This document discusses key elements of research including concepts, constructs, variables, qualitative research, and quantitative research. It defines concepts as generalized ideas formed from observations. Constructs exist at a higher level of abstraction and are combinations of concepts. Variables are the empirical representations of concepts and constructs that can be measured. Qualitative research uses smaller samples and focuses on words, images, and subjective analysis, while quantitative research uses larger samples and standardized questions to analyze trends and relations between variables.

1. ELEMENTS OF RESEARCH
AFEEFUREHMAN VALIYAT
UNIVEFRSITY OF CALICUT

2. .
 CONCEPTS
 CONSTRUCT
 VARIABLES
 QUALITAVE RSEARCH
 QUANTITATIVE

3. CONCEPT
 A concept is a term that expresses an abstract idea formed by
generalizing from particulars and summarizing related
observations.
 Concepts are based on our experiences.
 Concepts can be based on real phenomena and are a
generalized idea of something of meaning.
 Examples of concepts include common demographic
measures: Income, Age, Education Level, Number of Siblings.
 We can measure concepts through direct and indirect
observations.

4. .
 Direct Observation: We can measure someone's weight or height.
And, we can record the color of their hair or eyes.
 Indirect Observation: We can use a questionnaire in which
respondents provide answers to our questions about gender, income,
age, attitudes, and behaviors.

5. .
 Concepts are important for at least two reasons.
 First, they simplify the research process by combining
particular characteristics, objects, or people into general
categories.
 For example, a researcher may study families that own
computers, modems, MP3 players, cell phones, and DVD
or Blue-Ray machines. To make it easier to describe
these families, the researcher calls them “Taffies” and
categorizes them under the concept of “technologically
advanced families.”

6. .
 Second, concepts simplify communication among those
who have a shared understanding of them.
 Researchers use concepts to organize their observations
into meaningful summaries and to transmit this
information others.
 Researchers who use the concept of “agenda setting” to
describe a complicated set of audience and media
activities find that their colleagues understand what is
being discussed.
 Note that people must share an understanding of a
concept for the concept to be useful.
 For example, when teenagers use the word emo to
describe a person, most of their peers understand
perfectly what is meant by the concept, although adults
may not.

7. CONSTRUCT
 Constructs exist at a higher level of abstraction
than concepts.
 A construct is a combination of concepts.
 Justice, Beauty, Happiness, and Health are all
constructs.
 Constructs are considered latent variable because
they cannot be directly observable or measured.
 Typical constructs in marketing research include
Brand Loyalty, Purchase Intent, and Customer
Satisfaction. Constructs are the basis of working
hypotheses.

8. .
 For example, the construct “involvement” has been used in
many advertising studies (search the Internet for “advertising
involvement”).
 Advertising involvement is a construct that is difficult to see
directly, and it includes the concepts of attention, interest, and
arousal.
 Researchers can observe only its likely or presumed
manifestations. In some contexts, involvement means a
subject’s involvement with the product; in others, it refers to
involvement with the message or even with the medium. Its
precise meaning depends on the research context.

9. VARIABLE
 The empirical counterpart of construct and concept
is also called as variable.
 Variables are measurements that are free to vary.
 Variable can be divided into Independent
Variables or Dependent Variables.
 A dependent variable changes in response to
changes in the independent variable or variables.

10. .
 Variables are important because they link the
empirical world with the theoretical; they are the
phenomena and events that are measured or
manipulated in research.
 Variables can have more than one value along a
continuum.
 For example, the variable “satisfaction with pay-per-
view TV programs” can take on different values—a
person can be satisfied a lot, a little, or not at all—
reflecting in the empirical world what the concept
“satisfaction with pay-per-view TV programs”
represents in the theoretical world.

11. INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
 Independent variables are systematically
varied by the researcher.
 These variables are ones that are more or
less controlled.
 Scientific manipulate these variables as they
see fit.
 They still vary, but the variation is relatively
known or taken in to account.

12. .
 Independent variables are systematically varied by
the researcher.
 An independent variable that represents a quantity
that is being manipulated in an experiment.

13. DEPENTENT VARIABLES
 Dependent variables are observed and their values
are presumed to depend on the effects (influence)
of the independent variables.
 In other words, the dependent variable is what the
researcher wishes to explain.
 Dependent variables are not controlled or
manipulated in any way, but instead are simply
measured and registered.
 These vary in relation to the Independent variables,
and while results can be predicted, the data is
always measured.

14. DISCRETE VARIABLE & CONTINUOS
VARIABLE
 Two forms of variables are used in mass media
investigation.

15. DISCRETE VARIABLE
 Discrete variable is a type of statistical variable that
can assume only fixed number of distinct values
and lacks an inherent order.
 These are results gathered by counting things in
whole numbers.

16. .
 For example, the number of children in a family is a
discrete variable because the unit is a person. It
does not make much sense to talk about a family
size of 2.24 because it is hard to conceptualize 0.24
of a person.
 Political affiliation, population, and gender are other
discrete variables

17. CONTINUOUS VARIABLE
 Definition of Continuous variable, as the name
suggest is a random variable that assumes all the
possible values in a continuum. Simply put, it can
take any value within the given range.
 So, if a variable can take an infinite and
uncountable set of values, then the variable is
referred as a continuous variable

18. .
 Continuous random variables are usually
measurement.
 Example :- Height, weight, the amount of sugar in
an orange, the time required to run a mile.

19. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
 Qualitative research involves several methods of
data collection, such as focus groups, field
observation, in-depth interviews, and case studies.
 In all of these methods, the questioning approach
is varied.
 In other words, although the researcher enters the
project with a specific set of questions, follow-up
questions are developed as needed.
 The variables in qualitative research may or may
not be measured or quantified.

20. .
 Collecting data consisting largely words(text)or
image.
 Description and analysis of words.
 Conduct and inquiry in subjective, biased manner.
 Collecting info from a small number individuals or
sites.

21. .
 1. Qualitative research uses smaller samples of
subjects or respondents.
 2. Because of the small sample size, results from
qualitative research could not be generalized to the
population from which the samples were drawn.

22. ADVANTAGES
 The methods allow a researcher to view behavior in
a natural setting without the artificiality that
sometimes surrounds experimental or survey
research.
 Qualitative techniques can increase a researcher’s
depth of understanding of the phenomenon under
investigation.
 Qualitative methods are flexible and allow the
researcher to pursue new areas of interest.

23. DISADVANTAGES
 Sample sizes are sometimes too small (sometimes
as small as one) to allow the researcher to
generalize the data beyond the sample selected for
the particular study. For this reason, qualitative
research is often the preliminary step to further
investigation rather than the final phase of a project.
 Data reliability can also be a problem, since single
observers are describing unique events. Because a
person conducting qualitative research must
become closely involved the respondents, it is
possible to lose objectivity when collecting data.

24. QUANTITATIVE
 Quantitative research also involves several
methods of data collection, such as telephone
surveys, mail surveys, and Internet surveys.
 In these methods, the questioning is static or
standardized—all respondents are asked the same
questions and there is no opportunity for follow-up
questions.
 Description of trends or an explanation of variables,
relations.
 Collecting info from a large number of individuals.

25. ADVANTAGES
 Use of numbers allows greater precision in
reporting results.
 For example, the Violence Index (Gerbner, Gross,
Morgan & Signorielli, 1980), a quantitative
measuring device, makes it possible to report the
exact increase or decrease in violence from one
television season to another, whereas qualitative
research could report only whether there was more
or less violence.

26. THANKS
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