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Section Ii: Research Methods Question Paper
Section Ii: Research Methods
Course:Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D)
Institution: Kabarak University question papers
Exam Year:2011
KABARAK UNIVERSITY
2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR
QUALIFYING EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR
OF PHILOSOPHY CANDIDATES
SECTION II: RESEARCH METHODS
DAY: FRIDAY DATE: 09/03/2012
TIME: 9.00 – 12.00 P.M. STREAM: PhD
INSTRUCTIONS:
Answer ALL questions
Begin each question on a separate page
Section A (Research Methods)
QUESTION ONE (25 MARKS)
a) Describe the following types of research
i. Basic Research (2 mks)
ii. Applied Research (2 mks)
b) Explain the following types of data used in research
i. Nominal (1 mk)
ii. Ordinal (1 mk)
iii. Interval (1mk)
iv. Scale (1 mk)
c) Define research and discuss its importance in organizations giving five major goals of
research in your field of study and for each goal, identify the problem. (6 mks)
d) Define reliability and validity as used in research (2 mks)
e) What is the role of research instruments? Relate this to reliability and validity (3 mks)
f) State the general approach towards determining reliability (2 mks)
g) Discuss four factors that characterise a good research problem. (4 mks)
QUESTION TWO (25 MARKS)
Read the case study below, and answer the questions that follow.
Recently, an employee of Kabarak University was overheard telling one of her colleagues on
their way out after work at 5pm.
“It could have served a lot better if the University had a day care centre within the compound”
In view of the above statement, the management board decided to carefully look into the matter
and provide a tenable solution to the issue. They instituted a research team led by you as a
research student.
a) Suggest a possible and most appropriate title for this research (2 mks)
b) What is the statement of the problem as indicated by the concerned employee (4 mks)
c) Outline any FOUR specific objectives and four research questions that the study will
take (4 mks)
d) Draw a schematic diagram of a conceptual framework that the research will adopt as it
seeks to address the outlined objectives in (c) above (5 mks)
e) State the research design that the study will adopt and explain why. (3 mks)
f) Outline the sampling design that the study will adopt and explain the reasons why such a
sampling design was taken (4 mks)
g) What would be the most likely limitations of this study? Outline the delimitations that
you would put in place (3 mks)
Section B (statistics)
QUESTION THREE (25 MARKS)
a) Explain the difference between regression and correlation. Indicate situation where
each can be applied. (4 mks)
b) The following data shows the relationship between the age and blood pressure measure
millimetres of mercury of a group of students.
Year of study 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Age Class Mid point 35 45 55 65 75
Mean Blood Pressure 114 124 143 158 166
i. How would such data be analysed for predicting blood pressure base on age of the
student? (6 mks)
ii. State the null and alternative hypotheses. (3 mks)
iii. State the test statistic and why (4 mks)
iv. What would you say about the correlation between year of study and blood
pressure? (2 mks)
c) Discuss situation your own field of study where you would apply regression and
correlation. (6 mks
QUESTION FOUR (25 MARKS)
a) A random sample of 120 college students was obtained. Out these, 75 live in campus,
while the rest lived out of campus. To test the claim that students who did NOT live in
campus were more responsible, it was observed that out of the 75 who lived in campus,
40 were HONEST. Among those that did not live in campus, 30 were found to be
DISHONEST.
i. Explain how you will proceed to analyse this information so as to determine if
there is sufficient evidence to support the claim. (6 mks)
ii. What hypothesis would you test? (3 mks)
b) Define hypothesis and explain how type I and type II errors are used in hypothesis
testing. (6 mks)
c) A study was carried out to determine the effectiveness of a new teaching mode in a
college. The score that students obtained before and after the teaching were obtained for
9 sampled students is shown below.
Student 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Before 145 99 162 149 148 156 160 187 168
After 119 122 162 164 110 160 196 188 165
i. What test can be used to determine if the new teaching method was effective?
(4 mks)
ii. Justify by computation (6 mks)
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