Case Study.docx

a. What would be the nature of the study that would be designed ‐ Exploratory, descriptive or hypothesis‐testing? b. Give reasons for your answer to (a) above. SITUATION A A researcher wants to test the theory that low levels of oxygen in the mines is the single most important factor that tires miners easily a) Hypothesis‐testing b) Because the researcher wants to analyze and test whether low levels of oxygen would cause tiredness in miners.

SITUATION B The head-nurse in a hospital would like to have a profile of the patients that come to her ward. a) Descriptive b) Since the head nurse only wants a profile of the type of patients who come to her ward in a mere description

c. Would it be a Field study, Comparative study, Lab experiment or Field experiment? SITUATION A A researcher wants to test the theory that low levels of oxygen in the mines is the single most important factor that tires miners easily c) Field Experiment because there would be manipulation of the levels of oxygen in the natural environment of the workers.

SITUATION B The head-nurse in a hospital would like to have a profile of the patients that come to her ward. c) Field Study because the people coming to her ward (natural setting) will be studied since individual profiles will be studied.

d. Would it be a causal or correlational study? e. Justify the reasons for your answer to (d). SITUATION A A researcher wants to test the theory that low levels of oxygen in the mines is the single most important factor that tires miners easily d) Causal study e) Because the researcher wants to see if low levels of oxygen cause tiredness in miners. He wants to establish a cause and effect relationship between the independent and the dependent variables.

SITUATION B The head-nurse in a hospital would like to have a profile of the patients that come to her ward. d) Descriptive study e) Using merely frequency distributions and means and standard deviations. It is thus neither a causal nor a correlational study.

f. Would it be a longitudinal or cross‐sectional study? g. How would you explain your answer to (f) above? SITUATION A A researcher wants to test the theory that low levels of oxygen in the mines is the single most important factor that tires miners easily f) Longitudinal study g) Because data on tiredness will be collected from the same batch of workers before and after each manipulation of the oxygen injected into the environment.

SITUATION B The head-nurse in a hospital would like to have a profile of the patients that come to her ward. f) Cross‐sectional study g) Since data will be gathered from each person just once to get the profile.

h. What would be the unit of analysis? i. Defend your answer to (h) above. SITUATION A A researcher wants to test the theory that low levels of oxygen in the mines is the single most important factor that tires miners easily h) Individual miners i) Because each individual miner’s level of tiredness will be recorded and used in data analysis, not be aggregated across groups,

SITUATION B The head-nurse in a hospital would like to have a profile of the patients that come to her ward. h) Individual patients i) Because individual profiles will be studied.