Variety of Business Methods - Assignment Example

Harris Kamran Business Studies Assignment 15 December Business research method assignment Chapter 3: Q1: In the given scenario, some important ethical considerations have been overlooked. The nature of the study is private and sensitive as it deals with the sexual behavior of the participants. The problem here is that apart from the recruited confederates, the other people involved in the study are not even aware that they are being tested, and have not been informed. Therefore, their consent is also not taken, which is another breech of the ethics. The behavior of individuals without their knowledge is being exposed and studied, while they are ignorant about the social experiment being conducted. This leads to the ethical dilemma of deception, in which the participants are either not told about the study or are under a false impression. A serious problem can occur, if for example, things were to get serious between the confederate and the unsuspecting participant, and they were later to find out that it was all part of a social experiment. Chapter 4: Part A: Q 3: To study the actual effects of taking wine, certain variables, especially participant variables, need to be taken into consideration. The consumption of wine alone cannot be a factor for good health in this study. For accurate results, variables such as the age, gender, nationality, economic status, eating habits and lifestyle, exercise, past medical history, occupation, sexual history, and even the personality type need to be evaluated, as each of these participant variables can have significant effect on the health of the individual and, hence, on the result of the study. Only if all of these variables are more or less constant for the entire study group can the effect of the consumption of wine can be studied accurately. Chapter 4: Part B: Hypothesis 5b: i) The relationship is positive linear ii) The bigger the size of the meeting, the longer would be its duration or length iii) Non-experimental method would be used as we are simply interested in finding out the relationship between the two variables and the way they effect each other, and are not interested in changing any variable. iv) The size of the meeting is the independent variable and the length of the meeting is the dependent variable v) The operational definition for the size would be the number of people, and for the length it would be time. Therefore, size would be measured as the number of people in the meeting, and length as the number of minutes for which the meeting took place Hypothesis 5e: i) It will be a negative linear relationship ii) Exercise would decrease the level of stress; the more one exercises, the less stress they would experience iii) Experimental method would be used as we are interested in manipulating one variable and studying its effect on the other. We will increase or decrease the amount of exercise to study its effect on stress iv) Exercise is the independent variable, and stress is the dependent variable v) The operational definition for exercise would be the time in minutes spent on moderate exercise, and for stress it would be a simple questionnaire with a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being least stressful and 5 being most stressful. The time spent exercising would be increased gradually and each time the participant would be asked to fill the questionnaire about the level of stress that they experience before and after exercise. Chapter 5: Q 6: The ideal approach would be to change the scale and use one that is both reliable and accurate. This is because an unreliable equipment can only be used if we take a large number of readings to minimize the error. However, in the experiment on weight, taking a lot of readings for one participant might not be feasible. Therefore, it would be best to change scales. However, if the same scale is to be used, our results can still be valid if we subtract 10 from the final readings each time, and note this in our write-up of the research. Chapter 6: Q 7: The coding system for the research would be: Provocative or sexual: if the words or drawings in the graffiti are of sexual nature Religious: if the words or drawings are spiritual or religious Academic: if the words or drawings are from the course material, or versions of the syllabus Pop: if the words or drawings illustrate the pop culture, such as music or fashion Offensive: if the words or drawings are abusive or inappropriate, such as swear words or other such illustrations Personal: if the graffiti is a personal attack on a particular student Random: if the graffiti does not fall into any of the above categories The variables will be: The gender frequenting the restrooms The age of the users The nationality of the users The course or classes attended by the users The ethnicity The societies or clubs frequented by the users The research would be conducted using a sample of washrooms as observational studies should be conducted in the environment in which the behavior occurs. Chapter 7: Q 8: On the official website of the CNN, there is a poll or survey asking for the opinion of the users about the recent rocket launching of North Korea. It simply asks if the launch worries the user or not, in a “Yes” or “No” type poll. It does not give any choice for “Undecided” or “Does not concern me” options. These options would have given a more profound aspect to the research, showing the number of people who do not think about it. Also, by giving just two options of yes or no, the survey is restricting the answering scale of the users. The results show that the majority of the people, almost 70%, are not worried about it, whereas the rest are. However, people who are undecided or do not think about it may have been forced to answer No, thereby, corrupting the result. Chapter 8: Scenario 9a: i) The independent variable is the number of planes handled by the controller ii) The dependent variable is the number or nature of the errors made by the controller iii) The confounding variable could be the gender of the controller, as the attention span is also effected by gender differences iv) To unconfound the study, the researcher could conduct the study on only men or only women, or he could conduct two similar studies, one for men and one for women, and then publish separate results for both. Chapter 9: Q 12: In the case of studying variables that affect helping behavior, we would most likely use the staged manipulation method. This is because we are interested in studying a specific behavior pattern, which we have to draw out from the participants, or in other words, we would have to make them behave a certain way. For such studies, staged manipulation is used, so that the specific behavior or variable of interest can be exaggerated and studied. Also, helping behavior and the associated variables would have to be studied in contrast to selfish behavior and its associated variables to better understand the results, and staged manipulation technique would help us accomplish both the required behavior patterns. Chapter 10: Design 14g: i) This is a 3 x 3 x 2 factorial design ii) The total number of conditions is 18 iii) The manipulated variable is the sexual content iv) Yes, it is a IV x PV design. The participant variables are age and gender v) Yes, it is a repeated measures design. The repeated variable is the reading material with the low, medium, and high sexual arousal content vi) The dependent variable is the concentration of the participants, measured as the number of errors detected in the proofreading task Chapter 11: Q 15: A business organization is facing increasing expenditures, making it go into loss as most of the profits are used to counter the expenditure. First, the initial expenditure would be calculated (Period A). Then, the organization departments would be divided. One half of the departments would be instructed to cut back on the power usage, and the other half would be instructed to cut back on stationery and supplies (Period B). After three months, the total expenditure of each of the set of departments would be calculated (Period A), and compared with each other and with the initial calculated expenditures to arrive at the best possible approach and solution. Chapter 12: 16a: there is a relatively strong correlation between wearing nametags and job satisfaction. The relationship is positive in nature, that is, job satisfaction increases with wearing nametags. 16e: there is a very strong correlation between calorie intake and weight gain, and it is positive in nature; that is, the more the calorie intake, the more the weight gain. 16f: there is a relatively weak correlation between the number of policemen on the street and violent crime, and it is negative in nature; that is, the incidence of violent crime decreases with the increasing number of policemen on the street. Chapter 13: Part A: Experiment 17a: i) Null hypothesis: the number of cavities in children using Toothpaste brand X is equal to the number of cavities in children using Toothpaste brand Y. ii) Research hypothesis: the number of cavities in children using Toothpaste brand X is not equal to the number of cavities in children using Toothpaste brand Y. iii) The Type I error would be to conclude that the number of cavities in children using the two brands of Toothpaste are not equal when in fact they are equal iv) The Type II error would be to conclude that the number of cavities in children using the two brands of Toothpaste are equal when in fact they are not equal v) The probability of a Type I error in this scenario is .05 Chapter 13: Part B: 18a: It is a correlation. It is negative. 18b: It is an experiment. The independent variable is the number of bystanders. The dependent variable is the altruistic behavior. 18c: It is a correlation. It is positive. 18d: It is an experiment. The independent variable is the question type. The dependent variable is the answer to the question. 18e: It is a correlation. It is positive. Chapter 14: Q 19: Although the use of Internet for surveys and data collection has become quite popular, there are important considerations to be kept in mind when using this technique. Internet use is still restricted to a specific demographic, based on economic status, lifestyle, and age. To collect data using the Internet would mean restricting the study to that particular demographic. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized. Also, if the study is aimed at finding results for a particular ethnic or geographical group, data collected over the Internet might give false results as people from all over the world would be answering. The same applies to gender specific studies. However, if the study is meant to cover a general and global issue, the Internet, combined with the traditional methods to cover broader demographics, could prove to be a good option. This case could be treated as a study of variables, and presented in the form of graphs for the varying demographic results. References Cozby, P., & Bates, S. (2011). Methods in behavioral research. Columbus: McGraw Hill Companies, Incorporated. Read More