTON SCALING:
Step 5 – Selecting final variables or
options: Select options on the basis of the above
table. For example, you could select one item from
each mean/median value. You want the statements
with the most agreement between judges. For each
median value, this is the item with the lowest
interquartile range. This is a “Rule of Thumb”: you
don’t have to choose this item. If you decide it’s
poorly worded or ambiguous, choose the item
above it (with the next lowest IQR).
Characteristics of a Thurstone Scale Question
Some distinct characteristics of a Thurstone scale question are:

1. They are two stepped: A Thurstone scale question is never


administered at the first iteration stage without the rating by
judges. This is an important characteristic of this question as the
options that a respondent sees are weighted and there is consensus
of them being in the survey.

2. Mean or median is always calculated: Since each option is


weighted, the mean or median is calculated for each option. This
also forms the basis of the selection method for use in the final
survey.

3. Only agree or disagree options: The respondent makes a


selection only on the basis of the agreement or disagreement with
the statement.
How to Interpret the Thurstone Scale
When you are responding to the Thurstone scale surveys,
remember that the respondents are expected to either agree or
disagree with the statements.
Once you have received all the responses, go ahead and sum the
median scores of each of the statements your respondents agreed
with. After this, simply divide the result by the number of
statements they ticked.
If, for example, a respondent checked agreed with five statements
which have median scores of 3.5, 7, 9.5, 4, and 10, the attitude
score of that respondent will be (3.5 + 7 + 9.5 + 2 + 9) / 5 = 6.2.
Remember that the measuring scale is from 1 to 11, and this
respondent’s score is just above the midpoint of the standard scale.
From the score, the researcher can conclude that the respondent’s
attitude is a fairly favorable one towards the topic in question.
If you are calculating a larger set of data that has hundreds of
numbers (which is not likely to happen with surveys), you may
find it more difficult to determine what the median score is.
So, you as the researcher can simply assign each answer that
is “agree” or “yes” a score of 1 to 11.
Be sure the score you assign to the statements is based on the
above scores. Now, for each answer that is “no” or
“disagree”, assign a score of 0.
Whatever the total score of each graded question is, will
represent the strength of the respondent’s opinion. Any
respondent with a higher score can be assumed to have a
more supportive opinion.
The last stage will be to evaluate and compare your results.
The Thurstone scale has made these processes easier because
it represents attitude with a number value. You can use the
average score of the groups to compare the attitudes of
individuals or groups.
That is the step-by-step process of how to calculate and
interpret your survey manually, but if you don’t find maths
and statistics fun, you can simply use Formplus Analytics to
compute your results in seconds and get your final result
Advantages of a Thurstone Scale
1. The Thurstone scale allows you to write as many
statements as you want. This means you can include
as many statements as possible to support your
research.
2. You can be assured of your survey reliability
because the judges that will rate your scale are
highly knowledgeable.
3. The Thurstone scale provides the average score of
your survey ranks. This assists the researcher when
analyzing the results from the respondents because
the researcher already knows what score to compare
the result to.
4. The scale also gives the researcher the monopoly to
choose items that represent the desired range.
Disadvantages of a Thurstone Scale
1. The Thurstone scale is time-consuming. This is because
the questions are created and administered in two tedious
steps that involve lots of time.
2. The scale is complex. Many people that use surveys want
to easily create some questions, distribute them to
respondents, analyze the results, and draw conclusions.
Nobody wants to calculate the median or deal with some
other “complex” mathematics obtainable on the
Thurstone scale.
3. There is no sure method of measuring attitude; we only
try to measure the expressed opinion and then draw
inferences from it about people’s actual feelings or
attitudes.
4. Limited answer options. With the Thurstone scale, there
are no in-between, just two options. Either you agree or
you disagree.
2. LIKERT SCALING
A likert scale is a rating scale that quantitatively
assesses opinions, attitudes, or behaviors. It is made
up of 4 or more questions that measure a single
attitude or characteristic when response scores are
combined.
• A Likert scale is a rating scale used to measure
opinions, attitudes, or behaviors.
• It consists of a statement or a question, followed
by a series of five or seven answer statements.
Respondents choose the option that best
corresponds with how they feel about the
statement or question.
2. LIKERT SCALING
Likert, is extremely popular for measuring attitudes,
because, the method is simple to administer. With
the Likert Scale, the 63 Business Research Methods
respondents indicate their own attitudes by
checking how strongly they agree or disagree with
carefully worded statements that range from very
positive to very negative towards the attitudinal
object.
2. LIKERT SCALING
Respondents generally choose from five
alternatives.
1. Strongly agree
2. Agree
3. Neither agree nor disagree
4. Disagree
5. Strongly disagree
2. LIKERT SCALING
2. LIKERT SCALING
What are Likert scale questions?
Likert scales commonly comprise either five or seven
options. The options on each end are called response
anchors. The midpoint is often a neutral item, with positive
options on one side and negative options on the other. Each
item is given a score from 1 to 5 or 1 to 7.
The format of a typical five-level Likert question, for
example, could be:
▪ Strongly disagree
▪ Disagree
▪ Neither agree nor disagree
▪ Agree
▪ Strongly agree
In addition to measuring the level of agreement or
disagreement, Likert scales can also measure other
spectrums, such as frequency, satisfaction, or importance.
When to use Likert scale questions
Researchers use Likert scale questions when they
are seeking a greater degree of nuance than possible
from a simple “yes or no” question.
For example, let’s say you are conducting a survey
about customer views on a pair of running shoes.

You ask survey respondents “Are you satisfied with


the shoes you purchased?”
▪ Yes
▪ No
A dichotomous question like the above gives you very
limited information. There is no way you can tell how
satisfied or dissatisfied customers really are. You get more
specific and interesting information by asking a Likert
scale question instead:
“How satisfied are you with the shoes you purchased?”
• 1 – Very dissatisfied
• 2 – Dissatisfied
• 3 – Unsure
• 4 – Satisfied
• 5 – Very satisfied
Likert scales are most useful when you are
measuring unobservable individual characteristics, or
characteristics that have no concrete, objective
measurement. These can be elements like attitudes,
feelings, or opinions that cause variations in behaviour.
How to write strong Likert scale questions
Each Likert scale–style question should assess a single
attitude or trait. In order to get accurate results, it is important
to word your questions precisely. As a rule of thumb, make
sure each question only measures one aspect of your topic.
For example, if you want to assess attitudes towards
environmentally friendly behaviors, you can design a Likert
scale with a variety of questions that measure different
aspects of this topic.
Here are a few pointers:
• Include both questions and statements
• Use both positive and negative framing
• Avoid double negatives
• Ask about only one thing at a time
• Be crystal clear
DEFINITION OF LIKERT SCALE:
Definition:
A Likert scale is a Uni-dimensional scale that
researchers use to collect respondents’ attitudes and
opinions.
Researchers often use this psychometric scale to
understand the views and perspectives towards a
brand, product, or target market.
Example of a Likert scale:
For example, the researcher uses a Likert Scale
question as a dichotomous option question to
collect product feedback. He/ she frames the
question as “The product was a good purchase,”
with the options listed as agree or disagree.

The other way to frame this question is, “Please


state your satisfaction level with the products,” and
the options range from very dissatisfied to very
satisfied.
TYPES OF LIKERT SCALES

The Likert Scale has become a favourite among


researchers to collect opinions about customer
satisfaction or employee experience.
You can divide this scale primarily into two major
types:
1. Even Likert Scale
2. Odd Likert Scale
Even Likert Scale
Researchers use even Likert scales to collect extreme
feedback without providing a neutral option.

1. 4-Point Likert Scale for importance: This type of


Likert scale allows researchers to include four
extreme options without a neutral choice. Here the
various degrees of importance are represented in a
4-Point Likert Scale.

2. 8-Point Likelihood of recommendation: This is a


variation of the previously explained 4-point Likert
scale, the only difference being, this scale has eight
options to collect feedback about the likelihood of a
recommendation.
Odd Likert Scale
Researchers use the odd Likert scale to give the respondents
the choice of responding neutrally.

1. 5-point Likert scale: With five answer options,


researchers use this odd Likert scale question to gather
information about a topic by including a neutral answer
option for respondents to select if they don’t wish to
answer from the extreme choices in their research design.

2. 7-point Likert scale: The 7-point Likert scale adds two


more answer options at extreme ends of a 5-point Likert
scale question.

3. 9-point Likert scale: A 9-point Likert scale is quite


uncommon, but you can use it by adding two more
answer options to the 7-point Likert scale question.
Characteristics of Likert scale
The Likert scale came into existence in 1932 in the form of
the 5-point scale, which is used extensively. These scales
range from a group of general topics to the most specific ones
that ask respondents to indicate their level of agreement,
approval or, belief. Some significant characteristics of the
Likert scale, are:
1. Related answers: Items should be easily related to the
sentence’s answers, regardless of whether the relationship
between item and sentence is evident.
2. Scale type: The items must always have two extreme
positions and an intermediate answer option that serves as
graduation between the extremes.
3. Number of answer options: It is essential to mention
that although the most common Likert scale is that of 5
items, the use of more items helps to generate greater
precision in the results.
4. Increasing reliability of the scale: Researchers often
increase the ends of the scale to create a seven-point
scale by adding “very” to the top and bottom of the
five-point scales. The seven-point scale reaches the
upper limits of the reliability of the scale.
5. Using wide scales: As a general rule, Likert and others
recommend that it be better to use a scale as wide as
possible. One can always collapse the answers into
concise groups, if appropriate, for analysis.
6. Lack of a neutral option: By considering these details,
scales are sometimes curtailed to an even number of
categories (usually four) to eliminate the “neutral”
possibility on a “forced choice” survey scale.
ADVANTAGES OF THE LIKERT SCALE:

1. Easy to analyse – the scale provides quantitative data


that provides a wealth of information but should also be
relatively quick and easy to interpret.

2. Flexible – they allow you to measure personality, a range


of opinions, behaviours and attitudes. Instead of just
offering a yes or no response, you can design the question
and answers to give a range of responses.

For instance, it can be used to measure opinions about a


person in employee 360-degree feedback so if a manager
wants to understand more about an individual’s time
management skills
ADVANTAGES OF THE LIKERT SCALE:

3. Wide range – you can use many scales to collect respondents'


information and opinions. For example, you could have a
question or statement with a range of “strongly agree to
strongly disagree” at each end of the scale or around
frequency or importance from “very important to not very
important”.
4. Specific feedback – it can be beneficial for gathering detailed
information about a product, person, customer service or
event. By providing Likert Scale responses, you can ask
individuals what they thought about your latest event or
product.
5. Less intimidating – people are busy, and if you ask them to
complete a survey full of open-ended questions that will take
considerable time to respond to, they might pass or fail to
finish it. The Likert Scale prompts responses and limits
answers so they can be quicker to complete than qualitative
surveys.
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF THE LIKERT SCALE:

1. Forced responses – while respondents are given


different options, they will be forced to commit to
one they didn't want to if their preferred response is
not listed. Therefore, when designing the survey
questions and answers, consider which options will
be most relevant so that individual responses will fit
and responses match the question or statement.
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF THE LIKERT SCALE:

2. Social acceptability – respondents may select the


responses from the Likert Scale that they believe to be
the most socially acceptable. This can reduce honesty
and may mean that the reactions are not entirely
representative of the survey pool.
3. Unequal responses – responses may not have a
measurable or equal distance between them. Therefore,
it may not be easy to rank the answers you receive. For
example, if you have responses that include always,
regularly, sometimes, or not at all, the distance between
each of these responses is not equal or measurable.
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF THE LIKERT SCALE:
4. No mean measurement – Likert Scale data
does not provide meaningful average data.
Instead, you can measure the results using the
mode of the responses that occur the most
frequently.
5. Less information – if you ask open-ended
questions, you may gather more information
than by asking closed questions with Likert
Scale responses. Therefore, you won’t gain new
insights or ideas from responses, only opinions.
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF THE LIKERT SCALE:

Disadvantage of Likert Scale is that it takes longer


time to complete than other itemized rating scales
because respondents have to read each statement.
3. SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALING
A semantic differential scale is a survey or
questionnaire rating scale that asks people to rate a
product, company, brand, or any 'entity' within the
frames of a multi-point rating option.

These survey answering options are grammatically


on opposite adjectives at each end.

For example, love-hate, satisfied-unsatisfied, and


likely to return-unlikely to return with intermediate
options in between.
3. SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALING
This is a seven point rating scale with end points
associated with bipolar labels (such as good and
bad, complex and simple) that have semantic
meaning. It can be used to find whether a
respondent has a positive or negative attitude
towards an object. It has been widely used in
comparing brands, products and company images.
It has also been used to develop advertising and
promotion strategies and in a new product
development study.
3. SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALING
The semantic differential technique involves
presenting pairs of bipolar, or opposite, adjectives
at either end of a series of scales, such as the
following:
Weak o o o o o o o Strong

Ugly o o o o o o o Beautiful

Cool o o o o o o o Warm

Incompe Professio
o o o o o o o
tent nal
3. SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALING
The difficult part about the semantic
differential technique is coming up with words that
are truly opposites. Sometimes a wordbook can be
helpful since it includes antonyms. However, you
need to be aware of the meaning of different
pairings of words.

For example, a pairing of “Friendly/Unfriendly”


may have somewhat different meaning and yield
different results from “Friendly/Not Friendly” or
“Friendly/Hostile.”
3. SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALING
The semantic differential technique was developed
by Charles E. Osgood (Osgood et al., 1957), who
designed it to measure the meaning of words or
concepts.

Using factor analysis of large sets of semantic


differential data, he found three recurring attitudes
that people used in assessing words and phrases:
evaluation (like “good/bad”), potency (like
“strong/weak”), and activity (like “passive/active”).
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE
EXAMPLES & QUESTION TYPES

1. Slider rating scale: Questions that feature a


graphical slider give the respondent a more
interactive way to answer the semantic differential
scale question.
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE
EXAMPLES & QUESTION TYPES
2. Non-slider rating scale: The non-slider question
uses typical radio buttons for a more traditional
survey look and feel. Respondents are more used to
answering.
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE
EXAMPLES & QUESTION TYPES
3. Open-ended questions: These questions give the
users ample freedom to express their emotions
about your organization, products, or services.
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE
EXAMPLES & QUESTION TYPES
4. Ordering: The ordering questions offer the
scope to rate the parameters that the respondents
feel are best or worst according to their personal
experiences.
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE
EXAMPLES & QUESTION TYPES
5. Satisfaction rating: The easiest and eye-catchy
semantic differential scale questions are the
satisfaction rating questions.
ADVANTAGES OF SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALING
1. The semantic differential has outdone the other
scales like the Likert scale in vitality, rationality, or
authenticity.

2. It has an advantage in terms of language too. There


are two polar adjectives for the factor to be
measured and a scale connecting both these polar.

3. It is more advantageous than a Likert scale. The


researcher declares a statement and expects
respondents to either agree or disagree with that.
ADVANTAGES OF SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALING
4. Respondents can express their opinions about the
matter in hand more accurately and entirely due to
the polar options provided in the semantic
differential.
5. In other question types like the Likert scale,
respondents have to indicate the level of agreement
or disagreement with the mentioned topic. The
semantic differential scale offers extremely
opposite adjectives on each end of the range. The
respondents can precisely explain their feedback
that researchers use for making accurate judgments
from the survey.
PAIRED COMPARSION
The method of paired comparisons is a simple and
direct way of collecting judgement data. The judge
is presented with two objects (or 'stimuli') and has to
decide which object is 'x-er' – in other words which
object possesses more of a specified attribute, 'x'.

Paired Comparison Analysis (also known as


Pairwise Comparison) helps you work out the
importance of a number of options relative to one
another. This makes it easy to choose the most
important problem to solve, or to pick the solution
that will be most effective.
SAMPLE:
DEFINITION OF SAMPLE:
1. A representative part or a single item from a
larger whole or group especially when presented for
inspection or shown as evidence of quality.

2. A finite part of a statistical population whose


properties are studied to gain information about the
whole.

3.A small amount of something that shows you what


the rest is or should be like.
SAMPLE:
MEANING OF SAMPLE:

A sample is a smaller set of data that a researcher chooses or


selects from a larger population using a pre-defined selection
bias method.

These elements are known as sample points, sampling units,


or observations.

A sample is a subset of individuals from a larger population.


Sampling means selecting the group that you will actually
collect data from in your research.

For example, if you are researching the opinions of students


in your university, you could survey a sample of 100 students
Sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset
of individuals from within a statistical population to
estimate characteristics of the whole population.

Two advantages of sampling are that the cost is


lower and data collection is faster than measuring
the entire population.
MERITS / ADVANTAGES OF SAMPLING

1. It saves time: Sampling method of data collection


saves time because fewer items are collected and
processed. When the results are urgently required, this
method is very helpful.

2. It reduces cost: Since only a few and selected items


are studied in sampling, there is a reduction in cost of
money and reduction in terms of man hours.

3. It provides more detailed information: As it saves


time, money and labour, more detail information can
be collected in a sample survey.
3. More reliable results can be obtained:
Through sampling, more reliable results can be
obtained because there are fewer chances of
sampling statistical errors. If there is sampling
error, it is possible to estimate and control the
result.

4. More scientific: Since the methods used to


collect data are based on scientific theory and
results obtained can be tested, sampling is a more
scientific method of collecting data.
ESSENTIALS OF SAMPLING
In order to reach a clear conclusion, the sampling should possess
the following essentials:
1. It must be representative: The sample selected should
possess the similar characteristics of the original universe
from which it has been drawn.
2. Homogeneity: Selected samples from the universe should
have similar nature and should mot have any difference when
compared with the universe.
3. Adequate samples: In order to have a more reliable and
representative result, a good number of items are to be
included in the sample. 28 Business Research Methods
4. Optimization: All efforts should be made to get maximum
results both in terms of cost as well as efficiency. If the size
of the sample is larger, there is better efficiency and at the
same time the cost is more. A proper size of sample is
maintained in order to have optimized results in terms of cost
and efficiency.
STEPS INVOLVED IN SAMPLING:
STEPS INVOLVED IN SAMPLING:

STEP 1 – IDENTIFY AND DEFINE TARGET POPULATION


The first stage in the sampling process is to clearly
define the target population.
So, to carry out opinion polls, polling agencies consider
only the people who are above 18 years of age and are
eligible to vote in the population.

STEP 2 - SAMPLING FRAME


It is a list of items or people forming a population from
which the sample is taken.
So, the sampling frame would be the list of all the
people whose names appear on the voter list of a
constituency.
STEPS INVOLVED IN SAMPLING:

STEP 3 – CHOOSE SAMPLING METHODS


Generally, probability sampling methods are used
because every vote has equal value and any person
can be included in the sample irrespective of his
caste, community, or religion. Different samples are
taken from different regions all over the country.
STEPS INVOLVED IN SAMPLING:
STEP 4 - SAMPLE SIZE
It is the number of individuals or items to be taken in
a sample that would be enough to make inferences
about the population with the desired level of
accuracy and precision.
Larger the sample size, more accurate our inference
about the population would be.
For the polls, agencies try to get as many people as
possible of diverse backgrounds to be included in the
sample as it would help in predicting the number of
seats a political party can win.
STEPS INVOLVED IN SAMPLING:
STEP 5 – COLLECT THE REQUIRED DATA
Once the target population, sampling frame,
sampling technique, and sample size have been
established, the next step is to collect data from the
sample.
In opinion polls, agencies generally put questions to
the people, like which political party are they going
to vote for or has the previous party done any work,
etc.
Based on the answers, agencies try to interpret who
the people of a constituency are going to vote for
and approximately how many seats is a political
party going to win. Pretty exciting work, right
TYPES OF SAMPLING TECHNIQUES OR
SAMPLING METHODS :
SAMPLING METHODS:
I. Probability Sampling -
In probability sampling, every element of the
population has an equal chance of being selected.
Probability sampling gives us the best chance to
create a sample that is truly representative of the
population.
Probability sampling is a sampling technique where
a researcher sets a selection of a few criteria and
chooses members of a population randomly. All the
members have an equal opportunity to be a part of
the sample with this selection parameter.
SAMPLING METHODS:
I. Probability Sampling -
For example
In a population of 1000 members, every member
will have a 1/1000 chance of being selected to be a
part of a sample. Probability sampling eliminates
bias in the population and gives all members a fair
chance to be included in the sample.
SAMPLING METHODS:

I. Probability Sampling -
SAMPLING METHODS:
I. Probability Sampling -
For example
In a population of 1000 members, every member
will have a 1/1000 chance of being selected to be a
part of a sample. Probability sampling eliminates
bias in the population and gives all members a fair
chance to be included in the sample.
SAMPLING METHODS:

I. Probability Sampling Methods –


1. Simple Random Sampling
2. Systematic Sampling
3. Stratified sampling
4. Cluster sampling
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
1. Simple Random Sampling :
In a simple random sample, every member of the
population has an equal chance of being selected.
Your sampling frame should include the whole
population.
This is a type of sampling technique you must have
come across at some point. Here, every individual
is chosen entirely by chance and each member of
the population has an equal chance of being
selected.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
1. Simple Random Sampling :
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
1. Simple Random Sampling :
To conduct this type of sampling, you can use tools
like random number generators or other techniques
that are based entirely on chance.

Example - You want to select a simple random


sample of 100 employees of Company X. You
assign a number to every employee in the company
database from 1 to 1000, and use a random number
generator to select 100 numbers.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
1. Simple Random Sampling :
One big advantage of this technique is that it is the
most direct method of probability sampling. But it
comes with a caveat – it may not select enough
individuals with our characteristics of interest.

Monte Carlo methods use repeated random


sampling for the estimation of unknown
parameters.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
2. Systematic Random Sampling :
Systematic sampling is similar to simple random
sampling, but it is usually slightly easier to conduct.
Every member of the population is listed with a
number, but instead of randomly generating
numbers, individuals are chosen at regular intervals.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
2. Systematic Random Sampling :
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
2. Systematic Random Sampling :
In this type of sampling, the first individual is
selected randomly and others are selected using a
fixed ‘sampling interval’
Say our population size is x and we have to select a
sample size of n. Then, the next individual that we
will select would be x/nth intervals away from the
first individual. We can select the rest in the same
way.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
2. Systematic Random Sampling :
Suppose, we began with person number 3, and we
want a sample size of 5. So, the next individual that
we will select would be at an interval of (20/5) = 4
from the 3rd person, i.e. 7 (3+4), and so on.
3, 3+4=7, 7+4=11, 11+4=15,
15+4=19 = 3, 7, 11, 15, 19
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
2. Systematic Random Sampling :
Systematic sampling is more convenient than
simple random sampling. However, it might also
lead to bias if there is an underlying pattern in
which we are selecting items from the population
(though the chances of that happening are quite
rare).
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
2. Systematic Random Sampling :
Example - All employees of the company are listed
in alphabetical order. From the first 10 numbers,
you randomly select a starting point: number 6.
From number 6 onwards, every 10th person on the
list is selected (6, 16, 26, 36, and so on), and you
end up with a sample of 100 people.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
2. Systematic Random Sampling :
If you use this technique, it is important to make
sure that there is no hidden pattern in the list that
might skew the sample.
For example if the HR database groups employees
by team, and team members are listed in order of
seniority, there is a risk that your interval might
skip over people in junior roles, resulting in a
sample that is skewed towards senior employees.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
3. Stratified Random Sampling :
This sampling method is appropriate when the
population has mixed characteristics, and you want
to ensure that every characteristic is proportionally
represented in the sample.
You divide the population into subgroups (called
strata) based on the relevant characteristic
(e.g. gender, age range, income bracket, job role).
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
3. Stratified Random Sampling :
In this type of sampling, we divide the population
into subgroups (called strata) based on different
traits like gender, category, etc. And then we select
the sample(s) from these subgroups:
Here, we first divided our population into
subgroups based on different colors of red, yellow,
green and blue. Then, from each color, we selected
an individual in the proportion of their numbers in
the population.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
3. Stratified Random Sampling :
We use this type of sampling when we want
representation from all the subgroups of the
population. However, stratified sampling requires
proper knowledge of the characteristics of the
population.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
3. Stratified Random Sampling :
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
3. Stratified Random Sampling :
From the overall proportions of the population, you
calculate how many people should be sampled from
each subgroup. Then you use random or systematic
sampling to select a sample from each subgroup.
Example
The company has 800 female employees and 200 male
employees. You want to ensure that the sample reflects
the gender balance of the company, so you sort the
population into two strata based on gender. Then you
use random sampling on each group, selecting 80
women and 20 men, which gives you a representative
sample of 100 people.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
4. Cluster Sampling :
Cluster sampling also involves dividing the
population into subgroups, but each subgroup
should have similar characteristics to the whole
sample. Instead of sampling individuals from each
subgroup, you randomly select entire subgroups.
If it is practically possible, you might include every
individual from each sampled cluster. If the clusters
themselves are large, you can also sample
individuals from within each cluster using one of
the techniques above.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
4. Cluster Sampling :
This method is good for dealing with large and
dispersed populations, but there is more risk of
error in the sample, as there could be substantial
differences between clusters. It’s difficult to
guarantee that the sampled clusters are really
representative of the whole population.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
4. Cluster Sampling :
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
4. Cluster Sampling :
Example The company has offices in 10 cities
across the country (all with roughly the same
number of employees in similar roles). You don’t
have the capacity to travel to every office to collect
your data, so you use random sampling to select 3
offices – these are your clusters.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
4. Cluster Sampling :
In a clustered sample, we use the subgroups of the
population as the sampling unit rather than
individuals. The population is divided into
subgroups, known as clusters, and a whole cluster is
randomly selected to be included in the study.
I. Probability Sampling Methods –
4. Cluster Sampling :
SAMPLING METHODS:
II. Non-Probability Sampling -
In non-probability sampling, the researcher chooses
members for research at random. This sampling
method is not a fixed or pre-defined selection
process.
This makes it difficult for all elements of a
population to have equal opportunities to be
included in a sample.
In a non-probability sample, individuals are
selected based on non-random criteria, and not
every individual has a chance of being included.
SAMPLING METHODS:
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
This type of sample is easier and cheaper to access,
but it has a higher risk of sampling bias, and you
can’t use it to make valid statistical inferences
about the whole population.
Non-probability sampling techniques are often
appropriate for exploratory and qualitative research.
In these types of research, the aim is not to test a
hypothesis about a broad population, but to develop
an initial understanding of a small or under-
researched population.
SAMPLING METHODS:

II. Non-Probability Sampling Methods –


1. Convenience Sampling
2. Quota Sampling
3. Judgment Sampling
4. Snow ball Sampling
SAMPLING METHODS:
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
1. Convenience Sampling
A convenience sample simply includes the
individuals who happen to be most accessible to the
researcher. This is an easy and inexpensive way to
gather initial data, but there is no way to tell if the
sample is representative of the population, so it
can’t produce generalizable results.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
1. Convenience Sampling –
Example- You are researching opinions about
student support services in your university, so after
each of your classes, you ask your fellow students
to complete a survey on the topic. This is a
convenient way to gather data, but as you only
surveyed students taking the same classes as you at
the same level, the sample is not representative of
all the students at your university.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
1. Convenience Sampling
Here, let’s say individuals numbered 4, 7, 12, 15 and 20 want to be part of our
sample, and hence, we will include them in the sample.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
1. Convenience Sampling
Convenience sampling is prone to significant bias,
because the sample may not be the representation of
the specific characteristics such as religion or, say
the gender, of the population.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
2. Quota Sampling
In this type of sampling, we choose items based on predetermined
characteristics of the population. Consider that we have to select
individuals having a number in multiples of four for our sample:
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
2. Quota Sampling
Therefore, the individuals numbered 4, 8, 12, 16,
and 20 are already reserved for our sample.
In quota sampling, the chosen sample might not be
the best representation of the characteristics of the
population that weren’t considered.
Quota sampling is a non-probability sampling
method that relies on the non-random selection of a
predetermined number or proportion of units. This
is called a quota.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
2. Quota Sampling
You first divide the population into mutually exclusive
subgroups (called strata) and then recruit sample units
until you reach your quota. These units share specific
characteristics, determined by you prior to forming
your strata.
The aim of quota sampling is to control what or who
makes up your sample. Your design may:
Replicate the true composition of the population of
interest
Include equal numbers of different types of
respondents
Over-sample a particular type of respondent, even if
population proportions differ
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
2. Quota Sampling
Example:
Quota sampling Suppose you want to gauge
consumer interest in a new meal kit delivery service
in Washington, D.C.
Depending on your research goals, you can divide
your population into several strata, such as:
Dietary preferences
Age group
Zip code
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
2. Quota Sampling
Let’s say you want to focus on dietary preferences.
You divide the population into meat eaters,
vegetarians, and vegans, drawing a sample of 600
people. Since the company wants to cater to all
consumers, you set a quota of 200 people for each
dietary group. In this way, all dietary preferences
are equally represented in your research, and you
can easily compare these groups.
You continue recruiting until you reach the quota of
200 participants for each subgroup.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
3. Judgement Sampling
Judgmental sampling, also called purposive
sampling or authoritative sampling, is a non-
probability sampling technique in which the sample
members are chosen only on the basis of the
researcher’s knowledge and judgment.
As the researcher’s knowledge is instrumental in
creating a sample in this sampling technique, there
are chances that the results obtained will be highly
accurate with a minimum margin of error.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
3. Judgement Sampling
The process of selecting a sample using judgmental
sampling involves the researchers carefully picking
and choosing each individual to be a part of the
sample.
The researcher’s knowledge is primary in this
sampling process as the members of the sample are
not randomly chosen.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
3. Judgement Sampling
The process of selecting a sample using judgmental
sampling involves the researchers carefully picking
and choosing each individual to be a part of the
sample.
The researcher’s knowledge is primary in this
sampling process as the members of the sample are
not randomly chosen.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
3. Judgement Sampling
It is also known as selective sampling. It depends
on the judgment of the experts when choosing
whom to ask to participate.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
3. Judgement Sampling
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
3. Judgement Sampling
One example of judgemental sampling is if a
researcher wants to study the buying patterns of
high-end luxury car owners.
The researcher may use judgemental sampling to
select a sample of individuals who they believe are
most likely to purchase a luxury car.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
4. Snowball Sampling
Existing people are asked to nominate further people known to them
so that the sample increases in size like a rolling snowball. This
method of sampling is effective when a sampling frame is difficult to
identify.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
4. Snowball Sampling
Here, we had randomly chosen person 1 for our
sample, and then he/she recommended person 6,
and person 6 recommended person 11, and so on.
1- > 6 - > 11 - > 14 - > 19
There is a significant risk of selection bias in
snowball sampling, as the referenced individuals
will share common traits with the person who
recommends them.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
4. Snowball Sampling
If the population is hard to access, snowball sampling can
be used to recruit participants via other participants. The
number of people you have access to “snowballs” as you
get in contact with more people.
Example You are researching experiences of homelessness
in your city. Since there is no list of all homeless people in
the city, probability sampling isn’t possible. You meet one
person who agrees to participate in the research, and she
puts you in contact with other homeless people that she
knows in the area.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
4. Snowball Sampling
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
4. Snowball Sampling
Snowball Sampling: Definition
Snowball sampling or chain-referral sampling is defined as
a non-probability sampling technique in which the samples
have rare traits. This is a sampling technique, in which
existing subjects provide referrals to
recruit samples required for a research study.

For Example If you are studying the level of customer


satisfaction among the members of an elite country club,
you will find it extremely difficult to collect primary
data sources unless a member of the club agrees to have a
direct conversation with you and provides the contact
details of the other members of the club.
II. Non-Probability Sampling –
4. Snowball Sampling
This sampling method involves a primary data
source nominating other potential data sources that
will be able to participate in the research studies.
Snowball sampling method is purely based on
referrals and that is how a researcher is able to
generate a sample.
Therefore this method is also called
the chain-referral sampling method.
SAMPLE SIZE
‘Sample size’ is a market research term used for
defining the number of individuals included in
conducting research. Researchers choose their
sample based on demographics, such as age, gender
questions or physical location. It can be vague or
specific.
For example, you may want to know what people
within the 18-25 age range think of your product.
Or, you may only require your sample to live in the
United States, giving you a wide population range.
The total number of individuals in a particular
sample is the sample size.
SAMPLE SIZE DECISION

Sample size determination is the process of choosing the


right number of observations or people from a larger group to
use in a sample. The goal of figuring out the sample size is to
ensure that the sample is big enough to give statistically valid
results and accurate estimates of population parameters but
small enough to be manageable and cost-effective.

In many research studies, getting information from every


member of the population of interest is not possible or useful.
Instead, researchers choose a sample of people or events that
is representative of the whole to study. How accurate and
precise the results are can depend a lot on the size of the
sample.
SECONDARY DATA SOURCES
1. Surveys
2. observations
3. experiments
4. questionnaire
5. personal interview
6. Government publications
7. websites
8. books
9. journal articles
10.internal records

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