Ok, guys. I *think* I know how it works now.
I've just revised a few sources regarding Likert scale and the Steven's scale of measurement. I've transferred all the necessary parts from the questionnaire in a form of a variable on SPSS.
However, something concerns me; is it normal to have almost 30 variables to be analyzed? :$

Hello Hazyjane,

Thank you for the reply.

Yes, 90% of them are numbers on a scale; likert scale. I think another 10% would be free text.

I'm aware of SPSS and Statistics; it's just that I'm not sure how to transfer all the collected data and put it into a manageable form for analysis.

Do you have any links that you could share with me? especially the "continuous variable" part.

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Just met my supervisor and according to them, the statisticians said that my questionnaire is ok and I can proceed with them.

I have done some pilot study with the questionnaire by collecting data from some pilot sample. When I looked at the collected data, I got massive headaches on how to analyse them :$

How do I go about doing it? Is there a technique on how to transfer those data and analyse them? Is there a matrix of some sort that I could sort the data in a category, and start from there?

Thank you so much :-(

I contacted some of the authors that wrote the papers I read, some of them replied that they are not doing the research anymore, or it's too long ago (some of the papers are in the 90s). Why is that? Why won't they continue the research? It's not like the problem has been solved.

One of them did mention that he had to do more admin work than research and the other one said that he's in a new field - is this the norm in academic research?

Could anyone share any light into this?

What are we actually? Some of us don't go to classes, learning is done by everyone, not only students, we try to discover or invent something new, which a student doesn't do, some of us actually "teach" our supervisors once we reached a certain year, etc.

So... where do we fall?

@Pikirkool

Great answers!

Now, here's a rebuttal:
"So, it's a multidisciplinary field; I think this multidisciplinary fields you'll be covering are too big for your research"/
"It's too big for a PhD work"

others;

"Although you have explained the core areas you'll be covering, I still think you're more leaning on field X/Y/Z, and not your actual field R; your PhD is in R, so you should do something related to R."

A completely different and harder(est) question;

"It's not enough for a PhD work" / "this work is good for MSc level. not PhD."

@DocInsanity

All of the questions (even on this post) could be during a proposal presentation or even the viva (eek!)
lol. yeah. never BS them! (wait, is that a good advice even?)

@Noctu

Thanks for the answers!

I know right! When in front of these people, suddenly, everything changes. Sometimes even the simplest question couldn't be answered nicely : /

But I posted this post to calm my nerves down; I really want to see how other PhD students handle the questions.

Would love to hear you respond to the newer questions! : )

What would your answer be if the panel asked you,
"Is there a need to do this, since some other solutions are already available?"

"How do you know it's going to work?"

or the harder,

"I can't see what you're trying to do"

or

"I don't think it will work"

or

"Is this even your field?"

How do you handle such questions? : (

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Hello Natassia and KB,

KB,
Enough data, as in how much? How do you know you've reached the required (quantity?quality?analysis? etc) data?
Well, that's the thing; I don't know the meaning of 'not up to the standard of the PhD level'.

Natassia,
What is the 'standard' of an MPhil?

What does it mean by not enough for a PhD work/Qualification, it's more to an MPhil or MSc (Research)?

I read some cases where the candidate is given an MPhil after the end of their journey because their work i not 'substantial enough', what does this mean? how do we avoid it?

: /

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======= Date Modified 22 Oct 2012 13:05:15 =======
I have on online example here: http://www.infoq.com/presentations/liskov-power-of-abstraction
Look at 1:04:20.

Well, basically, the speaker is lovely (she's very sweet). During this time slot someone asked her a question and, well, look at 1:04:15.
He agreed on something, then he went to the thing that he didn't agree and went on to state the "has a PhD on it". You could hear some people giggled when he made the statement; not as loud as some of the other prior jokes, and after jokes, but some people did so it's not a hostile 'statement' to be making.

What do you think?

I think he was making a point that he's research is in that particular domain, however, would the way he puts it raises some eyebrows?