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COURSE NAME: Business Research Methods Course Code: BBFH 404

ASSIGNMENT NO. eg 1 OR 2: _____1____________________________________

ASSIGNMENT TITTLE;

1. Research problem is the centre of any research activity, and a good statement of a problem is
based on assumptions. Discuss the main purposes of assumptions in research.[25]

2. Discuss, giving practical business examples, the four (4) types of measurement scales in research,
clearly indicating their characteristics. [25]

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Question 1

Introduction
An assumption is a realistic expectation which is something that we believe is true. However
no adequate evidence exists to support this belief. In other words an assumption is an act of
faith which does not have empirical evidence to support. Assumptions provide a basis to
develop theories and research instrument and therefore, influence the development and
implement of research process.

Definition
Assumptions are statements that are taken for granted or are considered true, even though
they have not been scientifically tested. Assumptions are principles which are accepted as
being true based on logic or reasons, but without proof or verification.
https://www.slideshare.net/drjayeshpatidar/research-assumption

.W.Paul Vogt defines an assumption as “(a) A statement that is presumed to be true, often
only temporarily or for a specific purpose, such as building a theory; (b) The conditions under
which statistical techniques yield valid results.”An assumption is usually something that one
is not going to investigate. It’s something one will take on faith. We have many assumptions
and they’re not all bad.

Uses of Assumptions
Research is built upon assumptions since a foundation is needed to move forward. One must
assume something to discover something. Assumptions listed in research papers may be good
sources of the research topics,and assumptions provide basis to conduct the research study.
Tested assumptions through research studies expand the professionals’ body of knowledge.

Assumptions are the foci for any theory and thus any paradigm. It is also important that
assumptions are made explicit, and that the number of assumptions is sufficient to describe
the phenomenon at hand. Explication of assumptions is even more crucial in research
methods used to test the theories. As Mitroff and Bonoma (Evaluation Quarterly 2(2):235–
260, 1978) have eloquently put it: “the power of an experiment is only as strong as the clarity
of the basic assumptions which underlie it

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. Such assumptions not only underlie laboratory experimentation but social evaluation
research as well.” A scale of articulation of assumptions is represented:
(a) Very ambiguously tacit assumptions held in divergent beliefs;
(b) Tacit but more obvious assumptions-where parties more or less have shared although
unexpressed perceptions or beliefs e.g., legal assumptions in litigation;
(c) Informally, explicit assumptions e.g., indirectly expressed or inherent in shared stories,
norms, un-codified symbols, and myths;
(d) Assumptions that are made explicit. E.g. in theories and models, policies and programs,
research and methodology but untested; and
(e) Explicit and tested assumptions
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302212371_Why_are_Assumptions_Important .

For example looking at an analog to start up idea (a probiotic search engine) it is seen that the
companies that sell probiotics have a lot of internet traffic and it’s growing month on month.
It could then be assumed there is a sufficient market size to justify our interest. That
assumption may be disastrously wrong. Perhaps those companies are buying traffic with no
profit to show for it, but we are free to make that assumption and take the risk., all the
assumptions are vague, optimistic, and untestable. The vaguer they are, the harder they are to
disprove.

Example”Effectiveness of planned teaching on the knowledge of staff nurses working in

psychiatric unit regarding physical restraints for psychiatric patients in selected hospitals of
Harare region” .The study is based on the following assumptions:
1)that every nursing student is taught about physical restraint during basic nursing training
programme.
2)awareness of alternative use of physical restraint is inadequate among nursing staff.
3)physical restraint is not the only treatment for behavioural emergency
4)untrained nurses are responsible for injuries of psychiatric patients.

It is of importance to think carefully about ones assumptions when finding and analysing
information but to also think carefully about the assumptions of others. Whether one is
looking at a website or a scholarly article, one should always consider the author's
assumptions. Are the author's conclusions based on assumptions that she or he has not
thought about logically?

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References

Armstrong, R. L. (1974). Hypotheses: Why? When? How? Phi Delta Kappan, 54, 213-214.

Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative & quantitative approaches. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage.

Guba, E. G. (1961, April). Elements of a proposal. Paper presented at the UCEA meeting,
Chapel Hill, NC.

Fraenkel, J. R. & Wallen, N. E. (1990). How to design and evaluate research in education.
New York: McGraw-Hill.

Kerlinger, F. N. (1979). Behavioral research: A conceptual approach. New York: Holt,

Rinehart, & Winston.

Krathwohl, D. R. (1988). How to prepare a research proposal: Guidelines for funding and
dissertations in the social and behavioral sciences. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Locke, L. F., Spirduso, W. W., & Silverman, S. J. (1987). Proposals that work: A guide for
planning dissertations and grant proposals (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (1989). Designing qualitative research: Newbury Park, CA:
Sage.

Shavelson, R. J. (1988). Statistical reasoning for the behavioral sciences (second edition).
Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Wiersma, W. (1995). Research methods in education: An introduction (Sixth edition).

Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Wilkinson, A. M. (1991). The scientist’s handbook for writing papers and dissertations.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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Question 2

Introduction
The four types of measurement scales in research and can be classified into four different
types of scales. These are: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio. Each scale of measurement
satisfies one or more of the following properties of measurement.
1) Identity- Each value on the measurement scale has a unique meaning.
2) Magnitude- Values on the measurement scale have an ordered relationship to one another.
That is, some values are larger and some are smaller.
3) Equal intervals.-Scale units along the scale are equal to one another. This means, for
example, that the difference between 1 and 2 would be equal to the difference between 19
and 20.
4) A minimum value of zero- The scale has a true zero point, below which no values exist.
Abramson, J. H., & Abramson, Z. H. (2008).

Nominal scale (categorical)

According to https://www.mymarketresearchmethods.com/types-of-data-nominal-ordinal-
interval-ratio/ Nominal is from the Latin word nomalis, which means “pertaining to names”.
It is another name for a category.A Nominal scale has two or more categories without having
any kind of natural order, they are variables with no numeric value, such as occupation or
political party affiliation.. The nominal scale of measurement only satisfies the identity
property of measurement. The nominal scale is essentially a type of coding that simply puts
people, events, perceptions, objects or attributes into categories based on a common trait or
characteristic. The coding can be accomplished by using numbers, letters, colours, labels or
any symbol that can distinguish between the groups.

The nominal scale is the lowest form of a measurement because it is used simply to
categorize and not to capture additional information. The nominal or categorical statistical
scale of measurement is used to measure those variables that can be broken down into groups.
Each group has attributes distinctly different from the other. The most commonly used
nominal or categorical variables measured using this research scale of measurement are
gender, civil status, nationality, or religion. These variables and their corresponding
categories are as follows:

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Gender – male or female
Network providers-Econet,Netone,Telecel
Civil status – single or married
Nationality – Zimbabwean, Chinese, Singaporean, Angolan, Indonesian,
Religion – Muslim, Christian, Buddhist,

Noticeably all the categories of each nominal variable do not indicate that one is superior or
greater than the other. These are mainly classifications that separate one group from the other.
a sub-type of nominal scale with only two categories (e.g. male/female) is called
“dichotomous”. Frequency distributions are usually used to analyse data measured on a
nominal scale. Categorical data and numbers that are simply used as identifiers or names
represent a nominal scale of measurement. Numbers on the back of a baseball jersey and
social security number are examples of nominal data.

At the nominal scale, i.e., for a nominal category, one uses labels; for example, rocks can be
generally categorized as igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. For this scale some valid
operations are equivalence and set membership. Nominal measures offer names or labels for
certain characteristics.The central tendency of a nominal attribute is given by its mode;
neither the mean nor the median can be defined.

The nominal scale of measurement is referred to by statisticians as the crudest statistical scale
of measurement. While this may be the crudest, this is a powerful statistical scale of
measurement when correlating two nominal variables like gender and reproductive health bill
position.

Ordinal scale
An ordinal scale is defined as a variable measurement scale used to simply depict the order of
variables and not the difference between each of the variables Creswell, J. W. (2002)
states.The ordinal scale has the property of both identity and magnitude. These scales are
generally used to depict non-mathematical ideas such as frequency, satisfaction, happiness, a
degree of pain etc Creswell further explains that,the ordinal scale differs from the nominal
scale in that it ranks the data from lowest to highest and provides information regarding
where the data points lie in relation to one another.

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An ordinal scale typically uses non-numerical categories such as low, medium and high to
demonstrate the relationships between the data points. The disadvantage of the ordinal scale
is that it does not provide information regarding the magnitude of the difference between the
data points or rankings. An example of the use of an ordinal scale would be a study that
examines the smoking rates of teenagers. The data collected may indicate that the teenage
smokers in the study smoked anywhere from 15 to 40 cigarettes per day.

The data could be arranged in order and examined in terms of the number of smokers at each
level.. It is quite straightforward to remember the implementation of this scale as ‘Ordinal’
sounds similar to ‘Order’, which is exactly the purpose of this scale.Ordinal Scale maintains
descriptional qualities along with an intrinsic order but is void of an origin of scale and thus,
the distance between variables can’t be calculated

. Descriptional qualities indicate tagging properties similar to the nominal scale, in addition to
which, ordinal scale also has a relative position of variables. Origin of this scale is absent due
to which there is no fixed start or “true zero”. Status at workplace, tournament team rankings,
order of product quality, order of agreement or satisfaction – some of the most common
examples of Ordinal Scale. These scales are generally used in market research to gather and
evaluate relative feedback about product satisfaction, changing perceptions with product
upgrades etc.

For example, a semantic differential scale question such as:

How satisfied are you with our services?
Very Unsatisfied – 1
Unsatisfied – 2
Neutral – 3
Satisfied – 4
Very Satisfied – 5

As shown above, the order of variables is of prime importance and so is the labeling. Very
unsatisfied will always be worse than unsatisfied and satisfied will be worse than very
satisfied.This is where ordinal scale is a step above nominal scale , the order is relevant to the
results and so is their naming.

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Analysing results based on the order along with the name becomes a convenient process for
the researcher.If they intend to obtain more information than what they would collect using
nominal scale, they can use ordinal scale.

Interval scale
An interval scale is one in which the actual distances, or intervals between the categories or
points on the scale can be compared, In short the interval scale of measurement has the
properties of identity, magnitude, and equal intervals. The distance between the numbers or
units on the scale are equal across the scale. An example would be a temperature scale, such
as the Fahrenheit scale. The distance between 20 degrees and 40 degrees is the same as
between 60 degrees and 80 degrees. A distinguishing feature of interval scales is that there is
no absolute zero point because the key is simply the consistent distance or interval between
categories or data points.

With an interval scale, you know not only whether different values are bigger or smaller, you
also know how much bigger or smaller they are. For example, suppose it is 60 degrees
Fahrenheit on Monday and 70 degrees on Tuesday. You know not only that it was hotter on
Tuesday, you also know that it was 10 degrees hotter.

Time is another good example of an interval scale in which the increments are known,
consistent, and measurable. Interval scales are nice because the realm of statistical analysis
on these data sets opens up. For example, central tendency can be measured by mode,
median, or mean; standard deviation can also be calculated. The key points of an “interval
scale” pretty easily can be remembered as “Interval” itself means “space in between,” which
is the important thing to remember–interval scales not only tell us about order, but also about
the value between each item.
Neuman, W. L., & Neuman, W. L. (2006)

However the problem with interval scales,is that they don’t have a “true zero.” For example,
there is no such thing as “no temperature.” Without a true zero, it is impossible to compute
ratios. With interval data, we can add and subtract, but cannot multiply or divide. For
example 10 degrees + 10 degrees = 20 degrees,nevertheless 20 degrees is not twice as hot as
10 degrees, however, because there is no such thing as “no temperature” when it comes to the

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Celsius scale. Bottom line being, interval scales are great, but we cannot calculate ratios,
which brings me to the last measurement scale…

Ratio scale
The ratio scale of measurement as eluded by Stevens, S. S. (1946). is the most informative
scale and the ratio scale of measurement satisfies all four of the properties of measurement:
identity, magnitude, equal intervals, and a minimum value of zero. It is an interval scale with
the additional property that its zero position indicates the absence of the quantity being
measured. You can think of a ratio scale as the three earlier scales rolled up in one.The ratio
scale of measurement is similar to the interval scale in that it also represents quantity and has
equality of units. However, this scale also has an absolute zero (no numbers exist below the
zero).

A ratio scale is a measurement scale in which a certain distance along the scale means the
same thing no matter where on the scale you are, and where "0" on the scale represents the
absence of the thing being measured. Ratio scales provide a wealth of possibilities when it
comes to statistical analysis, most measurement in the physical sciences and engineering is
done on ratio scales. Mass, length, time, plane angle, energy and electric charge are examples
of physical measures that are ratio scales.

Ratio Scale Examples

The following question fall under the Ratio Scale category:
What is your weight in kilograms?
Less than 50 kilograms
51- 70 kilograms
71- 90 kilograms
91-110 kilograms
More than 110 kilograms

The scale type takes its name from the fact that measurement is the estimation of the ratio
between a magnitude of a continuous quantity and a unit magnitude of the same kind. These
variables can be meaningfully added, subtracted, multiplied, divided (ratios). Central
tendency can be measured by mode, median, or mean; measures of dispersion, such as
standard deviation and coefficient of variation can also be calculated from ratio scales

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References
Abramson, J. H., & Abramson, Z. H. (2008). Scales of Measurement. Research Methods in
Community Medicine: Surveys, Epidemiological Research, Programme Evaluation, Clinical Trials,
Sixth Edition, 125-132.

Berka, K. (1983). Scales of measurement. In Language, Logic and Method (pp. 1-73). Springer
Netherlands

Creswell, J. W. (2002). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative.

Prentice Hall.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches.
Sage Publications, Incorporated.

Gaito, J. (1980). Measurement scales and statistics: Resurgence of an old misconception.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2004). Basics of social research. Pearson.

Neuman, W. L., & Neuman, W. L. (2006). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches.

Malterud, K. (2001). Qualitative research: standards, challenges, and guidelines. The lancet,
358(9280), 483-488.

Robson, C. (2002). Real world research (Vol. 2). Oxford: Blackwell publishers.

Stevens, S. S. (1946). On the theory of scales of measurement.

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