Consider a survey in which customers’ perceptions of the service at a local store are gathered using

a Likert Scale. Using this survey the customer gives a score of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 in response to a

statement about the service. The scores represent

1 – Strongly Disagree

2 – Disagree

3 – Unsure

4 – Agree

5 – Strongly agree

For example, one of the statements might be

“The staff member appears knowledgeable regarding the store’s products”

and the customer would give a score based upon how much they agree with the statement. Now

consider a situation in which 100 customers provide a response to this statement and they are

distributed as follows

1 – Strongly Disagree 10 (10%)

2 – Disagree 25 (25%)

3 – Unsure 17 (17%)

4 – Agree 32 (32%)

5 – Strongly agree 16 (16%)

Now let’s assume that the store wants to summarise this data into a single score. They calculate this

score by multiplying the number of responses by the number assigned, adding the five together and

dividing by the number of respondents. In this case,

 (10 + 50 + 51 + 128 + 80) / 100 = 319/100

 = 3.19

Explain why this value is not a valid summary of the data collected. Suggest a more valid way of

representing the data. Justify your response.

2. This question continues from question 1. Let’s assume that the survey is not necessarily answered

by every customer. If a customer wishes to fill out the survey they need to go to the relevant web

page on the store’s web site. This way the store can automate the collection and analysis of data.

Does the data collected provide a true reflection of the perceptions of all of the store’s customers?

Why or why not? Justify your answer. (Note: this is not a simple yes/no answer. There may be times

at which the data is more reliable than others)

CRICOS Provider No. 00103D Assignment 1 2016.docx Page 2 of 4

3. We discussed four types of quantitative data in class – nominal, ordinal, ratio and interval. What

types of data are collected from each of the following questions? Justify your answer.

a. Gender

i. Requires one of two responses – male or female

b. Fahrenheit thermometers

i. Collects values representing temperatures in Fahrenheit

c. Kelvin thermometers

i. Collects values representing temperatures in Kelvin

d. The number of items a customer buys

i. In whole numbers

e. Bank account balances (careful with this one)

[2 * ½ + 1 = 3 marks]

4. Assume you are the coach of a local sports team. You believe it is possible that drinking orange

juice three times per day, for four days each week, might make the players perform better in the

game at the weekend. Explain how you could test this hypothesis in each of the following ways:

a. As a descriptive non-experimental study

b. A quasi experimental study

c. An experimental study

Which of the studies would give you the firmest evidence of whether your theory is correct? Justify

your answers.

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