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Research Methodology and
Descriptive Statistics
PRE-MASTER (BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION) Q1
Notes lessons, power points and micro lectures
SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER 2019
University of Twente
,Research methodology and descriptive statistics
Table of contents
Research methodology and descriptive statistics............................................................................. 0
Week 1 .................................................................................................................................................... 4
Unit 1 Micro lectures: .......................................................................................................................... 4
1. The idea of doing research .................................................................................................... 4
2. Relationship between empirical research, decision making and design ............................... 5
3. Conformation bias .................................................................................................................. 5
Unit 1 Lecture ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Unit 2 Micro lectures ......................................................................................................................... 10
1. Formulating clear empirical research questions .................................................................. 10
2. Different types of research questions .................................................................................. 10
3. Micro lecture 3: developing research questions ................................................................... 11
Unit 2 Lecture .................................................................................................................................... 14
Unit 3 Mirco lectures ......................................................................................................................... 14
1. Units in research .................................................................................................................. 14
2. Variables and levels of measurement .................................................................................. 15
3. Variables as “constructions .................................................................................................. 16
4. Missing values ...................................................................................................................... 17
5. Broad format data matrix ...................................................................................................... 18
Unit 3 Lecture: What are data? ......................................................................................................... 20
Week 2 .................................................................................................................................................. 21
Unit 4 Micro lectures ......................................................................................................................... 21
1. SPSS for beginners/ introduction ......................................................................................... 21
2. Introduction SPSS data set .................................................................................................. 22
3. Changing variable types/ recoding variables ....................................................................... 22
4. Data matrix in spss ............................................................................................................... 23
5. Frequency tables .................................................................................................................. 23
Lecture Unit 4 .................................................................................................................................... 24
Micro lectures Unit 5 ......................................................................................................................... 26
1. Conceptualization: constructs as combinations of facets and terms ................................... 26
2. Conceptualization: dimensions in concepts ......................................................................... 29
3. Indices, typologies and scales ............................................................................................. 32
Lecture unit 5 conceptualizing variables ........................................................................................... 33
Micro lectures unit 6 .......................................................................................................................... 36
1. Data collection methods ....................................................................................................... 36
2. Operationalization and measurement .................................................................................. 37
3. Data collection method: surveys .......................................................................................... 39
4. Data collection method: items in surveys ............................................................................. 41
5. Improving survey questions ................................................................................................. 42
Lecture unit 6..................................................................................................................................... 43
Week 3 .................................................................................................................................................. 44
Unit 7 micro lectures ......................................................................................................................... 44
1. Data collection method: content analysis ............................................................................. 44
2. Conceptualization using interviews ...................................................................................... 47
, Lecture unit 7 content analysis and coding ....................................................................................... 49
Micro lectures unit 8 .......................................................................................................................... 54
1. Reliability and validity in measurement ................................................................................ 54
2. Measurement reliability ........................................................................................................ 55
3. Measurement validity ........................................................................................................... 58
Lecture unit 8 Two aspects of data quality ........................................................................................ 59
........................................................................................................................................................... 59
Micro lectures Unit 9 ......................................................................................................................... 65
1. Frequency tables in spss ..................................................................................................... 65
2. Summarize the data → frequency table → informative graphs ........................................... 65
3. How to create a bar chart in SPSS ...................................................................................... 67
4. Creating pie charts ............................................................................................................... 67
5. Frequency Tables, Bar Chart, Pie Chart, & Multiple Bar Chart ........................................... 67
Lecture 9 = tutorial ............................................................................................................................ 67
Week 4 .................................................................................................................................................. 67
Micro lectures unit 10 ........................................................................................................................ 67
1. Summarizing a distribution: exploring data mode, median and mean ................................. 67
2. Introducing boxplot.................................................................................................................... 68
3. Impact on median and mean when removing lowest value example .................................. 69
4. Variance and standard deviation ......................................................................................... 69
5. (n-1) gives us an unbiased estimate of variance ................................................................. 70
Lecture unit 10................................................................................................................................... 70
Micro lectures unit 11 ........................................................................................................................ 73
1. Z-scores ............................................................................................................................... 73
Lecture unit 11................................................................................................................................... 75
Micro lectures Unit 23 ....................................................................................................................... 76
1. Introduction normal distribution ............................................................................................ 76
Week 5 .................................................................................................................................................. 77
Micro lectures unit 13 ........................................................................................................................ 77
1. Cross tabs in SPSS .............................................................................................................. 77
2. Correlation an regression: crosstabs and scatterplots ......................................................... 78
Lecture unit 13................................................................................................................................... 79
Micro lectures unit 23 ........................................................................................................................ 82
1. Correlation and regression: Pearson’s R ............................................................................. 82
Week 6 .................................................................................................................................................. 84
Micro lectures unit 12 ........................................................................................................................ 84
1. Causality and explanation .................................................................................................... 84
2. Time order in causal relations .............................................................................................. 86
3. Effect of third variables ......................................................................................................... 88
4. Bivariate associations .......................................................................................................... 89
Lecture unit 12................................................................................................................................... 91
Micro lectures unit 15 ........................................................................................................................ 94
1. Research designs for testing bivariate causal relationships ................................................ 94
2. Validity in causal research ................................................................................................... 96
3. The classical experiment ...................................................................................................... 97
4. Cross-sectional research ..................................................................................................... 98
5. Interrupted time series design ITS ....................................................................................... 99
Lecture unit 15................................................................................................................................. 100
, Micro lectures unit 14 ...................................................................................................................... 102
1. The effect of third variables thinking about trivariate hypothesis ....................................... 102
2. Effect of third variables confounding .................................................................................. 103
3. Effect of third variables: interpretation. .............................................................................. 103
4. effect of third variables: interaction/ modification ............................................................... 104
Lecture unit 14 Causalty and the effect of third variables ............................................................... 104
Week 7 ................................................................................................................................................ 107
Micro lectures unit 16 ...................................................................................................................... 107
1. Testing a trivariate hypothesis using a trivariate table ....................................................... 107
Lecture unit 16................................................................................................................................. 108
Unit 17 ............................................................................................................................................. 108
Same micro lecture as unit 16 .................................................................................................... 108
Micro lectures unit 17 ...................................................................................................................... 111
Lecture unit 17 eloboration: analyizing multi-variate relationships using tables II .......................... 112
Week 8 ................................................................................................................................................ 116
Micro lectures unit 19 Sampling ...................................................................................................... 116
1. Sampling ............................................................................................................................ 116
2. The sampling distribution: sample and population ............................................................. 119
3. The sampling distribution: sampling ................................................................................... 119
Lecture unit 19................................................................................................................................. 121
Micro lectures Unit 20 first steps inference: certainly about means ................................................ 125
1. Sampling distribution .......................................................................................................... 125
2. The sampling distribution: central limit theorem ................................................................. 126
3. Sampling distribution of the sample mean 1 ...................................................................... 128
4. Sampling distribution of the sample mean 2 ...................................................................... 128
5. Standard error of the mean ................................................................................................ 128
Unit 21: first steps towards inference: effects and significance ...................................................... 129
1 Simple linear regression .......................................................................................................... 129
......................................................................................................................................................... 129
2 residuals: best-fitting straight line in simple regression ........................................................... 130
3 Population regression equation.......................................................................................... 130
Unit 22 micro lecture ....................................................................................................................... 131
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