Question

Hi

Can you do a causal study when much of the primary data collected is descriptive opinion and ordinal or interval data?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Answer-

This final question asks whether this study qualifies as a causal study. Depending on when you use the case in your course, some students may be encouraged to use the symbols of experimentation in Chapter 9 to describe this study. Their result will likely not reflect any of the standard models. Students should be further encouraged to address issues of reliability and validity, and asked how the study stacks up in this regard. Some students may conclude that the act of calculating correlation statistics makes this a causal study. Others will suggest that building the GEM Conceptual Model is a stage of the research design preliminary to the actual causal study. They may indicate that the model needs to be tested over time (in not only the countries included in the preliminary study but in other countries not included in these early-stage tests) by manipulating one or more variables comprising one of their indices and measuring the net effects. This last stance is likely the most viable, as GEM-study designers plan subsequent measures over time on each of their multiple-item indices, and simultaneous tracking changes in the factors which comprise their model.