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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN 3.1 NATURE OF DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH Descriptive research studies are designed to obtain pertinent and precise information concerning the current status of phenomena and whenever possible to draw valid general conclusions from the facts discovered. They are restricted not only to fact finding but may often result in formulation of important principles of knowledge and solution of significant problems concerning local, state, national and international issues. Descriptive studies are more than just a collection of data; they involve measurement, classification, analysis, comparison and interpretation: 45
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Page 1: Chapter 3

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN

3.1 NATURE OF DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Descriptive research studies are designed to obtain pertinent

and precise information concerning the current status of phenomena

and whenever possible to draw valid general conclusions from the

facts discovered. They are restricted not only to fact finding but may

often result in formulation of important principles of knowledge and

solution of significant problems concerning local, state, national and

international issues. Descriptive studies are more than just a

collection of data; they involve measurement, classification,

analysis, comparison and interpretation:

of what exists with respect to variables or conditions in a

situation;

of what we want by identifying standards or norms with which to

compare the present conditions or what experts consider to be

desirable, and

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of how to achieve goals by exploring possible ways and means

on the basis of the experience of others or the opinions of

experts.

3.2 SURVEY METHOD

Survey studies are conducted to collect detailed descriptions

of existing phenomena with the intent of employing data to justify

current conditions and practices or to make more intelligent plans

for improving them. Their objective is not only to analyze, interpret,

and report the status of an institution, group, or area in order to

guide practice in the immediate future, but also to determine the

adequacy of status by comparing it with established standards. Some

surveys are confined to gather all three types of information:

data concerning existing status

comparison of existing status with the established status and

standards, and

means of improving the existing status;

while others are limited to one or two of these types.

3.3 EX-POST-FACTO DESIGN

The literal meaning of the phrase ex-post facto from what is

done afterwards. In this method of research facts are observed and

noted as to their differences and the antecedent conditions are

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analyzed respectively. The term 'ex-post-facto', was first used by

Chapin and Greenwood to mean a quasi experiment in which an

attempt is made to control independent variables by matching and

symbolic means.

Fred N. Kerlinger has defined "Ex-post facto research as a

systematic empirical enquiry in which the scientist does not have

direct control of independent variables because their manifestations

have already occurred or because they are inherently not

manipulatable. Inferences about relations among variables are made

without direct invention from concomitant variation of independent

and dependent variables."

The logic of ex-post facto method is that analysis and

empirical verification of variable "X" can be undertaken from the

variable "Y" in a background manner. The researchers can proceed

from the observed differences in "Y", to find out the possible causal

factor.

Kerlinger observed, "In ex-post facto research, direct control

is not possible-neither experimental manipulation not random

assignment can be used by researcher. Thus, the rationale of this

method is that a conceptual structure be worked out for analyzing

the facts and their relationships in accordance with their natural

manipulation because many research questions in education do not

lend themselves to experimental manipulation.

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3.4 SAMPLE

The sample is confined to 300 teachers and 1500 students

were taken from 15 Grant-in-Aid and 15 Self-Finance Secondary

School Students. The selection of sample was done through random

technique of sampling. The sample selection will be done in that

manner that the sample represents the total Gujarat State and for this

purpose 3 Grant-in-aid and 3 Self-Finance secondary schools were

taken from North, South, East, West and Middle Gujarat.

3.5 SAMPLE DESIGN

Particulars Grant-in-aid

Self Finance

Total

No. of school 15 15 30

No. of Teachers

Male 75 75 150

Female 75 75 150

No. of Students

Boys 375 375 750

Girls 375 375 750

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Test and Tools Used For the Study

Table shows the test and tools used for the present study.

For Teachers

1 Personal Information

Sheet

Self Made

2 Achievement Motivation Robert Helmreich and

Janet Spence

3 Study Habit Self Made

For Students

1 Personal Information

Sheet

Self Made

2 Achievement Motivation Achievement Motivation

Test (ACMT) by V.P.

Bhargava

3 Study Habit PSSHI Palsane & Sharma

Study Habits Inventory by

M.N. Palsane & Sadhana

Sharma

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Brief Description of Tests and Tools Used

FOR TEACHERS

Personal Bio-Data Sheet

The self made personal bio-data sheet was used for the study.

It includes questions relating to subject's name, father's name,

subject's age, sex, present designation, marital status, service

experience, monthly family income, permanent residence, local

residence and telephone number. It takes nearly 5 minutes to

complete it.

Achievement Motivation Test

Although McClelland and his colleagues rely on TAT to

measure need for achievement, other researches have developed

methods requiring less time to administer and less expertise to

interpret. One of these measures, developed by Robert Helmreich

and Janet Spence, divides the need for achievement into three

factors. The Work factor represents "the desire to work and to do a

good job", the mastery factor reflects "a preference for difficult,

challenging task or meeting internally prescribed standards of

performance excellence". and the competitiveness factor describes,

"the enjoyment of interpersonal competition and the desire to win"

(Spence & Helmreich, 1983, p 41) see Appendix A1. (Copy of the

tool).

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ADMINISTRATION OF TOOL

After selecting the schools randomly out of total schools, the

investigator personally visited all these Schools during their working

sessions.

The investigator developed personal rapport with the teachers

of schools during their lunch break time and free period. After

giving brief introduction of the tool on achievement motivation,

investigator described the questionnaire and gave the instructions for

filling up the questionnaire, which comprised of 19 items divided

into three components. No time limit was imposed for filling up the

questionnaire. After 30 minutes the papers were collected and

investigator thanked the teachers for their co-operation. Same

process was followed at all the selected schools.

SCORING

As per manual of the tool assessing your own personality

(Achievement Motivation) Robert Helreich and Janet Spence, the

rating on each item is done using the following scale:

1. Strongly Agree

2. Somewhat Agree

3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree

4. Somewhat Disagree

5. Strongly Disagree

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Table gives the whole picture of the tool used to collect the

data.

Table 3.1

Components of Achievement Motivation on 5 point scale

S.No. Components Items Minimum

Score

Maximum

Score

Middle

Mark

1. Work 06 06 30 18

2. Mastery 08 08 40 24

3. Competitiveness 05 05 25 15

Total Three 19 19 95 57

Table shows that there are three components of achievement

motivation i.e. work, mastery and competitiveness having six eight

and five items respectively which are measured on 5 point scale.

Study Habit Scale for Teachers

The Study Habit Scale is constructed and standardized by

researcher himself with the help of Dr. Ajay Kumar Chaudhary,

Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Government Meera

Girls College, Udaipur. The scale consists of twenty questions,

depending upon the results of pilot study and opinions of several

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psychologists, 30 questions in each of the study habit were finally

selected out of 40 questions originally framed for each. Later on the

basis of t value finally 20 items were found appropriate for the scale.

The questions elicit answers on a 5 point continuum scale. Some of

the questions indicate the presence of study habit when these are

answered negatively, and are given scores accordingly. These

negative answers imply social or interpersonal deprivations which

are liable to give rise to less study habits. Most of the questions

indicate the presence of study habit when these are answered

positively, and are given scores accordingly. The positive answers

show personal ability and reactive features.

The scale was constructed through Likert Method of Scale

Construction. On the basis of the responses obtained by 100

respondents (teachers) the upper group and lower group was

ascertained. The ‘t’ value was calculated for item selection. The ‘t’

value obtained for each question (on 30 questions) is presented here

in the following table:

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Item

No.

‘t’ value Selected/

Rejected

Item

No.

‘t’ value Selected/

Rejected

1 2.32 Selected 16 3.56 Selected

2 2.15 Selected 17 1.17 Rejected

3 1.23 Rejected 18 2.21 Selected

4 0.89 Rejected 19 2.09 Selected

5 3.00 Selected 20 1.98 Selected

6 2.19 Selected 21 0.55 Rejected

7 1.99 Selected 22 2.35 Selected

8 1.98 Selected 23 2.61 Selected

9 1.55 Rejected 24 3.22 Selected

10 2.01 Selected 25 1.29 Rejected

11 0.99 Rejected 26 1.96 Selected

12 2.35 Selected 27 1.54 Rejected

13 0.98 Rejected 28 2.01 Selected

14 3.06 Selected 29 4.10 Selected

15 1.55 Rejected 30 2.35 Selected

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Mode of Administration

Written application - The subject is supplied with a copy of the scale

and is requested to read the instruction and act accordingly.

Validity

To find out their empirical validity, self-rating by the subjects

were obtained on a five point scale as the certain is employed. This

method is used because no other suitable criterion was available for

the purpose. The correct use of this method required proper selection

of subjects. For rating their own feelings of study habit in a scale,

the subjects were expected to know the purpose of study habit. They

should be able to understand the scale, and judge their own study

habit in reference to that. Therefore, teachers were selected as

subjects. The subjects were consecutively given questionnaires to

answer, and scales to rate their own study habits. Correlation

coefficient was calculated to obtained to obtain the Validity

Coefficients which is presented in table 3.2.

Table 3.2

Validity Coefficients of Self Made Teachers Study Habit Scale

Comparable test N Group Validity

Coefficient

Self-rating 60 Teachers 0.717

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These are sufficiently high validity coefficient, significant

above one percent level.

Reliability

Statistics of “test-retest” reliability was used for measuring

consistency coefficients of study habit scale. For that, scale was

administrated twice at the interval of three weeks to a group of

eighty under-graduate and post-graduate students. The findings are

given in Table 3.3

Table 3.3

Reliability Coefficients of Study Habit Scale

Tests Retest

Interval

N Product moment reliability

Study Habit

Scale

3 weeks 80 0.920

These above figures indicate very high reliability coefficients.

Such high reliability coefficients might be questioned, because in

the field of psychological testing such is not a common occurrence.

The group of subjects was drawn from 6 colleges and from both

sexes. Heterogeneity itself apart from the test accuracy is known to

effect the correlation coefficient (reliability in this case) in raising it

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to a certain extent. Therefore, when due allowance is made for the

effect of heterogeneity, these high reliability coefficients might be

accepted as reliable figures.

Scoring

Subjects are given scores according to the scoring schedules.

The procedure that was followed for constructing scoring schedules

is described below.

Scoring

The scoring key is given in table 3.4 & 3.5 for study habits

respectively.

Table 3.4

Scoring Schedule of Teacher’s Study Habit Scale

Question No.

Scores

Very

Much

Much Average Less Very

Less

1 1 2 3 4 5

2 5 4 3 2 1

3 1 2 3 4 5

4 5 4 3 2 1

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5 1 2 3 4 5

6 1 2 3 4 5

7 1 2 3 4 5

8 5 4 3 2 1

9 5 4 3 2 1

10 5 4 3 2 1

11 5 4 3 2 1

12 5 4 3 2 1

13 5 4 3 2 1

14 5 4 3 2 1

15 5 4 3 2 1

16 5 4 3 2 1

17 5 4 3 2 1

18 5 4 3 2 1

19 5 4 3 2 1

20 5 4 3 2 1

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Questions 1, 3, 5, 6 & 7 in the questionnaire are scored according

to the schedule for negative answers only. Other questions are

scored for positive answer. The maximum score obtainable is 100.

Scores below 34 indicate very less study habits.

Scores between 35 & 51 indicate Less Study Habits.

Scores between 52 & 68 indicate Moderate Study Habits.

Scores on and above 69 indicate Very Much Study Habits.

Brief Description of Tests and Tools Used

FOR STUDENTS

Personal Bio-Data Sheet

The self made personal bio-data sheet was used for the study.

It includes questions relating to subject's name, father's name,

subject's age, sex, father's occupation, mother's occupation, number

of siblings, monthly family income, permanent residence, local

residence, telephone number and type of family. It takes nearly 5

minutes to complete it.

Achievement Motive Test

The Achievement Motive Test (ACMT) is constructed and

standardize by Dr. V. P. Bhargava of Agra in 1984. It is available at

National Psychological Corporation, Agra. The test has 50 items.

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The present test is intended to measure N Ach score of the

person. It is based on the lines following the pattern on Dr.

Bishwanath Mukherji and the method of Sentence Completion Test.

The test consists of 50 items of incomplete sentences (items) which

are to be completed by the Ss by putting a check-mark on any one of

the three alternative responses given against each items.

The Ss are instructed about what they to do and are required

to check the item by choosing one of the alternative responses which

indicate his true feelings with respect to the point asked through a

particular item. It is expected and believed that the subject while

engaged in the process of checking the item would consider all the

aspects which may be round-about him at that time. Thus, his check

on the alternative responses (which he chooses so) would indicate

his true feelings. In this way all the items are to be checked

indicating his responses on the whole test. Another special feature of

the test is that items are repeated more than once in order to know

the level of consistency with which the subject is answering the test.

Similar responses on similar test items indicate the

consistency in responding to the test. This has been done so as to

avoid the time-interval gap effect which is usually present where test

retest is done allowing a time-gap. Care has been taken to cover as

many aspects as are conveniently permissible and possible from

administration point of view. The usual time which is needed for

administrating the test is 30 minutes, including the time needed for

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giving the instruction to the Ss. It is desirable that the test

administrator while giving the test to the Ss should get them seated

in such a way that they may not talk to each other or consult each

other about the responses which they should check. This is sufficient

to check the faking of responses which is usually happening when

the test is being administrated in a group situation. The author feels

that language variable influences cannot possibly be reduced.

The construction of the test was done by following the

procedure which was collection of items in Hindi from different

sources (through experts in Hindi language and Psychology),

pooling them and then selecting them according to the respective

merits of the items. The similar procedure was followed for fixing

the possible alternative responses which have similar competitive

attraction value. In this the help given by the experts and consultants

is thankful acknowledged. When a rough format of the test (with 75)

items was ready a preliminary testing programme was carried on 35

subjects in order to check the administrative feasibility of the test

and also to find out which of the items are ‘not good’ and may be

easily dropped (without loosing anything) in the test. The final draft

was accepted after taking into consideration the reliability and

validity of the test. The inter-consistency among the test items, the

reliability of the responses and criterion validity was obtained which

was high enough for accepting the test for use as a measure of

Achievement Motivation.

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Reliabilities

Test-retest reliability after an interval of one month : 0.87.

By comparing the responses of similar items : 0.79.

Considering the responses if they indicate to measure the

same aspects for which they were intended to measure, it was found

that they did so.

Validation Indices

The test was tried for having agreement with the criterion test

of N Ach, and with educational achievement in various faculties. It

was found that the test scores on this test and that with the test-

scores SCT of Dr. Bishwanath Mukherji had an agreement of .80

and with Educational Achievement Test (General) it had an

agreement .75.

Scoring

The procedure for scoring is very simple. It can be done with

the help of a scoring key. Each item indicating Achievement

Motivation (N Ach) is given a score of 1 and the total score earned

on all the items is the N. Ach Score. The scoring method is given in

scoring key in table 3.5

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Table 3.5

miyfC/k izsj.kk ijh{k.k ¼'kkfCnd½ &

ewY;kadu dq¡th

ewY;kadu fof/k & izR;sd in ij vius

iz;ksT; }kjk dk fpUg vafdr ns[kdj vki

feyku djsa fd in esa fpUgkafdr izR;qÙkjksa ls fdrus

feyrs gSaA feyus ij izfr in ,d vad fn;k tkuk gSaA dqy vadksa dk ;ksx

gh ijh{k.k ij izkIr vad gksxkA

d [k x d [k x

1 26

2 27

3 28

4 29

5 30

6 31

7 32

8 33

9 34

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10 35

11 36

12 37

13 38

14 39

15 40

16 41

17 42

18 43

19 44

20 45

21 46

22 47

23 48

24 49

25 50

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Norms

As a result of administering the Achievement Motivation Test

(ACMT) on a sample of 600 college going students of Agra (300

Males and 300 Females) of the age range 16 to 22 years the category

wise classification as percentile norms was done. The following

table 3.6 presents the classification :-

Table 3.6

Norms Table for Achievement Motive Test

Category Scores

Boys Girls

High 23 & above 23 & above

Above Average 19-22 20-22

Average 17-18 17-19

Below Average 15-16 14-16

Low 11-14 11-13

Low Category : Typifies subjects performance lower than ordinary

one.

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Below Average : Refers subjects performance is simpler than

routine performance.

Average : Refers to average performance nothing worth mentioning.

Above Average : Refers performance superior than average one.

Casual a appreciation is often done.

High : Refers to outstanding performance worth appreciable and

mentioning.

Palsane & Sharma Study Habits Inventory (PSSHI)

The Palsane & Sharma Study Habits Inventory was

constructed and standardize by M.N. Palsane and Sadhana Sharma

in 1989. It is available on National Psychological corporation, Agra.

The test has 45 items.

Description of each area of Study-habits

The study of the individual cover mainly the reading habits,

learning techniques, memory, time-schedule, physical conditions,

examination, evaluation, etc.

The following table 3.7 shows the items belonging to various

areas.

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Table 3.7

Areas of Study Habits Inventory

S.No Areas No. of Items

1. Budgeting time 1, 2, 3, 4, 32

2. Physical condition 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 43

3. Reading ability 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 28

4. Note making 11, 18, 19

5. Learning motivation 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 40

6. Memory 12, 26, 27, 37

7. Taking examinations 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 42

8. Health 41, 44, 45

Administration of the Inventory

The inventory can be administered to individuals as well as in

groups of 25 to 50. Still larger numbers can be handled with the help

of assessment supervisors and the public address system (Loud

Speakers).

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The subjects should be seated comfortably and as far as

possible should not have a chance to talk to other students or glance

at their answers. There should be good ventilation and light in the

room.

By explaining the purpose of the test, the supervisor should

try to get full cooperation from the students. The inventory is self-

administering. All the instructions are printed on the front page of

the inventory.

The supervisor should read these out to the students and

explain to them whatever is necessary. The following points should

be emphasized :

The results are useful only if the subjects give honest answers.

The needed bio-data be filled on the first page of Inventory. The test

administrator should see this personally. Although there is no time-

limit, the subjects should complete the entire inventory within 20 to

25 minutes. The answer of the individuals will be kept confidential.

If the subjects have any difficulty in understanding the meaning of

the words or statements, the test administrator may be consulted.

Scoring

The procedure of scoring is quite simple. For ‘Always’ or

‘Mostly’ response, score of 2 is awarded, whereas 1 and 0 scores are

to be given foe ‘Sometimes’ or ‘Never’ responses respectively. In

case of statement Nos. 6, 9, 13, 15, 24, 26, 34, 36, 37, 41 & 42 the

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weightage of scoring is reversed and it is as 0, 1 and 2 for ‘always’,

‘sometimes’ and ‘never’ responses respectively. The maximum

obtainable score is 90. Higher score indicates good study habits.

Reliability

The reliability coefficient was found to be .88 by test retest

method (with an interval of 4 weeks) on a sample of 200 male

students of undergraduate classes. The reliability coefficient was

found to be .67 with an interval of 3 months on a sample of 60 girls

studying in intermediate classes. Using split half technique on 150

boys of intermediate and undergraduate classes, the coefficient of

correlation was found to be .56 between odd and even items.

Validity

The Validity Coefficients indicate that the inventory has

sufficiently high Validity with other similar inventors and allied

Measures by other authors and have significant relationship with

other variables which influence the study habits and academic

performances. For research purposes, the inventory can be safely

recommended for use with the sample for which has been prepared.

The inventory, besides having a high face validity, has other validity

Coefficients which are given in table 3.8.

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Table 3.8

Validity Coefficients of Study Habits Inventory

Name Of Other Tests N Validity

Coefficient

(a) With External Criterion (Similar type of Study Habit

Inventories)

1. Study Habit Inventory - Mukhopadhyaya and

Sansanwal

80 .69

2. Test of Study Habits and Attitudes - C.P.

Mathur

80 .67

3. Study Habit Inventory - B.V. Patel 80 .74

4. Study Involvement Inventory – Asha

Bhatnagar

80 .83

(b) With other Variable Measures

1. Verbal Achievement Motivation Test - V.P.

Bhargava

50 .46

2. Scholastic Achievement (Total Marks in

Annual Examination)

50 .42

3. Level of Aspiration - Shah and Bhargava 50 .58

4. Projective Test of Achievement Motivation -

P. Deo

50 .53

5. Reading Comprehension Test - Ahuja &

Ahuja

50 .76

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Norms

The norms are decided on the percentile level and category

obtained by students of both sexes studying from Intermediate to

Postgraduate levels are given in Table 3.9

Table 3.9

Norms of Study Habits Inventory

Percentile Level Boys Girls Category Interpretation

100 75 78 A Excellent Study Habits

90 74 73

80 64 68

75 (Q3) 62 67 B Good Study Habits

70 61 65

60 60 64 C Average Study Habits

50(Md.) 59 63

40 57 60

30 55 58 D Unsatisfactory Study Habits

25(Q1) 54 57

20 53 56 E Very Unsatisfactory Study Habits

10 50 53

N = 400 300

Mean = 59.74 63.80

Median = 59.21 63.02

S.D. = 6.40 6.60

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From the above table, the percentile level or position of a

Student category of his performance and its interpretation can be

made.

3.9 STATISTICAL TECHNIQUE USED

For analysing the data collected, the mean & standard

deviations were calculated and for testing the hypotheses, student ‘t’

test was used. All the statistical analysis is conducted through

computer on SPSS (Statistical Software for Social Sciences,

Version: 17.0). Wherever necessary data is presented through

graphs.

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