Mutually exclusive
The answers given by the respondents should be placed under only one category Eg., occupational of an individual may be answered as 1) professional 2) sales 3) executive 4) manager etc.
Example
questions Do you own a vehicle What is your occupation answer Yes NO Salaried Business Retired Technical consultant Codes 1 2 S B R T C
Tabulation
Tabulation refers to counting the number of cases that fall into various categories it involves Sorting and counting Summarizing of data
Types of tabulation
Simple tabulation Single variable is counted Cross tabulation It includes two or more variables which are treated simultaneously
Table method
The tabulation may include table number,title, head note, stub, caption, sub entries, body of the table, footnote, and source
Table method
Table TITLE-No of children per family Head Note- Unit of measurement total Sub heading caption
body Foot note
Kinds of tabulation
Simple or one way tabulation The multiple choice questions which allow only one answer may use one way tabulation there may be two types of univariate tabulation Questions with only response Multiple response to question
1
2 3 4 More than 4
30
70 60 20 10 200
15
35 30 10 6 100
Choice of an automobile
parameter No of respondents
10
15 15
engine
Body Mileage
Interior
Colour Maintenance frequency
06
18 16 20
inconvenience
There is duplication because respondents may be dissatisfied with mileage given by vehicle and also may dislike interior of the car and also may dislike interior of the car
Suppose we are tabulating the cause of inconvenience felt by the car owner, it can be classsified as follows Cramped problem Rear seat problem Difficulty to raising the window Difficulty in locking the door Now tabulation of each of factor would help to identify the real problem for dislike
No of famili es
Above table shows that consumption of health drink not only depends on income but also on the number of children per family
Summarising the data includesclassification of data Frequency distribution Use of appropirate statistical tool
Classification of data
Number of groups Number of groups should be sufficient to record all possible data classification should not be too narrow
example
If a researcher is conducting a survey on why the current car owner dislikes the car the car owner may indicate the following Difficulty in seeking entry to the back seat Interior space Cramped leg room Mileage Rattling of the engine Dicky space
All the above data can be classified into 2 or 3 categories Discomfort Expense Pride Safety Design of the car
WIDTH OF THE CLASS INTERVAL Class interval should be uniform and should be of equal width This will give consistency in the data distribution EXCLUSIVE CATEGORIES Classification made should be done in such a way that the response can be placed in only one category
example
Problem of leg room is the answer by the respondent this should be placed under discomfort or design but not both EXHAUSTIVE CATEGOIES This should be made to include all responses including dont know answers sometimes this will influence the ultimate answer to the research problem AVOID EXTREMES Avoid open ended class interval
example
income 4000-6999 7000-9999 10000-12999 No of people 100 122 140
Central value or tendency plays a very important role in research The researcher may be interested in knowing the average sales/shop, average consumption per month