Devising and implementing a research strategy

Question 1

What is the first step to devising and implementing a research strategy?

Answer 1

Choosing a research topic

Question 2

What affects the choice of a research topic?

Answer 2

The researchers observations, interests and experiences.
Whether funding is available
Whether the research is practical or not
Whether ethical issues are raised
What is known and what isn’t known about the topic

Question 3

What is literature review(second step)?

Answer 3

Reviewing existing evidence. Finding out what is already known and looking at how the research was previously conducted.

Question 4

What is a hypothesis (third step)?

Answer 4

A theory or explanation at the start of the research that the research is designed to test

Question 5

What are the last two steps?

Answer 5

Deciding on a research method and implementing the research method

Question 6

What problems are faced when deciding on a research topic?

Answer 6

Foreseen practical problems such as finding respondents. It may be difficult to get funding

Question 7

What problems are faced when reviewing existing evidence?

Answer 7

It may be difficult to find existing evidence. The researcher may have to check many sources

Question 8

What is a possible problem when forming a hypothesis?

Answer 8

Making difficult decisions about the overall approach, such as what kinds of data are needed.

Question 9

What problems are faced when deciding on a research method?

Answer 9

The chosen method could give data that doesn’t prove or disprove the hypothesis. It may not fulfil the aim of the project

Question 10

What three issues affect the implementation of a research strategy?

Answer 10

Practical, ethical, theoretical

Question 11

What are the four ethical issues?

Answer 11

Harm, gaining informed consent, invasion of privacy, deception

Question 12

How could it be difficult to make sure participants aren’t harmed?

Answer 12

It is not easy to decide what harm means or to know in advance that harm will be caused

Question 13

How is informed consent gained?

Answer 13

Explaining the reasearch fully by outlining the purpose, where and when the findings will be available and what they might be used for.

Question 14

What are the problems with gaining informed consent?

Answer 14

It is unclear how much information needs to be given .

It can be time consuming and unecessary to explain everything

Question 15

What is anonymity

Answer 15

Making sure the name of the respondent, or anything else that could identify them, is not included in the survey form so that their identity is not revealed

Question 16

What is confidentiality?

Answer 16

Making sure it is impossible to trace the answers of an individual from the published findings

Question 17

What are practical issues

Answer 17

These are to do with time and money

Question 18

What are theoretical issues?

Answer 18

The approach taken by the researcher. Positivists would prefer methods yielding quantitative data while interpretivists prefer qualitative data

Question 19

What is a pilot study?

Answer 19

A small scale test of a part of the research project before the main research

Question 20

What are the advantages of pilot studies?

Answer 20

You can check for errors in the design of the research or

You can check if the research plan can be improved.

Correcting errors before the main research saves money, effort and time later

Question 21

What is sampling?

Answer 21

Selecting some people from the survey population and including them in the research

Question 22

What is the survey population?

Answer 22

The people that the research is about. A sample is taken from them and the findings will apply to them

Question 23

What is random sampling?

Answer 23

When everyone in the sampling frame has an equal chance of being selected

Question 24

What is stratified sampling?

Answer 24

When the sampling frame is divided by age, gender , ethicity etc

Question 25

What is quota sampling?

Answer 25

The researcher is sent out with instructions about who to choose. They look for specific characteristics

Question 26

What is snowball sampling?

Answer 26

When one respondent gets the researcher in touch with other respondents