Springer Science & Business Media

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14. In hypothesis testing, a researcher always takes into account whether to reject the null
hypothesis. A null hypothesis is a statement that the researcher takes into account with the
proposition that no significant statistical relationship exists in a set of given observations. On
the other hand, an alternative hypothesis is a statement which states that there exist statistical
relationship in a set of given observations. In a hypothesis testing a researcher rejects a null
hypothesis and accepts an alternative hypothesis.
15. Descriptive research design is one of the most common methods of research design. In
this type of research design, the main objective is to find out what’s happening in a given
situation rather than trying to explain relationships or cause and effect. In this type of
research design, the information is collected by asking a set of predefined questions in a
structured questionnaire to a sample of individuals acting as a representative of the
population. The research methods in a descriptive research design are survey and observation.
While conducting a survey, a researcher has to deal with sampling, design of questionnaire,
administration of questionnaire and analysis of data. The questionnaires are administered
through interviews. The typical objective of a survey is to learn from an on-going activity
through the process of studying changes in the behavioural patterns of the subject. The
surveys are descriptive in nature (Sreejesh, Mohapatra & Anusree, 2013).
16. Descriptive research basically focuses on the study of what exists within the field of
study. In other words, descriptive research tells us what’s going on or what actually exists.
On the other hand, causal research helps in determining whether one or more variables affect
the other variables. Causal research is also known as exploratory research or experimental
research. In a causal research, within the data generating process, the researcher himself
becomes an active participant. He manipulates diverse treatment to examine their effects on a
variable of interest (McNabb, 2004).
17. The methods of descriptive research include questionnaires, personal interviews, phone
surveys and normative surveys.
Questionnaire method is one of the oldest and most reliable descriptive research methods.
This is designed to gather information about the attitudes, characteristic and behaviours of a
population by imbuing a standard set of questions. The questions are distributed to the
respondents for data collection (Clifford, French & Valentine, 2010).

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Personal interviews are conducted when there is involvement of a specific target population.
The method of interview is face to face and here the researcher possesses the flexibility to
build rapport with the respondents and take more in depth information. However, personal
interview method is costly method.
A phone survey is a data collection procedure over telephone. It is a very cost effective
means to collect data. In this process, the telephone numbers are utilized by interviewers for
gathering data from the respondents.
The normative survey basically uses statistics and values considered normal for the group
that is being surveyed. This is done in order to comprehend and gather data on a particular
subject.
18. Nominal scale is also known as categorical variable scale. It is used to label variables into
distinct classifications. In a nominal scale there does not include any quantitative value.
Examples of nominal scales include gender, place of residence and political preference.
Ordinal scale is simply used to depict the order of the variables. Examples of ordinal scales
include status at workplace, order of satisfaction, and order of quality of product and so on.
Interval scale is a numerical scale and the order of the variable is known as the difference
between the variables. Examples include temperature scales, family income and so on.
Ratio scale is a variable measurement that makes the difference between variables apart from
producing the order of the variable. Examples of ratio scale are the boy’s current height is
between 5 feet to 6 feet, the weight of boy is between 71 to 90 kilograms.
19. The importance of differentiating between different measurement scales lies in the fact
that it helps in preventing mistakes. The researcher needs to see the distinctive differences by
differentiating different scales of measurement and also help in selecting the appropriate
statistical technique.
20. There are 7 factors that evaluate the goodness of a questionnaire. The factors are
simplicity, precision, distinctiveness, comprehensiveness, optionality, impartiality and
balance.