The study is observational research employing hypothesis testing methodology for making decisions about population parameters based on sample statistics. Term Paper will be between 10 and 20 pages...

Statistics Hypothesis testing Methodology
·  observational research employing hypothesis testing methodology
 
First of all let us understand the terms involved in this. An observation is one which is seen by us sometimes not by eyes but felt. By observational research we mean we really carry out a number of observations for our matter of interest and from the particulars collected we can hypothesize the general behavior or pattern.
There are various types of observational research. Normally observational research is applied in markets and social sciences. In observational research nothing is guessed or assumed. But actual observations are done. The researcher continuously watches the behavior of the variables for a series of time and records them. The researcher does not try to influence the occurring by any external factor. Naturally, what is occurring is observed and recorded. For example, no of days taken for a pregnancy in human beings, the marks obtained by a certain university students in a competitive exam, the no of heads occurred while tossing a coin, etc. Thus he allows things to go in their own natural way and tries to find a pattern or proportion.
Sometimes instead of observing, especially whenever survey is taken about the opinion of people, just observation will not help. Hence questionnaires are prepared and distributed with a request to fill them up. The questionnaires will normally consist of easily understandable multiple choice questions and by their filling up data the pattern or prediction is done.
Case studies involve indepth study of any event, person or group actually occurred. This gives an idea about the reaction of persons or group for a particular incident like sudden death, or report of disease or natural calamities like earthquake, etc.
There are obviously some advantages and disadvantages of observational research.
Advantages of observational research:
Actually things in nature are observed and hence hypothetical assumptions or manipulations are avoided thus ensuring accuracy.
Disadvantages of observational research:
The main disadvantage is the difficulties in practical life. In market survey, observing the purchases of different customers in different locations would be costly and unwieldy process.
Also we decide by a person’s behavior that he likes that. For example, a man purchasing a certain brand of shoe may be influenced by his other expenses because of his family background, his time limit or the availability in his location. These factors are not considered in observational study. The man’s actual thinking may be different entirely from his behavior due to so many reasons which is not considered here.
But inspite of all these, observational research helps in hypothesis methodology in Statistics for so many fields, like health, markets, etc.
For example, let us consider health issues.
A preventive medicine to control a particular disease has to be tested for its effectiveness. This is really an important crucial health issue which has to be done from the available information by observational study. Hence data are collected from the big hospitals which treat these types of patients. Patients are asked whether they used preventive medicine or not. The two groups are compared and with statistical evidence the hypothesis testing can be done as
Mean of number of patients infected by disease using preventive medicine < Mean of number of patients infected by disease not using preventive medicine.
By hypothesis testing if this is proved evident, then this medicine can be applied to all people in general.
Similarly, whether a particular training really improves an organisation’s productivity can be done by dividing into two groups and giving one group training. After that the performances of two groups are observed and recorded. Hypothesis tests can be carried out to check whether there is real improvement because of training.
Thus observational study has so many applications in real life. The data may be qualitative or quantitative or both. If randomly done, taking a large sample this may ensure a real prediction and inference about the matter in general. Only extraneous factors should be minimized and homogeneous conditions should be maintained for coming to a conclusion.
To summarize we can say that observational research is indispensable in hypothesis testing for real life applications in medicine, markets, education, training, human resources, etc.
The strengths are i) its simplicity, ii) easy to use in hypothesis testing, iii) Data is accurate, iv) Universal method, v) In some cases, only observation helps to get data, vi) Since naturally observed, independently the subject act and record is done
But certainly there are also weaknesses in this research. They are
i) time consuming ii) costly, iii) Bias of...