Question

The goal of the project is to introduce the process researchers use to design an observational study. Researchers at reputable institutions are required to create a detailed proposal before embarking on an experiment or observational study to an Institutional Review Board (IRB). An IRB is:

a type of committee that applies research ethics by reviewing the methods proposed for research to ensure that they are ethical. Such boards are formally designated to approve (or reject), monitor, and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans. They often conduct some form of risk-benefit analysis in an attempt to determine whether or not research should be conducted. The purpose of the IRB is to assure that appropriate steps are taken to protect the rights and welfare of humans participating as subjects in a research study. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_review_board

Ultimately the IRB needs the researcher to show that the experiment or study is useful (it will contribute to the scientific understanding of some process) and relatively safe

Step 1

Articulate a hypothesis to test. Pick something that is interesting to you in an area that you know a lot about. Your study must have human subjects. The hypothesis needs to conform to one of the following methods:

1. two-sample test for mean,

2. two-sample test for proportion,

3. chi-squared goodness of fit test,

4. or chi-squared test of independence.

Don't describe the test with mathematical notation yet. Describe it in several sentences. Explain why your test is interesting and important to you. Outline any ethical considerations and how you would deal with them. Would you need to obtain "informed consent"?

Don't worry about whether you can carry out the test. For instance suppose you want to poll people at your work, don't worry about whether your manager would let you.

Step 2

Specifically identify your populations.

Step 3

Explain your sampling procedure. Make sure to address the following.

1. How will you make sure that the sample is representative?

2. How will you make sure the sample isn't biased?

3.How will you make sure you are sampling the correct people?

4. What sampling method will you use (cluster, stratified, etc.)?

Step 4

Explain what data you will collect and how.

1. What size will your sample need to be?

2. How would you generate a random sample?

3. What will you do with your sample? Will you ask them questions if so what questions? Will you measure the subjects if so what measurements?

Step 5

What method will you use to analyze your study?

1. State in mathematical notation your exact hypothesis.

2. Why is the method you choose appropriately to use?

Step 6

What new knowledge will your study contribute to society? How is it important?

Answer 1

Area of study: Consumer Behaviour Towards a Cashless Economy in any developing nation( say India) With Digitalisation becoming a part of our lives in ways more than one we need to understand the consumer's attitudes towards it. Say we are testing awareness and usage of different modes of cashless transactions with the socio economic profile of a country, like how much does education, income levels affect the usage of such transactions in shifting from a cash to a cashless economy.

Step 1: Choose a Chi-squared test of indepence to check whether usage of cashless transactions depends on occupation, education and different age levels of people.

Step 2: The population should include a mix of students(high school, university), service people, business people, homemakers, househelps, vendors and so on. Stratify them on the basis of occupation, age, highest level of education, income groups etc.

Step 3: To make sure sampling isn't biased convenience sampling should be avoided as much as possible. Based on the correct idea of groups we need to target the sample would be represenative. Try to take a good number of people from all the different categories. Stratified sampling should be suitable here.

Step 4: For the collection of data prepeare a well structured questionnaire with questions including different scaling techniques like(Likert scale, rating scale, dichotomous ). An online survey should be suitable where it is easy to collect and analyze the answers in spreadhseets. A sample size of 750-1000 should be atleast used to get a proper analysis of the survey. Sample questions:

How would you rate the convenience of using cashless transactions? (rate from 1-5, 1 being the lowest)

Are you willing to give up cash transactions completely? Yes/No

Step 5: Inferential and desprictive analysis techniques both will be used in measuring the study. A histogram of the convenience of using cashless transactions could show the skewness and the curve negatively skewed would indicate that people are acceptable to using such transactions.

For the chi square test our hypothesis could be as follows:

H0: People's willingness to give up cash is independent of their income levels.

H1: People's willingness to give up cash depends on their income levels.

We would be using the 5% confidence level and the degrees of freedom would depend on the parameters from the data collected. If the value of the test statistic would be less than the chi squared value we would reject the null hypothesis.

Step 6: A study of the behaviour of people in this regard would help the society in framing new policies with regard to the acceptance by the people.