RANDOM SAMPLING

 The certain branch of mathematics which is concerned with the collection and interpretation of numerical data collected from the samples is called 'Statistics'.

According to Ciccarelli, "A sample is a group of subjects selected from a larger population of subjects, usually selected randomly....."

Blalock in 1960, has categorized sampling into two methods: Probability Sampling Methods and Nonprobability Sampling Methods.

Firstly, Probability Sampling Method determines the probable chance of inclusion of every unit or individual within the sample.

Secondly, Nonprobability Sampling Method is that method which is unable to provide us with knowledge of probable chance of an unit or individual's inclusion within the sample.

RANDOM SAMPLING:

The core of Behavioral Science Experimentation is 'Predict and Control'. Predicting all the factors that will act as variables and manipulating or controlling them in the hope of eliciting the perfect responses as the outcome of the experiment is the 'ideal' condition. But, this surreal situation is hard to reach, as knowing all the variables is impossible and controlling them is more inhuman.

The concept of Randomization works as a boon to this situation. When all the units or individual of a certain Universe or Population has equal and independent chance of being selected, the varied characteristics are included within the sample, which counterbalances in the long run.

So, the concept of randomness is at the center of the new era behavioral science research.

SAMPLING WITH AND WITHOUT REPLACEMENT:

Suppose we are conducting sampling with the fish bowl method. There are total 100 pieces of paper within the bowl. The chance of the 1st person to get selected is 1/100th . If we remove the piece of paper and choose the 2nd person - the chance of his selection becomes 1/99th.

a) Selection of unit or individual from the source without returning the slip is sampling without replacement.

b) Selection of unit or individual from the source returning the slips every time they were taken out, is sampling with replacement.

It can be concluded that sampling is fetching a portion of the universe or population as a representative of the same. And, Random Sampling is simply selection of this portion in such a fashion so that every individual has an equal and autonomous chance to be a part of the sample. 

REFERENCES:

Kerlinger, F. N., & Lee, H. B. (1986). Foundations of behavioral research, Fort Worth. TX: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.

Quinton, S. (2015). Saundra K. Ciccarelli and J. Noland White, Psychology (/Global Edition).

Singh, A. K. (2015). Tests, measurements and research methods in behavioural sciences. Bharati Bhawan.

ATTITUDE - BEHAVIOUR LINK

 When someone asks you "What do you feel about chocolates, the political condition of your country"? You will definitely come up with an answer as you cannot feel absolute neutral about these.

Each one of us are constantly evaluating our world around and every stimulus present around us. So, to define Attitude it can be said that - 'Attitude is the process of forming judgements about objects, ideas or people'.

"An attitude denotes an adjustment of the individual towards some selected person, a group or an institution". (Kuppuswamy)

The Attitude posses three vital components:

a) Cognitive Component: The thoughts and beliefs which are formed about any social stimulus.

b) Affective Component: The emotion or the feeling aspects attached to the social stimulus.

c) Behavioral / Conative Component: The tendency to respond or to enact in accordance with the social stimulus.

These 3 components are often put together to form the A-B-C model of Attitude.

How Attitude and Behavior is Related?

The interrelatedness between these two factors are not quite lucid. They share a complex form of linkage - which changes in respect of the stimulus, situation and other variables.

→ When Attitude - Behavior goes hand-in-hand?

Firstly, when we hold a strong attitude about any particular stimulus we tend to behave exactly in accordance with it.

Secondly, times when the individual is aware about his/her own set of beliefs.

Thirdly, times when there is no external or group pressure for behaving in a certain fashion.

Fourthly, he/she is not being observed by others.

Lastly, when he/she expects to have a positive consequence from that particular act.

Here, comes the concept of Predicting Spontaneous Behavior where the response of a person can be successfully predicted in a situation where he/she needs to act spontaneously. The Attitude Accessibility is the key which helps us in the guess work. The intensity of the association between an attitude object and a person's judgement of the same, when measured by the speed with which they claim how they are affected by it. This access to one's attitude or knowing the intensity of the association helps us in predicting the behavior.

The next is Predicting Deliberative Behavior, where the planned actions are guessed. The explanation behind this is easy, the thoughtful actions are often intention specific. So, if the inner thoughts or objectives of a person is known, their actions can also be predicted as well.

→ When Attitude - Behavior are inconsistent?

Sometimes what we say and what we do are dissimilar. For example, we may hate our Boss, say negative things about them to others; but when they are in front of us we show respect and behave cordially.

We often hold a generalized attitude about something, for example; any out-group, other religion; but does not let that reflect in our actions.

Few times our attitude and behavior are at a conflicting state. When we perceive a sense of distress or uneasiness as our thoughts and beliefs are not at par with our actions; we experience Cognitive Dissonance. 

REFERENCES:

Kuppuswamy, B. (1961). An introduction to social psychology. Asia publishing house.

Quinton, S. (2015). Saundra K. Ciccarelli and J. Noland White, Psychology (/Global Edition).

ALDERFER'S ERG THEORY

 The Need Theories of Motivation mainly focuses on the relationship between achievement and productivity. Among the most discussed need theories like Maslow's hierarchy model, McClelland's needs, Two-factor theory of Herzberg - Alderfer's ERG theory is another important one.

These early theories of employee motivation was developed during the 1950's and are still equally popular. The Content Theories focused on the determinants which motivates the personnel at work. The content theory which we will discuss now is Alderfer's ERG Theory.

Though it is said that the work of Herzberg is an extended version of this theory, but Alderfer's concept for motivation; more specifically need - is much more linear than Maslow and Herzberg. Clayton Alderfer propounded three groups of needs:

1) EXISTENCE: The need for survival or physiological well-being. The most basic to all needs.

2) RELATEDNESS: The need for having successful social or interpersonal relationships. The need to derive social recognition from people around.

3) GROWTH: The internal need of an individual for his/her own personal development. The need to express oneself in a creative manner.

He has suggested a much more of a continuous pattern of needs rather than a hierarchical model.

COMPARISON TO MASLOW'S HIERARCHY THEORY:

Starting with an example, If an individual's culture or surrounding or job environment requires him/her to give priority to interpersonal relationships, then he/she might give 'Relatedness' needs a first priority over 'Existence' needs.

So, it can be easily said that the most basic difference between these two theories is that - Maslow has focused on the Need Hierarchy levels, whereas; Alderfer had lesser limitations while generating the needs. He was much more linear and focused on an worker's immediate environmental demands.

SIMILARITIES TO MASLOW'S HIERARCHY THEORY:

The similarities are more in comparison to the dissimilarities. Maslow and Alderfer, both have promoted fulfillment of needs is the ultimate for work motivation.

The needs are being divided into several types and there are lower-order needs and higher-order needs in both the theories.

And, according to them the satisfaction of higher-order needs are more important for job satisfaction.

Lastly, more the higher-order needs are satisfied, more intense they do become.

REFERENCES:

Luthans, F. (2002). The need for and meaning of positive organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 23(6), 695-706.

AN INTRODUCTION TO SAMPLING

 The researches in the field of behavioral sciences are either experimental or non-experimental and aims to draw inferences about certain specific and prominent group by conducting applicable form of measurements. These 'specific' and 'prominent' groups are termed as 'POPULATION'. Therefore, a population can be defined as any distinguished and clearly defined or described group of individuals. For example; "all college students", "all parents" etc.

Population can be segregated into two types -

FINITE POPULATION: The group whose members are easily countable.

INFINITE POPULATION: The group whose size is large, so the total number of members are uncountable.

In case of performing researches, the researchers reach to the conclusions often relying on a smaller 'experience' or SAMPLE. They take a relatively small sample of the population or universe they want to draw the inference upon.

So ,"Sampling is taking any portion of a population or universe, as representative of that population or universe". (Kerlinger; 1964)

According to Kothari and Garg, "Sampling is defined as the selection of some part of an aggregate or totality on the basis of which a judgement or inference about the aggregate or totality is made".

In other words, sampling is simply gathering information about a distinguished and well-defined group by only studying a portion of it.

Thus, a sample is a representation of all characteristics of a population. The selection method of the sampling technique is called SAMPLE DESIGN.

PURPOSES OF SAMPLING: 

◘ Sampling is economical in nature, as it gives a speedy result within lesser time and involving lesser resources.

◘ In case of infinite population, sampling is inevitable.

◘ The method of sampling helps in gathering facts about the nature of the target population.

◘ Sampling designs provide accurate measurements.

TYPES OF SAMPLING: 

REFERENCES:

Kerlinger, F. N. (1966). Foundations of behavioral research. 

Kothari, C., & Garg, G. (2014). Research Methodology: Methods and Strategy. New age international.

Singh, A. K. (2015). Tests, measurements and research methods in behavioural sciences. Bharati Bhawan.

 

QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH TRADITIONS

 COMPARING QUALITATIVE & QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH TRADITIONS

'Worldview' , 'Paradigm', 'epistemologies and ontologies', or 'broadly conceived research methodologies' - are quite synonymously used in the field of research. The researcher depending on his field of study and past experiences acquired through researches choose one of the worldview or paradigms to conduct his work. The four most widely used research methodologies are - post-positivism, constructivism, transformative and pragmatism.

Logical - positivism and Phenomenological inquiry are the two prominent research methodologies or paradigms. The former one is the scientific one, most used as it includes statistical analysis and scientific assessment, referred to as Quantitative research method. The other one is more focused on detailed interpretation of phenomena, or qualitative analysis.

The Post-positivism or the so called 'scientific method' uses the technique experimentation to test the hypotheses and involves elementary manipulation, controlling of variables and statistical analysis to claim the knowledge while studying living organism's behavior. This research method is widely summoned as 'Quantitative method'. The Quantitative method is more based on a universal cause-effect relation which makes it more goal oriented, conceptual and includes proper design. This research paradigm involves prediction, hypotheses testing, statistical analysis and involves standardized tests.

The 'Social Construction of Reality' (Berger and Luckmann; 1967) and Guba's (1985) 'Naturalistic Inquiry' are ideas behind the next paradigm. Social-constructivism or Phenomenological inquiry approaches towards Qualitative research method. The main emphasis here, is to gain 'as much as' knowledge about the participant's view-point of the situation. Whereas, in Qualitative research approach there is null knowledge about things-in-themselves. It encompasses grounded theory, understanding natural behavior and observation of the target population in real life settings. This paradigm is flexible and can be altered or modified at any point of the study. Also, unstructured in nature. The open-ended questions must be framed in a way, so as to gather a clear view about the lifestyle and a broader or generalized fact.

In case of Quantitative research, the data is collected usually in laboratory setting. Whereas, in case of Qualitative research study the data is collected in natural setting, where the phenomenon has taken place and the researcher is present during data collection ensuring a good relationship with the subjects.

In Quantitative approach, the Independent variable is manipulated by the experimenter. For Qualitative approach, the Independent variable is already exposed to the subjects.

Quantitative research is done following random sampling , in case of Qualitative research it is not possible to assign samples following random sampling methods. 

To sum up all the points:

References:

Best, J. W., & Kahn, J. V. (2016). Research in education. Pearson Education India.

Creswell, J. W. (1999). Mixed-method research: Introduction and application. In Handbook of educational policy (pp. 455-472). Academic Press.

 

MASLOW'S NEED HIERARCHY THEORY

 

The term 'Motivation' has been defined by many psychologists throughout the timeline. It can be considered as something which forces or drives, elicits and zests an individual to enact or response in a certain way at a definite time for reaching a determined goal or motive.

According to Ciccarelli and White motivation is "the process by which activities are started, directed and continued so that physical or psychological needs or wants are met".

To lucidly understand the concept of motivation one must go through different theories concerning the urges, necessities, inclinations and aspirations of beings.

Abraham Maslow originated the first humanistic theory based on the hierarchy of needs (1943, 1987). The other names for the theory are Humanistic theory, Transpersonal theory, Holistic-dynamic theory, The 3rd force in Psychology, the 4th force in Personality, Need theory and Self-actualization theory.

This particular theory on the zone of motivation is based on the ladder of needs including both the fundamental needs or needs for survival, as well as, the growth needs. The stages of need hierarchy theory are as follows:

a) PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS: The very crude for human survival, physiological need includes the basics like hunger, thirst, sex, fatigue etc. These are the sole needs which can be completely satisfied or overly satisfied and they are recurring in nature.

b) SAFETY NEEDS: This is to feel safe and secure both in terms of physical and psychological factors. The requirement for shelter to protect oneself from any environmental threats or having a financial security - both gives the sense of being safe.

c) BELONGINGNESS AND LOVE NEEDS: We all know that human beings are social animals, we cannot live alone. This particular need concentrates on the giving and receiving of love. To be accepted by the people present in the surrounding, to be loved and to be a part of the social groups or to belong is the next on the ladder after one satisfies safety needs.

d) ESTEEM NEEDS: Self-esteem is an individual's own feeling of worth and confidence. More or less every person wants to achieve, gain approval and recognition, which fulfills their need for esteem. It is mainly based on true competence and not on others' opinions.

e) SELF-ACTUALIZATION: According to Maslow, "the point that is seldom reached at which people have sufficiently satisfied the lower needs and achieved their full human potential". Individuals who respect and survives on depending upon the B-values like truth, beauty, justice and other such factors, shows the trait of self-actualization. This is the need to discover self-fulfillment and to reach one's fullest potential.

The other needs which were later added to this theory were - Cognitive needs, Aesthetic needs and Transcendence needs.

 

References:

Quinton, S. (2015). Saundra K. Ciccarelli and J. Noland White, Psychology (/Global Edition).