Chapter 7

1. “Whenever possible, it is advisable to use instruments that have already been developed and
repeatedly used in published studies rather than develop our own instruments for our studies”. Do you
agree? Discuss the reasons for your answer.

It is always advisable to use well-validated instruments that have been repeatedly used in published
studies, rather than going through the cumbersome process of developing one’s own instruments and
laboriously establishing their validity and reliability. However, simply because an instrument is used in
some published studies does not necessarily make it a good instrument. It is always wise to examine the
psychometric properties established for the instrument before using it. In case this is not easily available,
a pilot study can be conducted to see if the measures have at least acceptable reliability.

2. “A valid instrument is always reliable, but a reliable instrument is not always valid”. Comment on
this statement.

If an instrument is valid, especially in terms of content validity, we would expect to have a reliable
instrument. However, an instrument can have both consistency and stability, but may not be measuring
what it is intended to measure – i.e. have low validity. However, if an instrument does measure the
concept that it is supposed to measure, it will be reliable. Thus, a valid instrument will be reliable, but a
reliable instrument need not necessarily be valid.

3. Develop and name the type of measuring instrument you would use to tap the
following:
a. Which brands of beer are consumed by how many individuals;
Nominal scale will be used.
The questionnaire might simply ask the name of the brand consumed by each individual and, when the
responses are received, categorize them under the different brands, or
The popular brands can be categorized with a final item “Other” and respondents asked to mark the
one they consume.
b. Among the three types of exams – multiple choice, essay type, and a mix of both - ,
which is the one preferred most by students;
An ordinal scale will be used for this.
Rank your preferences for the types of exams below. For the most preferred one, place 1 beside
the item, for the next preferred, 2, and the least preferred, 3.
Multiple Choice Exams
Essay type Exams
Mix of multiple choice and Essay questions

c. To what extent do individuals agree with your definition of accounting principles.

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 d. How much people like an existing organizational policy.
Itemized-scaled item (interval) as below.
For the item below, circle the appropriate number, using the scale below
Very Much To some Extent
Neither LikeSomewhat nor DislikeDislike
Dislike Intensely
2 34 5
1
How much do you like the 1 2 3 4 5
existing organizational
policy?
e. The age of employees in an organization.
Ratio scale asking for the actual age of employees. years
f. The number of employees in each of the 20 departments of a company.
Ratio scale counting the exact number of employees in each of the departments.

Chapter 8

1. Every data collection method has its own built-in biases. Therefore, resorting to multi-
methods of data collection is only going to compound the biases. Critique this statement.

It is true that most data collection methods in the social sciences have their own built-in biases. For
instance, interviews are susceptible to interviewer and respondent biases, observational data will have
observer and actor biases, and so on. But when data are collected through multiple methods and
compared, if the correlations among the several types of responses received through the different data
collection methods are high, we can be fairly confident that the data have good validity and reliability
– i.e. they are “good.” If the correlations are low, however, we would start wondering about the
goodness of our data. We would then pay closer attention to the methods used. For instance, if
respondents say that they experience a high level of meaningfulness in their jobs when they are
interviewed, and when the concept is measured through several items in the questionnaire, we would
be inclined to treat these as acceptable data even though both may have a low correlation to data
obtained from a sentence completion motivational research. If, however, there is no correlation at all
among any of the methods, the goodness of the data collected will be highly suspect.

Thus, multi-methods of data collection help us to make certain judgments about the goodness of our
data and serves to make decisions on which sets of data may perhaps be more acceptable than others.

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 2. One way to deal with discrepancies found in the data obtained from multiple sources is to average
the figures and take the mean as the value on the variable. What is your reaction to this?

Wherever possible “objective” data, through unobtrusive methods, need to be obtained. For instance,
if an employee’s performance is to be measured, it is better to go through the person’s records and
evaluation forms of the superiors (in case more objective measures of output are not available).
However, such records are usually confidential in nature and are not likely to be made accessible to
the researcher. Hence data will be sought from multiple sources–for example, from the subject, the co-
workers, the immediate supervisor, other superiors, and perhaps even the subordinates. If there is not
much consistency in the data obtained through these various sources, there is no option left but to
average these. However, the researcher should point out the biases inherent in this and acknowledge
this limitation in the report.

3. The fewer the biases in measurement and in the data collection procedures, the more scientific the
research. Comment on this statement.

This observation is correct. When reliable and valid measures are used to tap concepts, and when the
data collection methods have less built-in biases, we would have good data, provided that, of course,
the sample is representative. Thus, replicability, accuracy and precision, and generalizability, become
possible. The research then becomes more scientific.

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