Research instruments in research methodology

Version of this i: the ment is the generic term that researchers use for a measurement device (survey, test, questionnaire, etc. Fall into two broad categories, researcher-completed and subject-completed, distinguished by those instruments that researchers administer versus those that are completed by participants. Researchers chose which type of instrument, or instruments, to use based on the research question. Examples are listed below:Researcher-completed t-completed iew schedules/ality mance ement/aptitude ity refers to the ease with which an instrument can be administered, interpreted by the participant, and scored/interpreted by the researcher. There are numerous statistical tests and measures to assess the validity of quantitative instruments, which generally involves pilot testing. It is not possible to calculate reliability; however, there are four general estimators that you may encounter in reading research:Inter-rater/observer reliability: the degree to which different raters/observers give consistent answers or -retest reliability: the consistency of a measure evaluated over el-forms reliability: the reliability of two tests constructed the same way, from the same al consistency reliability: the consistency of results across items, often measured with cronbach’s ng reliability and ility is directly related to the validity of the measure. Establishing validity and reliability in qualitative research can be less precise, though participant/member checks, peer evaluation (another researcher checks the researcher’s inferences based on the instrument (denzin & lincoln, 2005), and multiple methods (keyword: triangulation), are convincingly used. Some qualitative researchers reject the concept of validity due to the constructivist viewpoint that reality is unique to the individual, and cannot be generalized. Delight through logical research rundowns research rundowns was made possible by support from the dewar college of education at valdosta state resource was created by dr. Biddix is assistant professor of higher education and research methodology in the department of curriculum, leadership, and is educational research?

D bloggers like this:Develop a research g the proposal - data collection of what you have done up until now has been theoretical. Now you need to define the “how” of your actual research process, and its outcome. You go through some decision-making stages to help you with this part of your research proposal. On one level, the research process can appear to be relatively simple - if you carry out the basic steps methodically and carefully, then you should arrive at useful conclusions. However, the nature of research can be very complex and when you are reading textbooks on research methodology you will come across many unfamiliar words and terms. We will look, once again, at types of research and explain some of the main different types of research can be classified by its process, its purpose, and its outcome. Additionally, your purpose can be described in a different way, based on the kinds of methods that it purpose of the research also can be classified as:2. As you review each, consider whether the description fits the way you envisioned your research investigation. This will help you to make very important decisions for your own atory research this is conducted when there are few or no earlier studies to which references can be made for information. In exploratory research the focus is on gaining insights and familiarity with the subject area for more rigorous investigation later.

It is likely that you will be drawing on previous studies and so pure exploratory research is not generally appropriate for studies at this level – it is more appropriate for postgraduate research. However, it is possible that you may carry out an initial survey to establish areas of concern (exploratory research) and then research these issues in more depth, perhaps through interviews, to provide a deeper understanding (explanatory research). Descriptive research goes further than exploratory research in examining a problem since it is undertaken to be certain of and to describe the characteristics of the issue. A research investigation may include descriptive research, but it is likely that it will also include one of the following two types (explanatory or predictive) as you are required in to go beyond description and to explain or ical or explanatory research this is a continuation of descriptive research. The researcher goes beyond merely describing the characteristics, to analyze and explain why or how something is happening. Thus, analytical research aims to understand phenomena by discovering and measuring causal relations among tive research predictive research goes further by forecasting the likelihood of a similar situation occurring elsewhere. Predictive research provides ‘how’, ‘why’, and ‘where’ answers to current events as well as to similar events in the future. You have, however, selected from the two main traditions of approaching a research topic – quantitative and qualitative. Here are some tips about which methods work best for each tative research your research will take an objective position, and your approach will be to treat phenomena as hard and real. This approach typically concentrates on measuring or counting and involves collecting and analyzing numerical data and applying statistical ative research your view of the phenomena to be investigated should be more personal.

With this approach, the emphasis is more on generating hypotheses from the data collection rather than testing a ative and quantitative research methods are not clear-cut nor mutually exclusive – most research draws on both methods. The following chart might help you to decide what approach to use with certain methods and tools:Find out what to research ideas are is on on understanding from respondents’ point of what to research results are is on testing and on facts and/or le and not need to know in advance specific topics or questions – these should ‘emerge’. You should, however, just think of the question or hypothesis; that itself stipulates a kind of methodology to be used. Although her study had certain flaws, snyder insists that researchers can simultaneously employ qualitative and quantitative methods if studies are planned carefully and carried out are four possible models of integrating qualitative and quantitative methods in the first approach, qualitative methods contribute to the development of quantitative instruments, such as the use of focus groups in questionnaire second model consists of a primarily quantitative study that uses qualitative results to help interpret or explain the quantitative second model consists of a primarily quantitative study that uses qualitative results to help interpret or explain the quantitative the third approach, quantitative results help interpret predominantly qualitative findings, as when focus group participants are asked to fill out survey questionnaires at the the fourth model, the two methodologies are used equally and in parallel to cross-validate and build upon each other's example of the formative research stage, in which the goal is to learn as much as possible about how the target audience thinks and behaves in relation to the issue being addressed, a host of research methods provides many different data "viewpoints" for seeing the big picture. Exploratory research conducted at the beginning of the project reviews previous research involving both quantitative and qualitative data and can include interviews with those who have previously attempted to address the issue. This research will help in the initial development of the project strategy to delineate the parameters of the project, steer the selection of the target audience, specify the potential behaviors to be promoted and identify lessons learned and potential pitfalls. In addition, commercial marketing databases, while quantitative in nature, provide highly detailed profiles of target audience segments for message development and channel messages and materials developed based upon the exploratory research should be pretested using both qualitative and quantitative methods so that the results provide depth of understanding as well as generalizability. The quantitative and qualitative process research can be conducted simultaneously to collect and react to ating outcome evaluation both types of research are instructive in identifying the program outcomes. However, qualitative research can point out successes that may have occurred on a more human scale through anecdotes about how the social marketing program made a difference in someone's life. Both types of research are necessary to assess the full extent of the program's impact upon the target sion integrating quantitative and qualitative research methods lends depth and clarity to social marketing programs.

However, the potential for problems exists when attempting to combine such divergent research paradigms; one may end up not doing either type of research well. This integrative approach therefore requires a research team with expertise in both types of methods. Another obstacle, which will likely change as social marketing gains in usage, is that combining multiple methods is still not widely accepted as a viable research strategy--at least in mainstream public health circles. As social marketers demonstrate that such research is necessary to fully understand and address many health-related issues, the research norms and scientific dogma regarding appropriate methods may shift to a new, more integrative igate each tool below and complete your planning guide if you choose to use that specific instrumentation in your study. You may also want to consult with the basic information about research tools that you studied in elements of the to data a sample | develop research instruments | collect data | carry out a literature to develop research the group can collect any data, the young researchers will need to design research instruments (the tools they will use to collect the data). The group is planning to carry out interviews or focus groups, the young researchers will need to design an interview schedule or topic guide. Asking everyone the same questions means that the data you collect will be much more focused and easier to the group wants to carry out a survey, the young researchers will need to design a questionnaire. This should not be too difficult as the young researchers can adapt additional schedules or questionnaires from the designing the research instruments ensure that:They start with a statement about:The focus and aims of the research the person’s data will be used (to feed into a report? Long the interview or survey will take to use age-appropriate question helps the group to answer its research question – take out those that don’ questionnaires use appropriate scales. Don’t ask for so much detail that it would be possible to identify individuals though, if you have said that the survey will be the young researchers are planning to carry out observations, they will need to agree what to look for.

You could consider designing an observation the group if planning to use photographs, drawings or video, they will need to specify the activity for research participants. The results based on such instruments may therefore not accurately reflect what they are supposed to measure. This paper aims to illustrate the process and required steps involved in the cross-cultural adaptation of a research instrument using the adaptation process of an attitudinal instrument as an example. There was no appropriate instruments available in norwegian, thus an australian-english instrument was cross-culturally adaptation process included investigation of conceptual and item equivalence. Instead a new two-factor scale was identified and found valid in the new failure of the original scale highlights the importance of adapting instruments to current research settings. Thus, it is important to consider possible barriers when making a direct comparison between different nations, cultures and oundthere is much emphasis on using standardized and validated research instruments [1]. Another assumption is that the use of validated instruments increases the certainty with which the instruments accurately reflect what they are supposed to measure [1]. Additionally, instruments that were validated some time ago may not be valid in the present time due to changes in society that occur continuously [2, 3]. Staff attitudes towards omt had never previously been investigated in norway; consequently there were no instruments available in norwegian. However, previous research had not explicitly addressed the cross-cultural adaptation process of the cross-cultural adaptation process is important when an instrument is used in a different language, setting and time to reduce the risk of introducing bias into a study [2].

It is therefore important that each item is adapted the aim of this paper is to illustrate the process and required steps involved in the cross-cultural adaptation of a research instrument using the adaptation process of an attitudinal instrument as an example. A final semantic adjustment should be made by the research group based on the evidence from the pilot study [3–5]. A literature review may give information regarding the use of instruments in the target setting [2]. The researcher was present during the completion of the questionnaires in all except one omt centre and five harm reduction facilities. In the one omt centre the researcher gave information during a staff meeting and questionnaires were returned by mail. In four harm reduction facilities the researcher gave information during staff meetings and questionnaires were returned by email and mail. All members of the committee had either full-time or part-time positions at the norwegian centre for addiction research. Instead this was based solely on the subjective judgement of the researcher and group discussions with experts in the r words and items identified in the pretest were discussed with members of the expert committee and target population. Final adjustments were made based on the subjective judgement of the research team after discussions with members of the expert committee and target ment of operational the final adjustments of the instrument, the instrument format, instructions, mode of administration and measurement methods were assessed by the research group. Failure of the original scale highlights the importance of adapting instruments to current research settings.

Additionally decisions for when understanding was achieved for all items were left to the subjective judgement of the researchers. Based upon previous research it may be that the debate has moved on to other issues. The additional items enabled the researchers to find two new attitudinal scales that were valid in the norwegian setting. The researcher was present in all except one omt centre while respondents completed the questionnaires. In comparison the researcher was only present in seven out of 12 ham reduction facilities during data collection. Potentially it was easier for staff to complete the questionnaire when the researcher was present. This needs to be further investigated in a parallel study of staff attitudes and treatment sionsthe failure of the original scale highlights the importance of adapting instruments to current research settings. All authors read and approved the final s’ affiliations(1)seraf- norwegian centre for addiction research, university of oslo(2)school of public health, university of ght© gjersing et al; licensee biomed central ltd. Ement instrument refers to various methods through which a researcher obtains data from respondents for his research work. The term data refers to all forms of information that researchers obtain from the participant of the study.

There are different types of measurement instruments that can be used by researchers for their studies; it depends on the nature of research that is to be carried out. In this write up, we shall discuss various measurement instruments that can be used alongside with studies that are suitable for r, the collection of data is an important part of any research activity. Primary data represents the information gathered by the researcher through the use of questionnaire or personal interview or observation method; while in secondary data, the researcher collects information that has already been obtained and processed by government departments or various agencies before it is made available for other interested users. Journals, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, fliers, annual reports, bulletins, periodicals etc as a result, the kind of data to be collected, the method of collection to be used, and the scoring of the data must be considered when undertaken any research of data to be ing to aina, 2004; adedokun, 2003; avwokeni, 2006; adeniyi; oyekanmi and tijani, 2011. Researchers can collect the following types of data from respondents:Demographic information or data e. Age, sex, gender, educational background, ethnicity, religion, ses to researchers questions in an interview or written replies to a survey point averages obtainable from school written by students e. For this reason, it is important for every researcher to decide on what kind(s) of data he intends to collect and by what method to collect it. Those methods that researchers use in collecting his desired data are known as research or measurement collection are instruments that are used to collect data from participants of the study. They are mainly used by researchers to collect reliable data which will later be analyzed (aina, 2004). Each of the instruments shall be discussed in turn and also point out their merits and questionnaire is the commonly used instrument for collecting research data from the participants of a study.

It basically seeks the opinions of individuals in a sample or a population on issues directly related to the objectives of the research study” (aina, 2004:348). The questionnaire consists of a set of structured and unstructured questions designed by researchers to obtain data from the respondents. Hence, a questionnaire designed must be valid, reliable and must not be bogus so that the data collected can validate the research. The major demerit of the method is that some confusing and misleading questions cannot be clarified as the researcher may not be there to explain the questions, and also, sometimes, the questions may not be easily comprehensible to individuals who are illiterate, thus, the method is restricted only to educated er, the characteristics of a good questionnaire according to popoola (2011) consist of:Questions should not be ambiguous. A researcher would have previously prepared a schedule list of structured questions pertinent to the study before meeting respondents for their opinions on a subject matter. The researcher poses questions to the respondents and the answers are recorded by the researcher. Besides, it tends to be representative of the entire population of the study, and personal contact between the researcher and respondents enables the researcher to explain confusing and ambiguous questions in detail (aina, 2004; popoola, 2011). Interview can be conducted personally or through telephone or electronic mailing is an instrument that is employed by a researcher in which an individual behavior or situation is observed and recorded. Here, accurate and timely result would be obtained by the researcher but it has the problem of biasness. Non-participant observation on the other hand, the researcher is not a member of the group to be observed.

Both observation methods enhance first hand information, flexible and cheaper to carryout, demand less active cooperation of the observed and their results are reliable for research r, akinade & owolabi (2009) assert that observation method is popular tool in research especially in behavioural and social sciences; the authors argue that it requires special skills to make and assess behavioural observation in research. The authors further reiterated that researchers may observe the following guidelines when developing observation method:“clearly define the goal of the instrument;. Group discussion:This data collection instrument refers to a process whereby researchers obtain data from large group of people at the same time. This method is different from interview method; in an interview method, researcher focuses on one person at a time but in a focus group discussion method, the researcher obtains data from large number (group) of people for his research activity. Focus group discussion method is very popular when carrying out research in the field of behavioural science, library and information science, archival science, records and information technology. It could be noted here that a need may arise for a researcher to use more than 2 or 3 approaches to obtain data for his research activity. This depends on the supervisor, nature of the research or problem to be r, in focus group discussion; a researcher identifies key informants that may be contacted to elicit the deserved information on the variable(s) of interest in a study. Before now, it is needful for the researcher to have obtained their consent to take part in the s, the researcher must design a focus group discussion guide. Recorder and cassette, refreshment to entertain the the focus group discussion exercise, the researcher has to transcribe the data into qualitative information e. Then it can be calculated/quantify as: 7/10 *100 = 70%; this is the figure that the researcher will report in his work.

Moreover, the major advantage of this method is that it added credibility and originality to the research activity while it challenges include: too cost to carry out, it takes too much of time to conduct and some of the respondents may not be free to contribute extensively especially if their boss is invited to such type of data collection instrument takes place in pure and applied science research. Here the researchers carry out some experiments in the laboratory setting in order to test some reactions that may take place in the object of research. While, its problems include: it is too costly to undertake and those chemicals used may cause permanent damage to the researcher if they are carelessly 1: classification of research based on data collection of collection onnaire, interview and onnaire, focus group discussion, interview and onnaire, interview, focus group discussion and raphic e. Correlational ation, questionnaire, focus group discussion and ation, focus group discussion and group discussion, interview and ment and onnaire and onnaire, observation, focus group discussion, interview and experiment in case of pure science onnaire, observation and : japheth yaya, 18th june, could be re-emphasized here that researchers are not restricted only to different methods of data collection instruments and their classification as presented in this paper but the choice of which method to apply depends on the researcher, nature or problem to be investigated and prevailing circumstances at the time of carrying out the study. Thus, researchers are free to use any method they deem fit for their un, j. A paper presented at a training workshop on building research capacity for library and        information science professionals. Organized by the nigerian library association, ogun        state chapter, held at covenant university, ota, nigeria on 18th – 22nd september, may also like: developing outstanding research topics │how to write an is loading comments... Administration ting and finance communication research nce research project g and finance project ing research project er science project h language project ic research bilogy project rial chemistry project ical engineering ion research project resource project reneurship project ty and surveying ecture project admistration project cal science project engineering project / project topics and awesome presentations: tips and tricks for project ping outstanding research nges of personal income taxation in -life balance and its effect on employee of employee benefits on organizational of nigeria monetary policies on foreign direct investment.