Next I am going to start add a column to my table and work out the cumulative frequency. After this I am going to plot my cumulative frequency curve on graph paper and not on excel because the values of the quartiles cannot be read accurately from excel. Again there will be two cumulative frequency curves one for the boys and another for the girls. These curves are being drawn to help me draw box plots that will allow me to compare the two total scores easily.
Now on this cumulative frequency curve I am going to mark out the first the median then mark out the lower quartile and the upper quartile. I am doing this because then I will be able to work out the inter-quartile range, which will show properly how the results are spread without considering the anomalies.
Next I will draw my box plots and start to compare my results. Another thing that I will do as an extension is that I will use Standard Deviation to measure how spread my data is.
I personally think that the boy’s scores will be spread out more mainly because out of the original data there were more boys and that may result in a larger margin of scores. Also I have a feeling that the boy’s median will be higher because in set 1 in year 8 there are more Boys than Girls.
3. METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
To test whether the hypotheses were supported or rejected, Class 7A carried out Fieldwork. For this purpose, Class 7A visited Seef Mall on Tuesday 18th February 2003.
The principal method of data collection was through the use of questionnaire-based surveys. Two questionnaires were designed for the purpose of data collection (you can refer to the questionnaires in Appendices II and III).
The first questionnaire (“People Survey”), meant to check hypotheses 1 to 3, had eight questions covering the gender and age of people visiting Seef Mall, where they lived and ease of access, the time spent and attractive of the goods and services provided in Seef Mall. Class 7A was sub-divided into ten sub-groups of two students each. Each sub-group was tasked with the responsibility of surveying 10 people visiting Seef Mall and completing the questionnaire based on their responses. The results were handed over by the sub-groups to Mr. Hobday who collated the results and gave them back to the class for further analysis and preparing the report.
The second questionnaire, meant to check hypotheses 4, was the Environmental Quality Survey (“EQS”). Each student of Class 7A individually completed this questionnaire for at least 2 areas, one area near Seef and one area not near Seef.
Students of Class 7A also produced a map of the 1st floor of Seef Mall.
4. RESULTS OF SURVEY
Results of People Survey
Result on Gender (I):
Conclusion: While both Males and Females like to visit Seef Mall, Females certainly appear to visit Seef Mall more, probably due to preference for shopping!
Result on Age (II):
Conclusion: While youngsters (35 years or below) certainly appear to dominate the scene at Seef Mall, significant presence of the older generation (over 35 years) is good for serious business!
Result on Where do you live (III):
Conclusion: As expected, residents of Manama and Budaiya form bulk of the visitors to Seef Mall due to locational proximity. However, there appear to an equally large number of visitors to Seef Mall who live outside Bahrain, as evidenced by large number of responses in the “Other” category.
Result on How long did it take you to get to the Mall (IV):
Conclusion: Most visitors get to Seef Mall within 20 minutes, with the average time for a visitor being 14 minutes 45 seconds. This is obviously not counting weekends where it has sometimes taken me over 30 minutes to reach Seef Mall from Budaiya!
Result on Do you find Seef Mall easy to get to (V):
Conclusion: No problem in reaching Seef Mall. Where there is a will there is a way!
Result on How long do you expect to stay (VI):
Conclusion: The average time a visitor is at Seef Mall is 1 hour 50 minutes, enough to watch a movie or use up your credit card limit with still time to spare!
Result on What attracts you to come here (VII):
*Adds up to more than hundred due to multiple choice offered
Conclusion: Shopping is the most popular activity followed by Cinema. Results are now beginning to make sense as earlier result also shows that there are more Female visitors than Males and the average time spent at the Mall is quite long!
Result on How many times a week do you come to Seef Mall (VIII):
Conclusion: Most visitors to Seef Mall come at least once a week or more frequently with some, who are still perhaps counting their credit card bills from last visit, coming once a month.
Results of my EQS Survey
I completed the Environmental Quality Survey for 4 areas, 2 within Seef Mall and 2 outside Seef Mall. The results are presented below along with the average scores.
Note: each attribute is score on a scale of 1 (most environment friendly) to 5 (least environment friendly).
There are two main conclusions from the Environmental Quality Survey. Firstly, the area within Seef Mall is quite environment friendly with the exception of the noise level which is high. Secondly, there is ample scope for improving the level of environmental friendliness in areas outside Seef Mall with Smell, Litter and Congestion being key areas to focus on.
5. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
The purpose of this section is to analyse the results with specific focus on investigating whether the hypothesis is being confirmed or rejected and explain why we found what we did.
Hypothesis 1: Seef mall has good accessibility
Conclusion: Hypotheses 1 is confirmed. The central location of Seef Mall along with the excellent road connections in Bahrain has resulted in Seef Mall having good accessibility.
Hypothesis 2: Seef mall is popular because it offers a wide range of goods and services
Conclusion: Hypotheses 2 is confirmed. Seef Mall is the first of its kind in Bahrain, modelled along the lines of Malls found in the West, where the family can spend considerable amount of time since the wide range of goods and services cater to all members of the family. Similarly, 220 shops in Seef Mall provide a wide range of goods and services for Females and Males as well as people across all age groups.
Hypothesis 3: Seef mall has mainly high order shops
Conclusion: Hypotheses 3 is confirmed. Seef Mall is the first Mall of its kind in Bahrain where a large majority of shops provide the best branded products across Fashion, Jewellery, Cosmetics, Leisure and Electronics.
Hypothesis 4: The building of Seef mall has a positive effect on the environment
Conclusion: Hypothesis 4 is inconclusive with arguments both for and against the hypothesis. More samples of EQS data are needed for verifying this hypothesis.
6. CONCLUSION
The investigation confirms that there are two main reasons for Seef Mall to have been so successful in becoming one of the most popular places in Bahrain since it opened in 1998.
The first reason is ease of access. Seef Mall was built at the current location because of the attractiveness of the location. The area is centrally located and is close to both Manama and Budaiya, which have a sizeable population. Together with the excellent road connections in Bahrain, Seef Mall is easy to access with a visitor on average taking 14 minutes 45 seconds to get to Seef Mall.
The second reason why people choose to go to Seef Mall rather than other places is because it has many attractions for the whole family. Its 220 shops provide a wide range of goods and services for people across all age groups. Seef Mall is the first Mall of its kind in Bahrain where a large majority of shops are high order shops which provide the best International branded products across Fashion, Jewellery, Cosmetics, Leisure and Electronics. It also has other attractions apart from Shopping such as Cinema complex, Coffee Houses, two Food Courts and amusement areas for children such as Magic Island. Décor and interior of Seef Mall is of highest quality and, together with other attractions, explains why people visit Seef Mall once every 8 days on average and spend on average 1 hour and 50 minutes per visit.
On the other hand, there is inconclusive evidence from the limited EQS survey to determine whether Seef Mall has been good or bad for the environment. The survey shows that area within Seef Mall is quite environment friendly, with the exception of the noise level which is high. However, the survey also shows that there is still ample scope for improving the level of environmental friendliness in areas outside Seef Mall with Smell, Litter and Congestion being key areas to focus on. More samples of EQS data are needed for making environment related conclusions.
7. LIMITATIONS
Given a choice of conducting the investigation again, I would improve upon the following areas:
- Survey method: Instead of carrying out the survey on one day and at a specific time, I would carry out the survey at different times of the day as well as on different days of the week (e.g. week-ends). This would also possibly result in increasing the size of the data sample.
- Questionnaire Design: I would expand the questionnaire slightly (I wouldn’t want to annoy the people by asking too many questions) to perhaps ask for more details on shopping behaviour (e.g. type of goods, preferred outlets).
- Response analysis: I would find it interesting to link the responses (shopping behaviour, length of stay, frequency of visit, reasons for visit) to age/gender of the respondents and draw conclusions.
- EQS Survey: I would increase the data sample size and draw conclusions based on responses from the entire class instead of an individual’s response.
List of Appendices
Appendix I – Map of Seef Mall
Appendix II – People Questionnaire
Appendix III – EQS Questionnaire
Appendix IV – Bibliography
Appendix I
Map of Seef Mall
Map of Seef Mall
JC Penney Marks & Spencer
Debenhams
JC Penney
Debenhams
Appendix II
People Questionnaire
Appendix III
EQS Questionnaire
Appendix IV
Bibliography
Bibliography
My Resources were:
- Geography Teacher - Mr. Hobday
- My father – Mr. Gurnani