Year: 2020

According to Gordon Allport, “An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.”

According to Si P. Robbins: “Attitude is manner, disposition, feeling and position with regard to a person or thing, tendency or orientation especially in the mind.”

Frank Freeman said, “An attitude is a dispositional readiness to respond to certain institutions, persons or objects in a consistent manner which has been learned and has become one’s typical mode of response.”

Thurstone said, “An attitude denotes the sum total of man’s inclinations and feelings, prejudice or bias, pre-conCeived notions, ideas, fears, threats and other any specific topic.”

Anastasi defined attitude as, “A tendency to react favorably or unfavorably towards a designated class of stimuli, such as a national or racial group, a custom or an institution.”

According to N.L. Munn, “Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment. They may be positively or negatively directed towards certain people, service or institution.”

Types of Attitude

1. Positive Attitude

This is one type of attitude in organizational behaviour. One needs to understand how much a positive attitude it takes to keep the work moving and progressing. It means that keeping a positive mindset and thinking about the greater good, no matter whatever the circumstances are. A positive attitude has many benefits which affect out other kinds of behaviour in a good way. For example, a person who has a positive attitude and mindset will look for the good in other person’s no matter how bad they behave or how bad is their attitude. The former person thinks about the greater good and that is why he is called a person with a positive attitude.

These persons generally don’t care about the hurdles in life. They nurture their skills daily and overcome almost anything and everything that comes in their way. The best way to maintain a positive attitude for the beginners is to avoid naysayers and believe in themselves. These persons know about their earlier mistakes and instead of being ashamed of them, they have vowed not to repeat the same thing. If you have a positive attitude, then you should have some list of attitudes.

let’s follow them:

(a) Confidence: Confidence is good attitude and one of the basic things in the list of positive attitudes. Generally, people with a plus or positive mindset are rewarded with this automatically. Confidence is necessary to approach life with zest. Looking at things confidently and saying “I’m up for this’, is enough to reflect your attitude towards life in general and attitude in particular. Confidence in other elements in the world will start with being confident with self.

(b) Happiness: Happiness is the next type of attitude in the list of positive attitudes and behaviours. A happy mind is an abode for all the good things to self. Confident people are quite happy as they are not worried about results, interviews, etc and other similar things in life that are meant to test us. Look within yourself; you will find happiness.

(c) Sincerity: An individual with a positive mindset is often found to be quite sincere. He or she is aware of the work to be done, and they know that the only way out of a situation is through it. Sincerity is one trait that you should never let go off or compromise.

(d) Determination: A determination is one of the primary rewarding points for a person with a positive attitude. A right dose of hard work, effort and determination are essential to get things the way you want. A person who is driven and properly determined will overcome all impossibilities.

2. Negative Attitude

A negative attitude is something that every person should avoid. Generally, people will negative attitude ignore the good things in life and only think about whether they will fail. They often find a way out of tough situations by running away from it. They often compare themselves with other persons and find the bad in them only. In short, he is exactly the opposite of the one with a positive mindset. There are certain bad effects that a person with a negative mindset has to face.

(a) Anger: A person with a negative mindset is often found to be angry most of the time. Sometimes there might not be any kind of specific reason behind their anger. Anger is the root cause of self-destruction. While some amount of anger is good, extreme cases of anger only lead to destruction.

(b) Doubt: A person can question himself but he or she should never doubt themselves. Unfortunately, if you have a negative mindset, then you will often doubt yourself. Self-doubt will lead to no progress and will often lead to low confidence.

(c) Frustration: A negative person is a frustrated person. As said earlier, attitude defines the person and that is why if you are frustrated that will show on your face and you will be facing some serious difficulties. Frustration will not help you build your career. It is an irritant and will keep preventing you from taking any positive step forward.

3. Neutral Attitude

This is another type of attitude that is common. That mindset is a neutral one. There is no doubt. Neither is there any kind of hope. The people generally tend to ignore the problems in life. They wait for some other individual to take care of their problems. They generally have a lazy life and they are often unemotional. It is as if they don’t think about anything that much and doesn’t care for the same as well. They never feel the need to change themselves as they can simply live with the way they are.

He or she will feel disconnected quite often and that is why having a neutral attitude is very bad and should be fixed as soon as possible. However, a person with neutral attitude if changes can only go to the path of a positive attitude. In most cases, it has been seen that the attitude adjustment metal therapies have led persons to a road filled with positive feelings only.

4. Sikken Attitude

One of the most dangerous types of attitude and different is the sikken attitude. The sikken attitude has the calibre to destroy every image that comes in connection with a positive image. This type of attitude is more of a negative attitude and is very destructive. It often reflects the mind’s negativity. It is necessary to let go off this kind of attitude for the betterment of the self and the people around you. They are often difficult to be mended because the attitude is deep-rooted within one’s personality. However, with time, it nevertheless is possible to change the course of direction of this attitude.

Attitude will either define you or destroy you. What generally follows is, your attitude will be an inspiration for many in your team. Therefore, companies look for people with a positive attitude. People in general seem to stick around the positive vibration, as that will motivate them enough to progress in life. Bad or good, attitude has the power to change people’s thoughts and therefore, their behaviour. Be an example of a good one.

Improving Your Communication Skills

Business communications require a good understanding of your audience. Our Communications Planning article outlines a simple process that you can follow to assess your audience, to choose an appropriate channel to reach them, and to monitor the effectiveness of your message.

If your goal is to gain information, be sure to ask the right questions and to stay clear and concise our article on The 7 Cs of Communication offers a useful checklist of factors to consider.

Finding common ground with your audience will help you to establish trust and rapport. But be aware of cultural or personal differences, and show that you respect other people’s points of view.

When you convey information, use your powers of negotiation and persuasion to present your case, rather than stating your opinion as fact, and be prepared to compromise. You can use rhetoric to construct a persuasive argument, but it’s important to remain credible and authentic.

And crucially, when you’ve delivered your message, listen carefully to the response. Active Listening techniques help you to pay close attention, to show the speaker that you are taking their words on board, and to respond constructively. Mindful Listening can help you to focus on what’s being said, and to “tune out” distractions.

“Looking” also plays a part in “listening.” We pick up cues from a person’s body language. They tell us whether he or she is confident, or bored, or thinking about something else and even if he’s lying.

Becoming more aware of posture, eye contact, hand gestures, and tone of voice helps us to “read” other people more effectively and to adapt our communication style accordingly. And if we recognize our own body language, we can project a feeling that we may not actually be experiencing to appear confident in job interviews, for example.

Whether you want to make a good first impression, to attend a speed networking event, to meet a new boss for the first time, or to just get along better with your colleagues, good interpersonal communication skills will help you to make every second count.

Learning to Manage Differences

You’ll likely encounter conflict, or at least differences that seem hard to reconcile, at some point in your working life. You may, for example, find yourself dealing with rude or difficult people, or those who feel they need to “cut you down to size” (known as “tall poppy syndrome.”) In such situations, the ability to remain calm but assertive is a key interpersonal skill.

Unresolved conflict can be damaging and disruptive, and often affects morale and productivity. It can result in personal animosity, making people feel as if they have to “take sides,” disengage from the team, or even leave the organization.

On the other hand, conflict can bring underlying issues to the surface, where you can examine, acknowledge and deal with them. This can help to prevent similar problems from recurring and to enhance mutual understanding.

That’s why the ability to deal with conflict effectively is an interpersonal skill that’s highly valued by employers.

So let’s look at three approaches to conflict resolution:

The Interest-Based Relational (IBR) Approach advocates separating the problem from the people involved. You examine the issue objectively, simply setting out the facts to discuss without damaging your relationships. This requires courtesy, listening skills, understanding, and a willingness to compromise.

Perceptual Positions is an exercise that helps you to see other people’s points of view. You assign, say, chairs in your office to the opposing points of view, plus one for an objective observer. Then you sit in each chair in turn and picture the situation from the three different perspectives.

And Bell and Hart’s Eight Causes of Conflict can help you to identify the source of, and therefore a solution to, an issue. The causes range from insufficient resourcing and confused roles to incompatible values and unpredictable policies, and our article gives you pointers on how to manage each one.

Learning to Manage Agreement

We’ve seen how you can use your interpersonal skills to manage conflict. But how do you create an agreeable and harmonious working environment?

The first step is to use your interpersonal skills to establish trust. Trust enables you to be more effective, to take worthwhile risks, and to feel secure. You can discover useful strategies for working with your co-workers, clients and suppliers in our article, Building Trust.

The next step is to work towards a situation where team members understand one another. They can collaborate to improve the team’s overall performance, if you can help them to reveal more about themselves, safely. The Johari Window is a useful tool to help you to Manage Mutual Acceptance.

Understanding individuals’ interpersonal strengths helps you to match them with suitable tasks or projects. This can increase their motivation, engagement and productivity. Read our article, Four Dimensions of Relational Work, to find out how to assign tasks based on people’s attributes.

Another key aspect of managing agreement relates to feedback. People will likely view poorly expressed feedback as destructive criticism. Deliver it well, however, and you can address difficult issues before they worsen.

Maintaining Your Personal Integrity

Your integrity, your ability to stand up for what you believe in is central to your interpersonal skills. Integrity enables you to measure your choices and decisions when dealing with others against the benchmark of your personal values. Your reputation and personal brand rest on it.

This can keep you on the right track on a daily basis simply interacting with others in a friendly, polite way, for example, can make a huge difference to the people around you. It can also guide you through challenging but potentially rewarding situations, such as working with rivals. It is also important if you’re in a position of authority.

1. Keep a gratitude journal

Sometimes one single event can ruin an entire day and an unpleasant interaction or experience at night can overshadow the enjoyable parts of our day. With this awareness that our mind tends to cling to the negative, we can intentionally focus on the good parts of our day to offset this imbalance. Try writing down 5 things that you feel grateful for every day and see how your attitude changes. Science has found that gratitude can significantly increase your happiness, and protect you from stress, negativity, anxiety and depression. 

2. Reframe your challenges

There are no dead ends, only re-directions. Although we might try, there are very few things in life that we have complete control over. We should not let uncontrollable occurrences from the outside turn our inner to mush. What we can control is the effort that we put in and when we give our full effort, there is no reason for regret. Have fun with challenges, embrace them as adventures instead of  attempting to resist an experience for growth. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.” :Robert Kiyosaki

3. Get good at being rejected

Rejection is a skill. Chalk every broken heart and failed job interview as practice because no one gets to slide through life without being rejected. Don’t let it harden you and don’t expect the worse. If you wait for bad things to happen, chances are it will or you’ll narrow in on the bad in the midst of the may good things you’ve missed along the way. When there are cracks in your heart, they let the sun in.

4. Use positive words to describe your life

The words that we use have a lot more power than we think. How you talk about your life is how your life will be. Your mind hears what you say. If you describe your life as boring, busy,  mundane, chaotic, that is how you will percieve it and you will feel the effects in your body and mind. If you use the words simple, involved, familiar or lively, you will see your life in a whole different light and find more enjoyment in the way you chose to shape your life.

A study from US data suggests that having a positive attitude is not only has a direct effect on your happiness, it is also correlated with your earning wage.

5. Replace have with get

Do you ever notice how many times we say that we have to do something?  I have to go to work. I have to go grocery shopping. I have to pay my rent. Now change this one little word to get and see what happens. I get to go to work. I get to go grocery shopping. Even, I get to pay my rent. Your attitude quickly changes from needing to fulfill obligations to being grateful for the things that we become accustomed to having:  a job to support you and your family, food on the table, and a roof over your head. Try to make this change when you are thinking to yourself and you may feel and appear happier and less stressed.

6. Don’t let yourself get dragged into other people’s complaints

Your day was going pretty well and then you get to work and your co-worker can’t stop complaining about the cold weather. You didn’t really think about it before he/she brought it up and now you find yourself agreeing and joining in on the complaint-fest of how sick you are of this cold weather. In a month you’ll be pulled into complaints about how it’s too hot. Don’t fall into the trap. A study done at the Warsaw School of Social Psychology shows that complaining leads to lower moods and negative emotions, decreased life satisfaction and optimism, and emotional and motivational deficits.  You might find that your co-worker will complain less without the validation of someone else having the same complaint.

7. Breathe

Our breath is directly connected to our emotions. Have you noticed we hold our breath sometimes when we are concentrating on something? Can you feel your breath change when you are angry or anxious? Our breath changes depending on how we feel. The great news is that the connection goes the other way too. We can also change how we feel using our breath! Check out this infographic on the scientific benefits of breathing.

8. Notice the righteous in times of tragedy

It’s hard to have hope and stay positive when hate and violence is all over the media. What we don’t see as much is that in every instance of natural disasters, war, traumatic experience, you will find people rising up, reaching out to each other and showing raw compassion and love. Hold onto the stories of modern day heroes and selflessness in the times of fear and devastation.

9. Have solutions when pointing out problems

Being positive doesn’t mean that you have to be oblivious to problems. Positive people have constructive criticisms to improve conditions. If you are going to point out problems in people or situations, place just as much effort into suggesting solutions. Instead of pointing out all of the things that are wrong, offer ways to make it better.

10. Make someone else smile

Who do you think about most of the time? If we answered honestly, most of us would say themselves. It’s good to hold ourselves accountable, take responsibility for our life roles, hygiene, food, etc. but set a goal for each day to make someone else smile. Think about someone else’s happiness and it will help us to realize our immense impact that our attitude and expression has on the people around us.

In recent years, a growing group of psychologists has come to the conclusion that the old concept of IQ (intelligence quotient) revolved around a narrow band of linguistic and math skills and doing well in IQ tests was most directly a predictor of success in academics but less so as life’s paths diverged from academic fields.

These psychologists have taken a wider view of intelligence, trying to reinvent it in terms of what it takes to lead life successfully. In fact, one psychologist Daniel Goleman (1995, 1988) has argued strongly that this other kind of intelligence is more important for a happy, productive life than IQ. Goleman terms this kind of intelligence as Emotional Intelligence (or EQ in short) and defines it as:

“Emotional intelligence is a cluster of traits or abilities relating to the emotional side of life-abilities such as recognizing and managing one’s own emotions, being able to motivate oneself and restrain one’s impulses, recognizing and managing other’s emotions and handling interpersonal relationships in an effective manner.”

Major Components of Emotional Intelligence:

Goleman has suggested that EQ consists of five major components:

(i) Knowing our own emotions

(ii) Managing our emotions

(iii) Motivating ourselves

(iv) Recognizing the emotions of others

(v) Handling relationships.

He contended that each of these components plays an important role in shaping the outcomes we experience in life.

These components are explained as follows:

(i) Knowing our Own Emotions (Self Awareness):

Recognizing a feeling as it happens is the keystone of emotional intelligence. The ability to monitor feelings from moment to moment is crucial to psychological insight and self understanding. An inability to notice our own true feelings leaves us at their mercy. People with greater certainty about their feelings are better pilots of their lives having a sure sense of how they really feel about personal decisions.

To the extent, individuals are not aware about their own feelings, they cannot make intelligent choices. Moreover since such persons aren’t aware of their own emotions, they are often low in expressiveness, they don’t show their feelings clearly through facial expressions, body language or other cues most of use to recognize other’s feelings. This can have adverse effects on their interpersonal relationships, because other people find it hard to know how they are feeling or reacting. For these reasons, self awareness seems to be quite important.

(ii) Managing our Own Emotions:

Handling feelings so that they are appropriate is an ability that builds on self awareness. This component will examine the capacity to soothe oneself, to shake off rampant anxiety, gloom or irritability and the consequence of failure at this basic emotional skill. People who are poor in this ability are constantly battling feeling of distress, while those who excel in it can bounce back far more quickly from life’s setbacks and upsets.

Managing our own emotions is very important both for our own mental health and from the point of view of interacting effectively with others. For example, consider those people who cannot control their temper. Are they bound for success and a happy life? No, they will probably be avoided by many people and will not get the jobs, promotions or lovers and friends they want.

(iii) Motivating Ourselves:

Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, once remarked “Success is two percent inspiration and ninety eight percent perspiration”. While inspiration or creativity is certainly important, but by perspiration we would mean more than simply hard-work. Marshalling emotions in the service of a goal is essential for paying attention, for self motivation and mastery and for creativity. Emotional self control-delaying gratification and stifling impulsiveness-underlies accomplishment of every sort. Being able to get into the ‘flow’ state enables. Outstanding performance of all kinds. People who have this skill tend to be more highly productive and effective in whatever they undertake.

(iv) Recognizing the Emotions of others:

Another component of emotional intelligence is the ability to read others accurately to recognize the mood they are in and what emotion they are experiencing. This skill is valuable in many practical settings. For example, if you can accurately judge the other person’s current mood, you can tell whether it is the right time to ask him or her for a favour. Similarly, people who are skilled at generating strong emotions in others are often highly successful in such fields such as sales and politics. They can get other people to feel what they want them to feel.

(v) Handling Relationships:

The art of relationships is, in large part, skill in managing emotions in others. Some people seem to have a knack for getting along with others, most people who meet these people like them and as a result they have many friends and often enjoy high level of success in their careers.

These are the abilities which ensure popularity, leadership and interpersonal effectiveness. People who excel in these skills do well in anything that relies on interacting smoothly with others. They are social stars. In contrast to these, there are some others, who seem to make a mess of virtually all their personal relationships. According to Goleman, such differences are another reflection of differences in emotional intelligence or as some researchers would phrase it, differences in interpersonal intelligence.

Interpersonal intelligence involves such skills as being able to co-ordinate the efforts of many people and to negotiate solutions to complex interpersonal problems, being good at giving others feedback that does not make them angry or resentful and being a team player. Again these skills are distinct from the ones needed for getting good grades or scoring high on tests of intelligence, but they play a very important role in important life outcomes.

A refined definition of emotional intelligence by Salovey and Mayer (1997) extends its meaning as ‘the ability to process emotional information, more specifically an ability to recognize the meanings of emotions and their relationships, as well as being able to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them. In particular, it involves one’s capacity to perceive and assimilate emotional feelings, to understand the information of these emotions and, lastly, the management of them.’

Interpreting this definition, Hein (2003) could cull some of the components of emotional intelligence as under:

1. Intelligence
2. Information processing
3. Potential for learning
4. Understanding
5. Developing
6. Growth

With several such extended definitions, the nature of emotional intelligence now encompasses:

1. Identification of emotion
2. Perception of emotion
3. Expression of emotion
4. Facilitation of emotional thought
5. Understanding of emotion
6. Management of emotion

Emotional intelligence contains information about relationships, which may be with an object or a person. Any change in the object or person will also change the emotions towards that person or the object. To illustrate, we will dislike a scary person, but like a person with a charismatic personality.

Relationships in emotional intelligence need not always be actual. They can even be imaginary. However, irrespective of actual or imaginary relationships, emotions are accompanied by the felt signals of relationships. Emotional intelligence is our ability to understand and interpret the emotions and by adding our cognitive intelligence, we can even solve problems.

To minimize the risk of non-performance in the workplace, we can test the emotional intelligence of the selected candidates before finalizing the recruitment process. Emotional abilities of individual employees strengthen their skills and perceptions on emotion, the appropriate use of emotions to extend the thought process, understanding emotions, and finally managing emotions.

Association with Emotional Processing:

According to Hein, a person with emotional intelligence can distinguish between healthy and unhealthy feelings and so also the negative and positive feelings. It is the innate feelings with four major attributes like emotional sensitivity, emotional memory, emotional learning ability, and emotional processing ability.

Although such innate potential can get damaged with real- life experiences, often the quality of emotional intelligence processing abilities of an individual becomes strong enough to override the real-life learning experiences.

Thus, the innate emotional processing abilities of an individual become more important than his/her life experiences to shape the emotional intelligence of the individual. We can understand this better from Goleman (1995), who considered emotional intelligence more a skill than a learned one, as emotional processing which shapes the emotional intelligence is a natural and unconscious process.

Emotions and Emotional Information:

We still have a difference of opinion about the term emotion. Despite having differences in opinion, a more generic definition attributes emotion to structured mental processes, to respond to relationships, reinforced with physiological, experimental, and cognitive inputs.

To illustrate, our anger is the outcome of our perceived blockage to our goal, and our happiness is the response to love of others. Employees may feel scared of an autocrat leader, while they may show respect to a team leader (who with a participative approach can extract the most out of them).

Emotional information is the information on emotional relationships. Availability of emotional information helps us to study not only the cross- cultural variation but also the emotion across animals. However, mere availability of emotional information would not be enough; it requires our ability to interpret it. Using emotional information as inputs, cognitive scientists can even study emotions in elementary stories.

Correlation with Cognitive Intelligence:

In Table 7.2, the correlation between emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence has been explained from different theoretical contexts, emphasizing the highest correlation while we go for abstract reasoning. In fact, the highest correlation of cognitive intelligence is more evident when we process the situation, person, or the object, keeping pace with our abstract reasoning power. In a globalized world, for business imperative, we need to make use of an abstract reasoning power to study the cross-cultural issues.

Importance of Emotional Intelligence

Physical Health

The ability to take care of our bodies and especially to manage our stress, which has an incredible impact on our overall wellness, is heavily tied to our emotional intelligence. Only by being aware of our emotional state and our reactions to stress in our lives can we hope to manage stress and maintain good health.

Mental Well-Being

Emotional intelligence affects our attitude and outlook on life. It can also help to alleviate anxiety and avoid depression and mood swings. A high level of emotional intelligence directly correlates to a positive attitude and happier outlook on life.

Relationships

By better understanding and managing our emotions, we are better able to communicate our feelings in a more constructive way. We are also better able to understand and relate to those with whom we are in relationships. Understanding the needs, feelings, and responses of those we care about leads to stronger and more fulfilling relationships.

Conflict Resolution

When we can discern people’s emotions and empathize with their perspective, it’s much easier to resolve conflicts or possibly avoid them before they start. We are also better at negotiation due to the very nature of our ability to understand the needs and desires of others. It’s easier to give people what they want if we can perceive what it is.

Success

Higher emotional intelligence helps us to be stronger internal motivators, which can reduce procrastination, increase self-confidence, and improve our ability to focus on a goal. It also allows us to create better networks of support, overcome setbacks, and persevere with a more resilient outlook. Our ability to delay gratification and see the long-term directly affects our ability to succeed.

Leadership

The ability to understand what motivates others, relate in a positive manner, and to build stronger bonds with others in the workplace inevitably makes those with higher emotional intelligence better leaders. An effective leader can recognize what the needs of his people are, so that those needs can be met in a way that encourages higher performance and workplace satisfaction. An emotionally savvy and intelligent leader is also able to build stronger teams by strategically utilizing the emotional diversity of their team members to benefit the team as a whole.

Emotional intelligence is still not completely understood, but what we do know is that emotions play a very critical role in the overall quality of our personal and professional lives, more critical even than our actual measure of brain intelligence. While tools and technology can help us to learn and master information, nothing can replace our ability to learn, manage, and master our emotions and the emotions of those around us.

In statistics, a population is a set of similar items or events which is of interest for some question or experiment. A statistical population can be a group of existing objects (e.g. the set of all stars within the Milky Way galaxy) or a hypothetical and potentially infinite group of objects conceived as a generalization from experience (e.g. the set of all possible hands in a game of poker). A common aim of statistical analysis is to produce information about some chosen population.

In statistical inference, a subset of the population (a statistical sample) is chosen to represent the population in a statistical analysis. The ratio of the size of this statistical sample to the size of the population is called a sampling fraction. It is then possible to estimate the population parameters using the appropriate sample statistics.

In statistics, the term population is used to describe the subjects of a particular study—everything or everyone who is the subject of a statistical observation. Populations can be large or small in size and defined by any number of characteristics, though these groups are typically defined specifically rather than vaguely for instance, a population of women over 18 who buy coffee at Starbucks rather than a population of women over 18.

Statistical populations are used to observe behaviors, trends, and patterns in the way individuals in a defined group interact with the world around them, allowing statisticians to draw conclusions about the characteristics of the subjects of study, although these subjects are most often humans, animals, and plants, and even objects like stars.

Non-probability sampling is a sampling technique in which the researcher selects samples based on the subjective judgment of the researcher rather than random selection.

In non-probability sampling, not all members of the population have a chance of participating in the study unlike probability sampling, where each member of the population has a known chance of being selected.

Non-probability sampling is most useful for exploratory studies like pilot survey (a survey that is deployed to a smaller sample compared to pre-determined sample size). Non-probability sampling is used in studies where it is not possible to draw random probability sampling due to time or cost considerations.

Non-probability sampling is a less stringent method, this sampling method depends heavily on the expertise of the researchers. Non-probability sampling is carried out by methods of observation and is widely used in qualitative research.

Advantages of non-probability sampling

(i) Non-probability sampling is a more conducive and practical method for researchers deploying survey in the real world. Although statisticians prefer probability sampling because it yields data in the form of numbers. However, if done correctly, non-probability sampling can yield similar if not the same quality of results.

(ii) Getting responses using non-probability sampling is faster and more cost-effective as compared to probability sampling because sample is known to researcher, they are motivated to respond quickly as compared to people who are randomly selected. 

Disadvantages of non-probability sampling

(i) In non-probability sampling, researcher needs to think through potential reasons for biases.  It is important to have a sample that represents closely the population.

(ii) While choosing a sample in non-probability sampling, researchers need to be careful about recruits distorting data. At the end of the day, research is carried out to obtain meaningful insights and useful data.

When to use non-probability sampling?

• This type of sampling is used to indicate if a particular trait or characteristic exists in a population.
• This sampling technique is widely used when researchers aim at conducting qualitative research, pilot studies or exploratory research.
• Non-probability sampling is used when researchers have limited time to conduct researcher or have budget constraints.
• Non-probability sampling is conducted to observe if a particular issue needs in-depth analysis.

Types of non-probability sampling

Here are the types of non-probability sampling methods:

Convenience sampling:

Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling technique where samples are selected from the population only because they are conveniently available to the researcher. Researchers choose these samples just because they are easy to recruit, and the researcher did not consider selecting a sample that represents the entire population.
Ideally, in research, it is good to test a sample that represents the population. But, in some research, the population is too large to examine and consider the entire population. It is one of the reasons why researchers rely on convenience sampling, which is the most common non-probability sampling method, because of its speed, cost-effectiveness, and ease of availability of the sample.

Consecutive sampling:

This non-probability sampling method is very similar to convenience sampling, with a slight variation. Here, the researcher picks a single person or a group of a sample, conducts research over a period, analyzes the results, and then moves on to another subject or group if needed. Consecutive sampling technique gives the researcher a chance to work with many topics and fine-tune his/her research by collecting results that have vital insights.

Quota sampling:

Hypothetically consider, a researcher wants to study the career goals of male and female employees in an organization. There are 500 employees in the organization, also known as the population. To understand better about a population, the researcher will need only a sample, not the entire population. Further, the researcher is interested in particular strata within the population. Here is where quota sampling helps in dividing the population into strata or groups.

Judgmental or Purposive sampling:

In the judgmental sampling method, researchers select the samples based purely on the researcher’s knowledge and credibility. In other words, researchers choose only those people who they deem fit to participate in the research study. Judgmental or purposive sampling is not a scientific method of sampling, and the downside to this sampling technique is that the preconceived notions of a researcher can influence the results. Thus, this research technique involves a high amount of ambiguity.

Snowball sampling:

Snowball sampling helps researchers find a sample when they are difficult to locate. Researchers use this technique when the sample size is small and not easily available. This sampling system works like the referral program. Once the researchers find suitable subjects, he asks them for assistance to seek similar subjects to form a considerably good size sample.

A finite subset of the population, selected from it with the objective of investigating its properties is called a sample and the number of units in the sample is known as the sample size.

Sampling is a tool which enables us to draw conclusions about the characteristics of the population after studying only those objects or items that are included in the sample. The main objectives of the sampling theory are:

(i) To obtain the optimum results, i.e., the maximum information about the characteristics of the population with the available sources at our disposal in terms of time, money and manpower by studying the sample values only.

 (ii) To obtain the best possible estimates of the population parameters.

Some critical essentials of sampling include:

1. Representativeness: You must select the sample in a manner which represents the universe in its truest sense. Further, if you fail to do so, then you might get misleading results.
2. Adequacy: You should also select the size of the sample adequately which represents the parametric characteristics of the population.
3. Independence: When you select a sample, you must ensure that you select the items independently and also randomly.
4. Homogeneity: This is another important element of a sample investigation. Homogeneity means that there is no basic difference in the nature of the units in the sample and the universe.

Some important merits of sampling:

1. Cost-efficient: In a sample investigation, the costs associated with the collection of data are less. This is because you collect data only from a fractionof the entire population. Therefore, it is cost-efficient.
2. Time-efficient: In sampling, you require less time to collect, analyze, and interpret the data since you are working only on a fraction of the population. Hence, it is time-efficient too.
3. Reliable: Usually, the data collected under a sample investigation is reliable because of the use of well-trained and experienced investigators or experts.
4. Flexible: When you collect data through sampling, you have a greater scope of flexibility.
5. Detailed Information: Since sampling is cost-efficient and also time-efficient, you can collect detailed information about the sample in your survey.

Regression is a statistical measurement used in finance, investing and other disciplines that attempts to determine the strength of the relationship between one dependent variable (usually denoted by Y) and a series of other changing variables (known as independent variables).

Regression helps investment and financial managers to value assets and understand the relationships between variables, such as commodity prices and the stocks of businesses dealing in those commodities.

Regression Explained

The two basic types of regression are linear regression and multiple linear regressions, although there are non-linear regression methods for more complicated data and analysis. Linear regression uses one independent variable to explain or predict the outcome of the dependent variable Y, while multiple regressions use two or more independent variables to predict the outcome.

Regression can help finance and investment professionals as well as professionals in other businesses. Regression can also help predict sales for a company based on weather, previous sales, GDP growth or other types of conditions. The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is an often-used regression model in finance for pricing assets and discovering costs of capital.

The general form of each type of regression is:

• Linear regression: Y = a + bX + u
• Multiple regression: Y = a + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3 + … + btXt + u

Where:

Y = the variable that you are trying to predict (dependent variable).

X = the variable that you are using to predict Y (independent variable).

a = the intercept.

b = the slope.

u = the regression residual.

Regression takes a group of random variables, thought to be predicting Y, and tries to find a mathematical relationship between them. This relationship is typically in the form of a straight line (linear regression) that best approximates all the individual data points. In multiple regression, the separate variables are differentiated by using numbers with subscripts.

Assumptions in Regression

• Independence: The residuals are serially independent (no autocorrelation).
• The residuals are not correlated with any of the independent (predictor) variables.
• Linearity: The relationship between the dependent variable and each of the independent variables is linear.
• Mean of Residuals: The mean of the residuals is zero.
• Homogeneity of Variance: The variance of the residuals at all levels of the independent variables is constant.
• Errors in Variables: The independent (predictor) variables are measured without error.
• Model Specification: All relevant variables are included in the model. No irrelevant variables are included in the model.
• Normality: The residuals are normally distributed. This assumption is needed for valid tests of significance but not for estimation of the regression coefficients.

Regression Line

Definition: The Regression Line is the line that best fits the data, such that the overall distance from the line to the points (variable values) plotted on a graph is the smallest. In other words, a line used to minimize the squared deviations of predictions is called as the regression line.

There are as many numbers of regression lines as variables. Suppose we take two variables, say X and Y, then there will be two regression lines:

• Regression line of Y on X: This gives the most probable values of Y from the given values of X.
• Regression line of X on Y: This gives the most probable values of X from the given values of Y.

The algebraic expression of these regression lines is called as Regression Equations. There will be two regression equations for the two regression lines.

The correlation between the variables depend on the distance between these two regression lines, such as the nearer the regression lines to each other the higher is the degree of correlation, and the farther the regression lines to each other the lesser is the degree of correlation.

The correlation is said to be either perfect positive or perfect negative when the two regression lines coincide, i.e. only one line exists. In case, the variables are independent; then the correlation will be zero, and the lines of regression will be at right angles, i.e. parallel to the X axis and Y axis.

Note: The regression lines cut each other at the point of average of X and Y. This means, from the point where the lines intersect each other the perpendicular is drawn on the X axis we will get the mean value of X. Similarly, if the horizontal line is drawn on the Y axis we will get the mean value of Y.

Uses

Three major uses for regression analysis are

(1) Determining the strength of predictors

(2) Forecasting an effect

(3) Trend forecasting.

First, the regression might be used to identify the strength of the effect that the independent variable(s) have on a dependent variable. Typical questions are what is the strength of relationship between dose and effect, sales and marketing spending, or age and income.

Second, it can be used to forecast effects or impact of changes. That is, the regression analysis helps us to understand how much the dependent variable changes with a change in one or more independent variables.  A typical question is, “how much additional sales income do I get for each additional $1000 spent on marketing?”

Third, regression analysis predicts trends and future values. The regression analysis can be used to get point estimates.  A typical question is, “what will the price of gold be in 6 months?”