Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

Assessment task 2: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis Assignment
Examination (Individual) Objective(s): This addresses subject learning objective(s):
1, 2, 3 and 4 Weight: 50%
Task: Individually you are required to design and carry out a questionnaire-based survey on people’s attitudes towards some “topical” issue. Several appropriate topics will be mentioned in class, but feel free to choose your own. The questionnaire and data analysis should be designed to answer the following questions:
a. Overall, what are people’s attitudes to the ‘target issue’? b. Do these attitudes vary systematically with the type of person?
c. What statistically significant relationships, if any, exist between these different attitudes and personal traits?
The subject variables which define the ‘type of person’ may be demographic variables, such as age, gender, ethnic origin, occupational or educational background, but may also be attitudinal variables, such as political affiliation.
Subject ‘types’ defined by combinations of these variables should also be considered. (For example, a comparison of attitudes of young males, old males, young females and old females, could be made.) Your study should give consideration to at least three subject variables. The choice of these variables should be made on the basis of their plausible relevance to the target issue being investigated.
The questionnaire will have a maximum of 20 questions, and should be designed so that it can be completed in only a few minutes. The questionnaire should contain at least one “open-ended” question. Responses to this question should be analysed using “content analysis” and graphically
02/03/2016 (March 2016) © University of Technology Sydney Page 5 of 9
displayed as will be described in lectures. ( Note: Care should be taken that an open-ended question is chosen which will give rise to responses which will allow of a substantial content analysis to be carried out. More than one such question can be included to ensure that at least one results in a suitable set of responses. )
A minimum of about 30 subjects (or sets of data) is required for this project, although a greater number may make the analysis and interpretation of some of the results easier.
The questionnaire responses are to be coded into a spreadsheet (or data matrix) format, and analysed using ‘univariate’ and ‘bivariate’, analyses, as will be described in class using SPSS software. Considerable graphical analysis will also be required.
Submission and Approvals
There are three assessment components involved in the development of the survey. While all sections are to be submitted as one document at the end of the semester (Note: All questionnaires must be approved by the subject coordinator before data gathering can commence. It is recommended that these surveys are lodged on UTS Online for approval no later than May 20.)
1) Research proposal
Your proposal will consist of the following sections: a) A title page: title of project.
b) Introduction (about two pages) - statement of issue to be investigated and its significance - brief literature review (incl. a mixture of academic and non academic sources) c) Aims and Expectations/Hypotheses, Objectives, Questions (about half a page)
d) While the questions themselves are not necessary at this stage, an indication of your dependent and independent variables, the open ended question you will ask and the planned survey sample should be given
e) References
2) Questionnaire and Covering Letter
This will consist of two documents;
a. A copy of the covering letter to be provided to survey participants
b. The final copy of the questions correctly laid out
Note: Students are encouraged to raise ideas for their topic with their tutor early in the semester. Written approval to distribute your survey must be obtained by the subject coordinator before students can proceed to stage 3.
3) Written Report
In this section students will outline the key findings from their research. The report should include:
a. A statement of your research objectives, questions or hypotheses and the background of the study. (Maximum 1 page – Material can be drawn from earlier sections)
b. Presentation of your research results c. Discussion of those results in the context of your literature review in part 1. d. Key research conclusions.
Further Marking criteria will be provided on UTS Online in week 2, information:
Minimum requirements
Students must achieve at least 50% of the subject’s total marks.
Recommended texts
Gray, D.E. (2013). Doing Research in the Real World (3rd ed.). London: Sage.