Compare the connection between weight and hours spent watching TV, and IQ and TV watched.

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Nirmal Vadgama 11.T

Ms Aslam

Introduction: I will be investigation several factors from the results obtained from my questionnaire asked in Dunraven High School this will be secondary data. I will also compare one hypothesis to Mayfield High School to see if I get similar results. The hypotheses I have decided to compare is the connection between weight and hours spent watching TV and IQ and TV watched. I am looking for the stronger connection between them this will be primary data

Hypothesis: I am interested in investigating:

  • The comparison of Key Stage 2 results in Dunraven high school and to see which haven similarities with each other (more correlation between Maths and Science than Maths and English or Science and English),

  • If female brunettes have a higher IQ than blonde females

  • If the number of hours watched per week affects a person’s weight.

I predict that there will be a stronger correlation between maths and science than maths and English or science and English. I also predict that boys are better at Maths and Science while girls are better at English. The reason why is because I have noticed this over the years, and would like to explore these factors to prove my point. I think that female brunettes are not necessarily more intelligent however; I do believe that the lower quartile of brunettes IQ will be greater than the lower quartile of blondes. I think that the heaviest person in my sample will have the most number of hours T.V watched and also, the higher the persons IQ, the less TV they will watch. I also think that there will be a stronger connection between the weight and the hours of TV watched.

I will also use secondary data as well as primary, which is from a mathematics coursework Mayfield High School. However, certain data was deleted, as they were anomalous results. These were obvious mistakes in the data:

- 4 weights, 5,5, 6 and 9 kg deleted from data.

- 140 kg also removed.

- I person 4.65m, gone.

- Also year 8 and year 9 over 2 m tall, gone.

- 1000000 hours of TV gone,

- 124 hours which is impossible.

 - IQ of 290 gone.

- All pupils with an IQ of less than 60 removed, also those with no IQ given.

   I shall try and show the various relationships I have discovered i.e. distributions, correlations etcetera. I have decided to go to the Dunraven schools database and do a random sampling to choose the students that I will be questioning. This will increase the reliability of my results, as there would probably be inaccuracy, as I would choose certain people such as my friends.

   

   One way of classifying data is in terms of the data collector: data that one has collected oneself is sometimes referred to as primary data, whereas data that has already been collected by somebody else may be called secondary data. The advantages and disadvantages of these two types of data are summarised in the table below:

Methods of data collection by questionnaire (or survey) –

The most common method for collecting social science data is by means of a questionnaire, which consists of a series of questions concerning the facts of someone’s life or their opinions on some subjects. The recipient of a questionnaire is usually referred to as the respondent.

There are three principle methods of collecting the data using a questionnaire:

  1. Face to face
  2. By post
  3. By phone

The face-to-face interview:

In this case the interviewer and the respondent communicate directly, either in the school or in an interview in the respondent’s home.

Advantages –

  • Complex Structure – the structure of the questionnaire (e.g. ‘if answer is “yes” then go to question 12’) can be relatively complicated, since only the interviewer needs to understand it.
  • Consistency – if the interviewer does the writing, then the questionnaire will be competed in a consistent fashion.
  • Help – if the respondent has difficulty understanding a question, then the interviewer is available to give an explanation.
  • Response rate – the response rate is defined as the number of interviews completed divided by the number attempted. Assuming that the interviewer is friendly, this is likely to be quite high.

Disadvantages –

  • Expense – the procedure uses up a lot of time for each interviewer. There may also be costs associated with the travelling between respondents.
  • Bias – Although the questionnaire is completed in a consistent fashion, this consistency may contain bias (e.g. the interviewer consistently misinterprets an answer, or gives misleading guidance).
  • Lack of anonymity – a respondent may refuse to answer questions because o being embarrassed by the presence of the interviewer.

The ‘postal’ questionnaire:

Here we mean any questionnaire that is given out for self-completion and return by (anonymous) respondents. An example would be a questionnaire about school food consisting of questions on two sides of paper, to be returned by ‘posting’ in a box at the end of lunchtime.

The principle advantage of this method of gathering information is:

  • Economy – since no interviewer is required, it isa cheap method of collecting data.

However, set against this advantage is a major disadvantage:

  • Non-response – the response rate (measured as the proportion of questionnaires that are returned) can be very low indeed (e.g. 10%). This low level of response is a problem because the repliers received are unlikely to be representative to those of the population as a whole. People whjo take the trouble to fill in and return a questionnaire are not typical (it is well known that ‘apathy reigns O.K.’)! If the response rate is low then the replies may be misleading.

The telephone interview:

Telephone interviews are occasionally used by market research organisations as a chapter alternative to face-to-face interviews in the case of short questionnaires. A major problem with a telephone interview (apart from the would-be respondent putting the phone down!) because the people interviewed will not be representative.

Join now!

Question order and bias –

The order in which questions are asked can influence a respondent’s reply.

Contrast:

  1. Do you intend to be an organ donor?
  2. Did you know that dozens of people die each year because there are not enough organ donors?

with:

  1. Did you know that dozens of people die each year because there are not enough organ donors?
  2. Do you intend to be an organ donor?

I will avoid being bias. These are things I will need to take under consideration:

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