Introduction

Question 1

To be able to compare methodological approaches with one another and to be able to evaluate the extent to which studies using these approaches have met their own objectives. The text asks three questions throughout the text. What are these three questions?

Answer 1

Question one: what kind of knowledge does the methodology aim to produce?

Question two: what kind of assumptions does the methodology make about the world?

Question three? How does the methodology conceptualise the role of the researcher in the research process?

Question 2

One epistemological position is positivism positivism suggest what?

Answer 2

Positivism suggest that there is a straightforward relationship between the world (objects, events, phenomena) and our perception and our understanding of it.

Question 3

Positivists believe that it is possible to describe..

Answer 3

What is out there and to get it right.

Question 4

The positivists position is also referred to as the correspondence theory of truth. Why is this?

Answer 4

Because it suggests that phenomenon directly determine our perception of them and that there is therefore a direct correspondence between things and their representation.

Question 5

A positivist epistemology implies that the goal of research is what?

Answer 5

Is to produce objective knowledge that is understanding that is impartial and unbiased based on a view from the outside without personal involvement or vested interest on the part of the researcher.

Question 6

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of?

Answer 6

Knowledge

Question 7

Epistemology attempts to provide answers to the question?

Answer 7

How, and what can we know?

Question 8

Epistemology involves thinking about the nature of knowledge itself about its…?

Answer 8

About its scope, and about the validity and reliability of claims to knowledge.

Question 9

True or false empiricism is closely related to positivism?

Answer 9

True

Question 10

Empiricism is based on the assumption that our knowledge of the world must be derived from what?

Answer 10

The facts of experience

Question 11

According to empiricism, what provides the basis for knowledge acquisition and how does knowledge acquisition proceed?

Answer 11

Sense perception provides the basis for knowledge acquisition, which proceeds through the systematic collection and classification of observations. These include experiments

Question 12

In terms of mainstream experimental psychology, what position is now considered the most influential alternative to empiricism and positivism?

Answer 12

Hypothetico-deductivism

Question 13

What is the purpose of the hypothetico-deductive method?

Answer 13

Theories are tested by deriving hypothesis from them. They can be tested in practice by experimentation or observation. The aim of the research is to put a theory’s claims to the test to either reject the theory or retain it for the time being. Thus, rather than looking for evidence that confirms the theory’s claims, hypothetico-deductivism works by looking for disconfirmation or falsification. In this way we can find out what which claims are not true and by a process of elimination of claims we move closer to the truth.

Question 14

True or false Poppers, hypothetico-deductivism is considered the scientific method?

Answer 14

True

Question 15

The critique of hypothetico-deductivism includes what following charges?

Answer 15

1: does not provide sufficient space for the theory development
2: is elitist
3: is a myth.

Question 16

Why is hypothetico-deductivism considered elitist?

Answer 16

Since it works with existing theories and relies upon deduction from existing systems of thought, it excludes those people who are not familiar with such theories and systems from its practice. The method encourages the formation of communities of scientist and researches who test their own and each other theories. For the outsider or novice, it is difficult if not impossible to contribute to knowledge generation if knowledge is defined as a rejection or retention of existing theories.

Question 17

True or false, in recent years social constructionism has become an increasingly influential approach

Answer 17

True

Question 18

Social constructionism draws attention to the fact that human experience including perception is mediated by what?

Answer 18

Is mediated historically culturally linguistically.

Question 19

According to social constructionism what we perceive and experience is never a direct reflection of environmental conditions but the must be understood as?

Answer 19

Must be understood as a specific reading of these conditions.

Question 20

Social constructionism suggest that there are )A) knowledges or (B) knowledge?

Answer 20

A knowledges.

Question 21

Why is language an important aspects of socially constructed knowledge?

Answer 21

This is because the same phenomenon or event can be described in different ways, giving rise to different ways of perceiving and understanding it, yet neither way of describing it unnecessarily wrong. An obvious example of this is a choice between describing a glass of water as half full or half empty.

Question 22

Research for a social constructionist perspective is concerned with identifying?

Answer 22

Concerned with identifying the various ways of constructing social reality that are available in a culture, to explore the conditions of their use, and to trace their implications for human experience and social practice.

Question 23

Qualitative researchers tend to be concerned with meaning that is they are interested in?

Answer 23

They are interested in how people make sense of the world and how they experience events.

Question 24

True or false qualitative researchers are concerned with the identification of cause-effect relationships?

Answer 24

False

Question 25

True or false qualitative researchers tend to be concerned with the quality and texture of experience?

Answer 25

True

Question 26

True or false qualitative researchers tend to work with variables that are defined by the researcher before the research process begins?

Answer 26

False

Question 27

Explain why qualitative researchers do not work with variables that are defined by the researcher before the research process begins?

Answer 27

This is because qualitative researchers are interested in the meanings attributed to events by the research participants themselves. Using preconceived variables lead to the imposition of the researcher meanings and it would preclude the identification of respondents own ways of making sense of the phenomenon under investigation.

Question 28

Kidder & Fine 1987 distinguish between two meanings of qualitative research, big Q and little Q. What is meant by big Q?

Answer 28

Big Q refers to open ended inductive research methodologies that are concerned with theory generation and the exploration of meanings.

Question 29

Kidder & Fine 1987 distinguish between two meanings of qualitative research, big Q and little Q. What is meant by little q?

Answer 29

Little Q refers to the incorporation of non-numerical data collection techniques into hypothetical deductive research designs. For example researchers may include an open ended question in an otherwise force choice questionnaire and then use content analysis to score the qualitative material.