Research exam deck 2

Question 1

For the sake of testability, a good theory must: (4 points)

Answer 1

• a good theory must explain established observations
• it needs to be able to explain and predict new observations
• the more facts it explains, the better
• it should be as simple as possible

Question 2

Popper’s idea about theory?

Answer 2

you can never prove a theory, but you can falsify it

(a good theory is a theory that can be falsified, but has not yet been falsified

Question 3

What are the basic elements of a theory

Answer 3

has assumptions and conditions, and statements about the relation of variables

Question 4

What type of reasoning is deductive logic?

Answer 4

“top down”

hypothesis –> observations –> accept or reject hypothesis

possibilities to reach a specific, logical conclusion

aims at testing a specific theory

Question 5

What type of reasoning is inductive knowledge?

Answer 5

broad generalizations from specific observations

aims at developing a theory

observations –> finding a pattern –> conclusion

Question 6

What is the research process?

Answer 6

research problem –> literature review –> hypothesis framework –> data collection –> data processing –> results and interpretation

then, you either prove or reject the hypothesis or develop a new hypothesis

you may go back and forth if you reject a hypothesis or develop a new one

different researchers have different starting points and may spend different portions of time in each step

Question 7

What is evidence based practice?

Answer 7

• the process in which practitioners make practice decisions in light of the best research evidence
• based on scientific method
• encourages practitioners to integrate scientific evidence with their practice experience
• includes the evaluation, the outcomes of practice decisions, and consequences of practice action

Question 8

What are the issues of theory based practice?

Answer 8

• some theories are only hypotheses that are not fully tested
• some theories are tested in different circumstances rather than the specific conditions of practice

Question 9

What is the idiographic model?

Answer 9

describes the effort to understand the meaning of contingent, accidental, and often subjective phenomena

describes the study of the individual, who is seen as an entity, with properties setting him/her apart from other individuals

Question 10

What is the nomothetic model?

Answer 10

describes the effort to derive laws that explain objective phenomena

studies a cohort of individuals. subjects are seen as representing a class or population and their corresponding personality, traits, and behaviours

based on probability theory and statistics

Question 11

What are the differences between qualitative and quantitative research?

Answer 11

• qualitative analyzes words
• quantitative analyzes numbers
• quantitative research often needs a hypothesis
• in qualitative, a hypothesis is not needed to begin research
• in qualitative, the researcher can learn the most about a situation by participating and/or being immersed in it
• in quantitative research, the researcher is ideally an objective observer that neither participates in nor influences what is being studied

Question 12

What are the ontological categories of qualitative research?

Answer 12

singular–exploration–qualitative studies–interpretivism–rich, deep–understanding

Question 13

What are the ontological categories of quantitative research?

Answer 13

universal–generalization–quantitative studies–positivism–observable, replicable–objective knowledge

Question 14

What does pragmatic philosophy say about mixed methods of qualitative and quantitive methods?

Answer 14

the two paradigms are neither mutually exclusive nor interchangeable, but the relationship between them is just a continuum of scientific inquiry

Question 15

No research method is intrinsically superior over the others… What is the reason for methodological pluralism? (3 points)

Answer 15

by integration of two methods, the advantages of both the two sides can be utilized to generate best desired results

• qualitative method can help quantitative study in building the framework, data collecting, or interpreting results
• quantitative data can help with the qualitative side of study during design by finding a representative sample and locating deviant samples

Question 16

What are ethics

Answer 16

a major branch of philosophy that deals with values or customs of a group or individual. it addresses the concepts of right or wrong, good and evil, and responsibility

can be distinction between religions or political ideology

morality and ethics in day to day life is a matter of agreement upon members in a group. different groups may have different code of conducts. something ethical in one culture, may be unethical in another. individuals from the same group can have different ethical standards

common ground allows for communication

Question 17

What does Kant say about morality?

Answer 17

Good motivation is more important to morality than good consequences

has deep influences in moral philosophy and criminal justice

Question 18

What are social work values?

Answer 18

• respect for person
• self determination
• commitment to promote social justice
• professional integrity

Question 19

What is justice?

Answer 19

• concept of moral righteousness based on ethics, law, religion
• answers to what justice is depends on values and ethical positions. positions are subjective in nature

Question 20

What is Rawl’s theory of justice?

Answer 20

when the decision makers are selecting the principles for distribution of rights, positions, and resources, in society they live in, “the veil of ignorance” which prevents them from knowing about who they will be in society
-in these hypothetical conditions, justice can be achieved because people are detached from social positions and political prejudice

Question 21

In research, why must experimental participation be voluntary?

Answer 21

Because:

• participation in research disrupts the regular activities of the subject
• participation in research reveals their personal information

Question 22

What must all research participants be aware of?

Answer 22

• they are participating in a study
• all the consequences of the study
• their consent to participate in it
• a consent form must be provided

Question 23

norm of voluntary participation is far easier to accept in theory than to apply to practice… what types of harm must be avoided?

Answer 23

• you must never physically injure a participant

- never psychologically harm a participant

Question 24

when does a participant have anonymity?

Answer 24

a respondent has anonymity when the researcher cannot identify a given response with a given participant

Question 25

what are the advantages and disadvantages of anonymity?

Answer 25

advantages: protects the participants, more accurate responses
disadvantages: difficulty and high costs, interview surveys cannot be anonymous

Question 26

what is confidentality?

Answer 26

when the researcher is able to identify a participant’s results but promises not to do so publically

Question 27

What are measures to ensure confidentiality?

Answer 27

• names and addresses are not recorded during the interview

- all names and addresses are removed from the database and replaced by numbers

Question 28

What are the obligations of researchers?

Answer 28

-they have the obligation to inform the participants of the study design, data collection, sampling, techniques used, as well as shortcomings, limitations, and failures of the study

Question 29

What is the stance on negative findings?

Answer 29

• negative findings should be reported as they are just important
• people may not report negative findings due to beliefs, personal biases, reputations, financial report

Question 30

How do we prevent reports based on fake or incomplete evidence being published in science journals?

Answer 30

• results must be open and repeatable

- ensuring ethics in the profession

Question 31

What is the Buckingham study?

Answer 31

-pretended to be a cancer patient to study the advantages of hospice care over hospital care

Question 32

What is the Milgram experiment?

Answer 32

The Milgram experiment(s) on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments. They measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. The experiment found, unexpectedly, that a very high proportion of subjects would fully obey the instructions, albeit reluctantly. Participants who were administering the shocks were psychologically harmed in hearing the screams of the actors.
One of the fundamental problems involves the existence of free will

Question 33

What is the Principle of Alternative Possibilities?

Answer 33

• a popular approach of moral standards
• “a person is morally responsible for what she has done only if she could have done otherwise”
• there is an epistemic condition of responsibility

Question 34

Any research project involving human subjects and animals needs to be approved by the ethic committee

Question 35

what is culture?

Answer 35

the totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, values, art, beliefs, institutions, and other products of human work and thought

same thing may indicate very different values for different people

Question 36

the application of accepted scientific practices is useful in preventing ‘scientific’ findings from being the product of biases

Question 37

How do you determine strengths in research?

Answer 37

• your history in research
• whether qualitative or quantitative is the best design
• need good people, words, and data skills
• whether it is short term or long term research

Question 38

What are your resources when selecting research topics?

Answer 38

• the organization where you work
• projects you are engaged in
• data sources
• your team and colleagues

‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’

Question 39

what are the differences between hot topics and understudied topics?

Answer 39

hot topics: well documented
understudied topics: difficult to begin, but easier to get published

often depends on social and financial support

Question 40

what is the difference between new and old issues?

Answer 40

new issues: fill in the blanks

old issues: digging deeper with different angles or methods

Question 41

what is a theoretical study?

Answer 41

theoretical studies provide the proofs, logic frameworks and theorems that contribute to the development and explanation of a theory

a theoretical study needs more knowledge, ability in logic, and longer time. often the researcher is unsure if the results can be delivered in the end

Question 42

what is an empirical study?

Answer 42

based on observed and measured phenomena

uses a theory or tests existing hypothesis using empirical evidence (data)

as long as a researcher can explain the results, a research report can be delivered.

both qualitative and quantitative research can be empirically studied

Question 43

descriptive study: you only need one variable (describing ‘the what’)

explanatory study: since you are explaining something, two variables are needed (the why)

explaining a relationship is more difficult than describing a phenomena

Answer 43

:)

Question 44

How do you narrow a research topic into a research question?

Answer 44

the most important criterion is that its answer should have significant potential relevance for guiding social welfare policy or social work practice

Question 45

what is the one of the most important steps in research process?

Answer 45

literature review

Question 46

what are the common issues in determining feasibility in research?

Answer 46

• scope
• costs in data collection and travel
• time
• ethical issues
• cooperation of others
• software

Question 47

what is a literature review and what is its purpose?

Answer 47

• uses what has been published in a topic by accredited scholars and researchers
• purpose is to discover ‘what is known’ and ‘what is not known’ in the concerned area
• what is known can be your resources and what is not known can be your area of research

Question 48

what are two literature review strategies?

Answer 48

-searching strategy (electronic databases, google search/google scholar)

-reading strategy
you should read from most recent review papers to older papers
read the papers everyone cited carefully

Question 49

what must a literature review do?

Answer 49

• be organized and be related directly to the research question you are working on
• synthesize results into a summary of what is known and what is not known
• identify areas of controversy in the literature
• identify methods used in the current literature
• formulate questions that need further research

Question 50

How are literature reviews and annotated bibliographies different?

Answer 50

• annotated bibliography provides a list of research sources and concise summary of each source and some assessment of its value or relevance
• for annotated bibliography, each source is summarized separately
• for literature review, different sources and their arguments are analyzed and summarized in one place

Question 51

Definitions: explanation, description, exploration, evaluation

Answer 51

exploration: you know little about it and you know the direction
description: dimensions (what happened)
explanation: causality (why it happened, hypothesis testing)
evaluation: based on purposes and standards

Question 52

what is the cross sectional time dimension in research?

Answer 52

cross sectional: one at a time… surveys are conducted one at a time, usually small scale studies by individual researchers

Question 53

what is a longitudinal study?

Answer 53

observations over a period of time (not necessarily the same people)

Question 54

what is a trend study?

Answer 54

changes within some general population over time

Question 55

what is a cohort study?

Answer 55

specific groups…eg: age and time groups as they change over time (not necessarily the same people)

Question 56

what is a panel study?

Answer 56

a study done with the same people over time

they are more valuable and more expensive

Question 57

what are units of analysis?

Answer 57

major entities that are being analyzed in the study. they reflect the researcher’s ultimate purpose of aggregating their characteristics in order to develop some larger groups or explains some abstract analysis

eg:

• individuals (students, voters, parents)
• groups (families, communities, provinces)
• social artefacts or the products of social beings (eg: articles, books, meetings)

Question 58

what is the ecological fallacy?

Answer 58

making assertions about individuals as units of analysis based on the study of groups

assumes that all members of a group have the aggregated characteristics of the group as a whole (aka discrimination)

contracted to fallacy of reductionism (individualistic fallacy)

Question 59

what is reductionism?

Answer 59

philosophical doctrine that asserts that the nature of complex systems is reduced to the nature of sums of simpler or more fundamental elements

an overly strict limitation on the kinds of concepts and variables to be considered as the causes in explaining a broad range of human behaviours

eg: a research studied the characteristics of individuals in an organization to assert that these characteristics are the behaviours of the organization

Question 60

individual based theories cannot be applied to groups. on the other hand, theories on groups such as social psychology cannot be applied to individuals