Research Aptitude

Conceptual research is related to some abstract idea(s) or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or to re-interpret existing ones.

Sequential sampling is a complex sample design where the ultimate size of the sample is not fixed in advance but is determined according to mathematical decisions on the basis of information yielded as the survey progresses. This design is usually adopted under acceptance sampling plan in the context of statistical quality control.

This method implies the collection of information by way of investigator’s own observation, without interviewing the respondents. The information obtained relates to what is currently happening and is not complicated by either the past behavior or future intentions or attitudes of respondents.

Research concerning some natural phenomenon or relating to pure mathematics are examples of fundamental research.

Experience survey means the survey of people who have had practical experience with the problem to be studied. The object of such a survey is to obtain insight into the relationships between variables and new ideas relating to the research problem.

Interviewer’s approach must be friendly and informal. Initially friendly greetings in accordance with the cultural pattern of the interviewee should be exchanged and then the purpose of the interview should be explained.

Scaling describes the procedures of assigning numbers to various degrees of opinion, attitude and other concepts. This can be done in two ways viz., (i) making a judgment about some characteristic of an individual and then placing him directly on a scale that has been defined in terms of that characteristic and (ii) constructing questionnaires in such a way that the score of individual’s response assigns him a place on a scale. Hence, the term ‘scaling’ is applied to the procedures for attempting to determine quantitative measures of subjective abstract concepts.

Multiple discriminant analysis is appropriate when the researcher has a single dependent variable that cannot be measured, but can be classified into two or more groups on the basis of some attribute. The object of this analysis happens to be to predict an entity’s possibility of belonging to a particular group based on several predictor variables.

Mean deviation is the average of difference of the values of items from some average of the series. Such a difference is technically described as deviation. In calculating mean deviation we ignore the minus sign of deviations while taking their total for obtaining the mean deviation.

Pilot study is a small-scale experiment or set of observations undertaken to decide how and whether to launch a full-scale project. A pilot experiment, also called a pilot study, is a small scale preliminary study conducted in order to evaluate feasibility, time, cost, adverse events, and effect size (statistical variability) in an attempt to predict an appropriate sample size and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research project

Median is a positional average and is used only in the context of qualitative phenomena, for example, in estimating intelligence, etc., which are often encountered in sociological fields. Median is not useful where items need to be assigned relative importance and weights. It is not frequently used in sampling statistics.

From a statistical point of view, the term ‘universe’ refers to the total of the items or units in any field of inquiry.

Chi-square distribution is encountered when we deal with collections of values that involve adding up squares.

Sampling theory is a study of relationships existing between a population and samples drawn from the population. Sampling theory is applicable only to random samples.

A curve is more flat than the normal curve is called platykurtic.