Research methods: sampling, problemnaire, measurement, survey, validity, variables

11. Suppose you were hired to research the effect of music on the dollar amount spent by women in a department store.
o In such a case, who would be your "target population?"
o If you wanted to maximize the external validity of your study, how would you construct a "sample" from this population? In other words, which specific sampling design would be proposed for the study?
o Why?
IMPORTANT! There are many ways to construct a correct answer to this problem. You need only provide one correct answer.

12. What is "Convenience Sampling" and when might it be used? IMPORTANT! Provide an illustration to show how convenience sampling would work. Be certain that your illustration cannot be mistaken for some other kind of sampling, such as "Snowball Sampling."

13. Suppose you were asked to create a problemnaire measure of "entrepreneurial self-efficacy" (ESE). This is meant to refer to a small business owner's feeling that s/he is able to execute the necessary steps to make the business grow. You develop a 10-item problemnaire measuring overall entrepreneurial self-efficacy and want to assess the reliability of your instrument.
o What does it mean for a measurement to be "reliable?"
o Describe one of the mechanical processes you could follow to formally test the "reliability" of your 10-item measurement scale. In your answer, be sure to correctly employ one of the following types of reliability: inter-rater or inter-observer reliability, test-retest reliability, parallel forms reliability, internal consistency reliability.

14. Identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio) associated with each of the variables listed below*: Important! Justify your answer in every case, so that I can see your logic.
o Number of words correctly spelled, from a list of 10 words considered to be of equal difficulty, as a score of 3rd grade spelling ability (scores can range from 0 to 10).
o Names of 12 cities in the United States, chosen at random.
o Grade point average from 1.0 to 4.0. In this scenario, assume no student has a 0.0 GPA.
*Salkind, N. J. (2003). Exploring Research (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

15. Which of the following is FALSE, regarding the cognitive "work" a respondent must perform if s/he is to provide you with valid information on a survey or problemnaire?
A. It is possible that the respondent does not understand (cannot correctly interpret) the problem as written.
B. The vast majority of respondents will lack sufficient knowledge to make the necessary judgments required by the problems on your survey. Instead, they just randomly fill in a number, so they can get it over with on the problemnaire.
C. Sometimes, a respondent may understand what you want to know, but can't recall the necessary information (the respondent may "guess," because she doesn't want to admit she can't remember).
D. It may be that the respondent has an answer to the problem, but his answer doesn't "fit" into any of the possible response options you've provided on your problemnaire.
16. If your hypothesis has a dependent variable "age," i.e. how many years one has lived, which one of the four measurement scales is the most valid scale to measure age? Say why.

17. Which of the following is TRUE?
A. External validity describes the generalizability of your research findings from your sample to the larger population.
B. Internal validity describes the ability to attribute the results of your research to your independent variable, rather than to some factor in your research design or your sample, which you failed to control.
C. Internal validity describes the generalizability of your research findings from your sample to the larger population.
D. External validity describes the ability to attribute the results of your research to your independent variable, rather than to some factor in your research design or your sample, which you failed to control.
E. Both c and d are true
F. Both a and b are true
G. None of the above is true

18. Briefly, accurately, and with specificity, describe the difference between "maturation" and "instrumentation" as internal validity threats. IMPORTANT! Be sure to provide an illustration that demonstrates your distinction between maturation and instrumentation.

19. Let's say that you were hired to research the effect of "compressed work week" (40 hours in 4 days, rather than 5 days) on employee turnover in the IT industry. The company hiring you believes that IT employees offered the compressed work week will stay longer with the company than those working the traditional 5-day week.
If you were to prepare a Business Research Proposal for this company, which "Research Design" (e.g., true experimental, quasi-experimental, pre-test/post-test, case study) would you select? Briefly describe why you would use this specific research design.

20. Which of the following independent variables do you think would be inappropriate for a true experimental design, and thus would require a quasi-experimental research design? Important! describe why you've chosen particular variables as requiring quasi-experimental design.

A. Gender

B. Elementary school "early reading" stimulus materials

C. Math teaching strategy

D. Online teaching

E. Ice cream flavors