RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN SPORT SCIENCES Pongrác ÁCS

238 Pages·2015·24.57 MB·English

University of Pécs, Faculty of Health Sciences
Institute of Physiotherapy and Sport Science

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN
SPORT SCIENCES

Pongrác ÁCS
Pécs, 2015

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN SPORT SCIENCES
Author & editor: Dr. Pongrác Ács

PUBLISHED BY
UNIVERSITY OF PÉCS
FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

The first edition was reviewed by
Dr. habil. Erzsébet Rétsági
Dr. Sándor Herman
Dr. habil. Gábor Rappai

The second, extended edition was reviewed by
Dr. habil Ferenc Ihász

Cover design and technical support by
Gábor Varga

Translated by
Kata Füge

Second, extended edition

ISBN 978-963-642-971-3

The manual has been produced in the framework
of a project registered as TÁMOP-4.1.2. E-
15/1/KONV-2015-0003
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD ....................................................................................................................... 7
1. SCIENCE, THE PLACE OF SPORT SCIENCES WITHIN THE SYSTEM OF
SCIENCES ......................................................................................................................... 11
1.1 DEVELOPMENT OF SPORT SCIENCE .............................................................................. 15
1.2. RESEARCH IN SPORT SCIENCE ..................................................................................... 20
1.2.1. Basic model of scientific research ..................................................................... 22
2. STRUCTURE AND PROCESS OF RESEARCH IN SPORT SCIENCE, BASED
ON THE RESEARCH PLAN ........................................................................................... 25
2.1. CHOICE OF THE RESEARCH TOPIC ............................................................................... 26
2.2. ANALYSING THE LITERATURE ON THE TOPIC. ............................................................. 27
2.2.1. Preparation of the reference list ........................................................................ 30
2.3. FORMULATING THE MAIN RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ..................................................... 39
2.4. CHOOSING THE RESEARCH METHODS AND TOOLS TO ENSURE THE VERIFICATION OR
REJECTION OF THE HYPOTHESES ........................................................................................ 41
2.5. DEFINITION OF THE RESEARCH SAMPLE (BASED ON PINTÉR, RAPPAI, HERMAN, RÉDEI)
......................................................................................................................................... 54
2.6. EXECUTION OF THE RESEARCH ................................................................................... 57
2.7. DATA ANALYSIS AND FORMULATING GENERAL STATEMENTS .................................... 60
2.7.1. Basic statistical concepts and scales ................................................................. 61
2.7.2. Descriptive statistical analysis .......................................................................... 63
2.7.2.1. Ratios .......................................................................................................... 64
2.7.2.2. Information summary using measures of central tendency (arithmetic mean,
mode, median) ......................................................................................................... 66
2.7.2.3. Variability and symmetry ........................................................................... 81
2.7.2.4. Tools for data visualisation ......................................................................... 91
2.7.3. Analyzing two-variable relationships .............................................................. 105
2.7.3.1. Association analysis .................................................................................. 107
2.7.3.2. Mixed association ..................................................................................... 127
2.7.3.3. Correlation analysis .................................................................................. 134
2.7.3.4. Two-variable linear regression ................................................................. 140
2.7.4. Inferential statistical methods .......................................................................... 146
2.7.4.1. Statistical estimations ............................................................................... 149
2.7.4.2. Hypothesis testing ..................................................................................... 158
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3. MULTIPLE VARIABLE METHODS ....................................................................... 186
3.1. FACTOR ANALYSIS ................................................................................................... 193
3.2. CLUSTER ANALYSIS .................................................................................................. 202
3.3. CORRESPONDENCE ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 209
3.4. DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS ......................................................................................... 212
4. PUBLICATION AND PRESENTATION OF RESULTS AND RESEARCH
REPORTS ......................................................................................................................... 223
5. APPENDIX (TABLES)................................................................................................ 229
5.1. STANDARD NORMAL DISTRIBUTION .......................................................................... 230
5.2. STUDENT’S T-DISTRIBUTION ..................................................................................... 231
5.3. Κ2-DISTRIBUTION ...................................................................................................... 232
5.4. F-DISTRIBUTION ....................................................................................................... 233
6. SOURCES ..................................................................................................................... 235

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FOREWORD
All of the Hungarian higher education institutions at the field of sport have been
considering the course ’Introduction to research in sport sciences’ as highly important for
several years now. The course was taught since the early 1940’s at the predecessor of
Semmelweis University Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences as ’Basics of
scientific research’, and has the prospect of being continuously taught at the University of
Physical Education. The course became even more important during recent years: as the
Bologna-process changed the Hungarian highed education scene the course became an
obligatory, basic subject in every Hungarian institution teaching sport sciences. It is
included in the curriculum of the P.E. Teacher and Coach-, the Sport Management-, and
the Recreation programs, both at the bachelor and master levels, and it will also be
essential in case of the BSc- and MSc programs to be organised according to the new
government decree on the vocational qualifications’ register. We expect research- and
leadership aspects are going to be gain special importance within the framework of MSc-
training, where this type of knowledge is essential.
The importance of research in sport sciences is higlighted as sports are becoming more and
more performance-focused, as no results can be achieved in international competitive
sports without applying the scientific results.Besides, as people dispose of more free time,
theoretical and practical applications of research on healthy living are becoming important
as well.
It is evident that various sport results are an infinite mine for researchers, as well as for the
sports’ active participants, competitors, trainers and managers alike. As there is such
abundant data source available, the information provided by all this data should be
examined and analysed, with the results and conclusions published.
We may state that the Hungarian government has been treating sport as a strategic sector in
the past four years, initiating major changes in the social, legal and economical
environment of sport. Good examples for this are the introduction of daily P.E. lessons in
schools, and the new system of corporate income tax, which changed the sport financing
scene fundamentally. These measures have multiplicative factors in the sector.
It was in 2008, that inspired by all the abovementioned facts we considered for the first
time the importance of writing a coursebook that – apart from the theoretical basics of
research methodology – would provide practical aid for students to prepare their scientific
works. In these past years we experienced the role and benefits of the book in practical
education, and we also realised what the most challenging issues for students are. These
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experiences and also the major changes that took place with softwares most often used in
statistical data analysis (Excel, SPSS) provided a good reason to edit and extend the
coursebook we compiled in 2008. Including requests from students, we wrote a completely
new workbook, whichis useful for practice and checking the level of knowledge. We
prepared the second, extended edition of the coursebook by using IBM SPSS version 22,
and Microsoft Excel 2010.
Divided into two main parts, the book includes the complete list of topics covered by the
BSc and MSc training in sport sciences research, and it may also be useful for students at
PhD programs. Furthermore, it could also be useful for students at other scientific fields
who must carry out their own research. The material of the book starts from simple
methodological topics and ends with more complex ones, thus it is easy to understand and
practice with. Our aim was to build a structure for the book where the particular methods
are built upon each other, so that even those readers, who are only starting to learn about
scientific research may learn new, hands-on knowledge. Our textbook, containingreal-life
examples provide good source of knowledge also for experts of the field.
Backed up by student feedback, we believe that the structure of the book written in 2008 to
be well-planned, consequently we did not undertake any further changes so we did not
change that significantly. We found it important to reduce the number of databases
included in the first book instead, the aim was to use real-life databases as much as
possible, and to use a minimum number of real-life databases as examples. Thus in the first
part of the book we used a database compiled of data gained from university student
population collected by the Hungarian School Sport Federation, on the basis of fitness tests
modelled for primary school student sample. We believe it is important to demonstrate
statistical methods on a database which is easily accessible for everybody and is defined by
standard measurements. Thus experts may practice these statistical methods based on their
own calculations as well.
We provide a frame for the book by introducing the definitions and structure of science
and sports sciences in the first chapter of the book. We describe how sport sciences became
a science, provide details about its history and also about the basic models of sport sciences
research.
In the first part of the second chapter we describe the preparation of the research plan, and
illustrate topic choice, literature review, research hypotheses, designating research sample
and other tools to complete the research itself. In this we strongly build on our experience
in teaching, thus we emphasise the appropriate methods of preparing reference lists, one
issue that seems to present particular challenge for current university and college students.
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By describing research tools we provide detailed information about how to edit surveys,
using up-to-date examples from sport.
In the second part of this chapter we discuss data processing and statistics in detail, trying
to provide a peak into the complex world of descriptive-, inferential-, and multivariate
statistical analysis.
Developments in informational technology and the extended use of PC-s in everyday life
mean that besides the traditional statistical calculations with pen on paper we have to
demonstrate measurement, description and modelling of mass phenomena by computer
softwares (SPSS, Excel) that are popular in scientific research. At the examples we are
expect basic Excel user’s knowledge from readers – this should be no problem as the
software is introduced to students in primary school, and also it is available for every
university student.
At the end of the chapter we provide suggestions for the publication and presentation
recent scientific results.
We aimed to find a good balance between theory and practice throughout the whole book.
We tried to make theoretical sections more understandable by using real-life sport
examples and databases that we published already. Unlike our first book, there is no DVD
attached to this extended edition, as the book, the databases and the electronic workbook as
well are free for download from the website of University of Pécs, Faculty of Health
Sciences (www. etk.pte.hu).
I would like to thank László Harsányi†, Gyöngyvér Prisztóka, Zsuzsanna Pótó and Dániel
Kehl for their advices, suggestions and useful tips during the writing of the first book.
Many other colleagues helped me during the preparation of the second edition, for which I
am incredibly grateful. I would like to thank the support and professional help in particular
for József Betlehem, András Oláh, Bence Cselik and Gábor Varga.
I am grateful for my colleagues for their support and inspiration to edit and extend this
book, and I am also particularly thankful for the students for their feedback on ways for
improvement. I thank the precise reviewing work of Sándor Herman, Gábor Rappai,
Erzsébet Rétsági, and Ferenc Ihász, who drew my attention to certain shortcomings of the
book – by correcting these the material improved significantly.
I would like to dedicate this coursebook to Dr. Ferenc Farkas, a teacher whose support I
enjoyed throughout my years in active sport and at the university alike.
I would like to invite my colleagues and students alike to help upgrading and actualising
this work with their comments and suggestions, providing me with the opportunity to
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