Qualitative Research Methods
Exam Review
Course Introduction
Qualitative Research Methods explores the principles and practices of qualitative inquiry in the social sciences. The course covers key methodologies such as interviews, participant observation, focus groups, case studies, and content analysis, emphasizing how to collect, analyze, and interpret non-numerical data. Students will learn to design ethical research projects, develop research questions, and employ various strategies for coding and thematic analysis. By engaging with real-world examples and hands-on exercises, learners will gain practical skills for understanding complex social phenomena and effectively communicating their findings.
Recommended Textbook
Practical Research Planning and Design 12th Edition by Paul D. Leedy
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13 Chapters
274 Verified Questions
274 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: The Nature and Tools of Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is true regarding the nature of descriptive and inferential statistics?
A)Descriptive statistics help us to describe the characteristics of data while inferential statistics help us to make decisions about data.
B)Inferential statistics help us to describe the characteristics of data while descriptive statistics help us to make decisions about data.
C)Descriptive statistics help us to determine causation from correlation.
D)Inferential statistics help us to describe the shape of a set of data.
Answer: A
Q2) The philosophical assumption that objective scientific research can uncover true cause-and-effect relationships in the world is known as:
A)postpositivism.
B)positivism.
C)experimentation.
D)realism.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: The Problem: the Heart of the Research Process
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Sample Questions
Q1) "What is the correlation between an index of civic-mindedness and years of involvement in local organizations and charities among members of city councils of selected midsized cities in the northeastern United States?" The chief weakness of this research problem is that:
A)it implies only description of the data,not interpretation.
B)it does not lead to the creation/discovery of new information.
C)it lacks clarity or completeness in the problem statement.
D)studying the question as stated is not feasible.
Answer: A
Q2) Lucy examined relationships between middle-school students' self-esteem and their performance in Mathematics.Her data analysis indicated that students with higher self-esteem perform better than those with lower self-esteem.Her investigation further revealed that students with higher self-esteem are more willing to invest effort in solving Math problems.In this case,the amount of effort is:
A)an independent variable.
B)a dependent variable.
C)a mediating variable.
D)a moderating variable.
Answer: C
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Review of the Related Literature
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Sample Questions
Q1) Many online documents posted since the year 2000 have a unique,permanent number that enables others to find a document again even if its location on the Internet has changed.This number is known as a ________.
A)library call number
B)Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
C)key word
D)Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
Answer: B
Q2) Shar has read only about 20 refereed articles that relate to her primary research topic,but she's finding that they tend to focus on the same basic patterns and arguments.Her best plan of action at this point is to:
A)stop reading; it's time to bring the literature review to a close.
B)reconsider her search terms and look more broadly for additional research articles.
C)search for non-refereed articles that may contain useful information.
D)email the authors of the articles she's found and ask for additional sources.
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Planning Your Research Project
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Sample Questions
Q1) An interval scale of measurement:
A)assigns a name to a category.
B)communicates rank-order information.
C)incorporates equal units of measurement.
D)is tied to an absolute zero.
Q2) Professor Parsnip wants to know more about the mental process students go through as they learn about research methods.She also wants to know which instructional methods are most effective for teaching research methods to her students.Assume that Professor Parsnip decides to take a quantitative approach to studying these questions.State a specific research question related to her general research problem that lends itself well to a quantitative research approach.Then explain why your question is better addressed using a quantitative,rather than a qualitative,methodology.
Q3) The requirement to keep information provided by research participants confidential applies:
A)to legal minors (children under the age of 18),but not adults.
B)only in cases where it is specifically requested by the participant.
C)to all persons under almost all conditions.
D)only in cases where participants divulge information that is potentially illegal.
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Writing the Research Proposal
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Sample Questions
Q1) Experienced writers of research proposals typically:
A)plan to make revisions to the first draft of the proposal.
B)do not need to make revisions to the first draft of the proposal.
C)make revisions to the first draft of the proposal only if they are requested by a reviewer.
D)may need to edit the first draft of the proposal for typos,but not content.
Q2) According to the authors,the most effective research proposals:
A)are a brief outline of the study you intend to conduct without an excess of detail.
B)justify the study to be conducted by explaining how it will contribute to the professional literature.
C)are detailed and straightforward explanations of the research problem and methodology.
D)include an autobiographical section that explains how the researcher became interested in the research topic.
Q3) In regard to quantitative research proposals,novice researchers often find it very challenging and tedious to explain in detail how the data will be analyzed and interpreted in their study.Explain why it is essential that the researcher not cut corners in this section of the proposal.
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Chapter 6: Descriptive Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Advantages of questionnaires include all of the following EXCEPT:
A)large numbers of people can be contacted for a relatively low cost.
B)data can be gathered from a large number of people in a relatively short period of time.
C)participants may feel more confident about their anonymity and therefore respond more honestly.
D)because questions are in written form,they are less likely to be misunderstood by respondents.
Q2) Simon Cinema wants to know what the audience thought of tonight's advanced screening of a heralded psychological thriller called "I Can't Sleep." He and his research assistants stand outside the theatre exit and ask every fifth person leaving the theatre to answer several questions about their impression of the movie.Simon is using:
A)systematic sampling.
B)stratified random sampling.
C)convenience sampling.
D)purposive sampling.
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Chapter 7: Experimental, quasi-Experimental, and Ex Post Facto Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) PJ conducts an experimental study on the effects of soft music during high stakes science testing.He randomly assigns students at the school.In one condition he does not provide music for testing while in the other group he does provide the music.He administers a pretest at the beginning of the year and a posttest at the end of the year.PJ's design is best described as a:
A)Static group comparison
B)Pretest-posttest control group design
C)Control-group-time-series design
D)Nonrandomized control-group pretest-posttest design
Q2) Millie is using a behavior checklist strategy as well as a prompted praise strategy when working with her second grade behavior disordered student,Kent.She uses both strategies within the same day going back and forth randomly between the two approaches,while recording his on-task behavior.Which of the following designs is Millie employing?
A)Multiple baseline
B)Alternating-treatments
C)Control group time series
D)Static group comparison
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Chapter 8: Qualitative Research Methods
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Sample Questions
Q1) Helen Heartwell flew to New York City a few weeks after the September 11,2001,bombing of the World Trade Center.She wanted to know how the victims of the attack were making sense of what had happened to them.Dr.Heartwell is probably employing which of the following qualitative research designs?
A)case study
B)grounded theory
C)phenomenological
D)ethnographic
Q2) Qualitative researchers can best address concerns about validity in their study design and their data by:
A)collecting some quantitative data.
B)ensuring that all participants provide informed consent.
C)use one objective,reliable method for collecting data.
D)comparing different data sources to see if they provide consistent results.
Q3) A fundamental pitfall in qualitative research is to confuse the actual observations with the interpretation of the observations.Why is it important that these two things remain distinctly separate?
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Chapter 9: Mixed-Methods Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) Mixed-methods researchers should ask themselves,"Are the quantitative and qualitative data equally relevant to the same or related topics and research question(s)?" This question is most useful to help the researcher evaluate:
A)the validity of the study.
B)the purpose of the study.
C)the type of analysis to be used in the study.
D)the conclusions drawn as a result of the study.
Q2) Which action best describes the final activity in any mixed methods study?
A)conducting a thorough literature review
B)calculating statistics from the quantitative data
C)analyze and interpret all data
D)refining the research question to match the data collected
Q3) Mixed-methods research that has more than one phase usually employs which type of sampling method?
A)stratified random
B)purposive
C)probability
D)systematic
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Chapter 10: Action Research and Participatory Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe potential reasons that action research may be more appealing to practitioners than traditional quantitative or qualitative research.
Q2) This form of action research is used extensively in the field of community health research as it employs a collaborative,partnership approach to conducting research.
A)Community-Based Participatory Research
B)Community-Based Qualitative Research
C)Participatory Action Research
D)Design-Based Research
Q3) A form of coding common in action research that involves a group effort where members may individually code pieces of data and then come together to generate and decide on a list of common codes that can be used to code other data is known as:
A)open coding
B)axial coding
C)iterative coding
D)collective coding
Q4) Explain what is meant by the following statement: "Data collection in action research is iterative."
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Chapter 11: Analyzing Quantitative Data
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Sample Questions
Q1) A medical researcher is concerned about mistakenly concluding that a new medication is effective when it really is not.What type of error is the researcher concerned about making (Type I or Type II)? Describe what the researcher might do to decrease the likelihood of making that type of error.Discuss ramifications of your suggested approach for other types of error in the study.
Q2) The measure(s)of central tendency that is/are appropriate for use with nominal data is/are:
A)the median only.
B)the mode only.
C)the median and the mean.
D)the median and the mode.
Q3) Seamus has determined that there is a 95% chance that the number of people visiting the Blarney Stone in the month of June will be between 1,760 and 2,025.This is:
A)a point estimate.
B)an interval estimate.
C)a high percentile rank.
D)a strong correlation.
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Chapter 12: Analyzing Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Data
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is not a general strategy for organizing and analyzing qualitative data?
A)Convert the data into one or more forms that will be easy to organize and analyze.
B)Organize the data in a preliminary,superficial way that will enable you to locate them easily as you proceed.
C)Identify preliminary categories that are likely to be helpful in coding the data.
D)Avoid organizing the data so that valuable information isn't lost in sorting.
Q2) Ethnographers often conduct a(n)________ in order to identify certain cultural patterns that can guide further data collection and analyses.
A)domain analysis
B)cultural domain
C)data analysis
D)open coding process
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Chapter 13: Planning and Preparing a Final Research Report
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Sample Questions
Q1) As part of her graduate work,Liana conducted an ethnographic study,which included several participant observers - undergraduate students who received course credit for their participation across a full semester.Liana is unsure whether to include the students as co-authors on a conference proposal she is submitting,in which she summarizes the main findings of the study.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her?
A)Include them,because their participant observation required substantial intellectual contribution to the project.
B)Do not include them,because they received course credit for their participation.
C)Only include the students whose observations were used to support the conclusions you drew.
D)Include them for the conference presentation but not a later journal article,because journals have more rigid rules about shared authorship.
Q2) One of the main objectives of a research report is to make a case for why the research problem deserves an in depth study.What are some of the reasons why this should be done early in the research report?
Q3) Describe the difference between a table and a figure.
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