Now that we have talked about probability sampling, let’s focus on non-probability sampling in research. We saw that we need a sampling frame whenever we want to go for a probability sampling technique. But many times, a sampling frame is…
Although there are millions of shoppers during the holiday season, only a few thousand of them are actually sampled to determine their shopping habits. An obvious question is why only a few thousands? Well, the simple answer is time and…
There are four basic types of scales of measurement – nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Since each scale is better suited to specific types of variables, it limits or enables us to perform specific statistical operations or tests. Let’s look…
A theoretical model, measurement model in research describes and evaluates the quality of measurement to improve its usefulness and accuracy. In quantitative research, we need to measure variables because variables operationalize[1] constructs Measurement is the process of assigning numbers to…
Let’s discuss a simple situation in which we have two variables to understand regression analysis and what it means, and how to interpret the outcomes of regression analysis. In other blog posts, we discuss how to do a simple regression.…
There are many ways of acquiring knowledge. Intuition, authority, experience, and reasoning are all ways to gain knowledge. We acquire knowledge from our experience. People who are experts in the subject matter also provide a great deal of information. Here…
How things are measured in research is very important as it provides information about how to interpret those measurements. ‘Scales of measurement’ is a classification that describes the nature of the information within the values assigned to variables. That is,…
Our life would be much easier and our policies would be much more amenable to directed action if we could infer a causal relationship between the variables of interests. But the inference of causality is much trickier than simply having…
There are many types of variables in scientific research. Before we list out all and define them, let’s define the term variable itself. Paul Spector (1981) provides a succinct definition stating, “a variable is a qualitative or quantitative entity that…
“Science consists of some specific aims to arrive at a knowledge of some specific kind, methods for arriving at those aims together with the standards for judging the extent to which they have been met, and specific facts and theories…
