Research Methods

Question 1

What is a sample?

Answer 1

A smaller group of people drawn from the research population. The group of people you actually asked to fill out the questionnaire.

Question 2

What is research population?

Answer 2

The people who are the focus of the research being carried out.

Question 3

What is a questionnaire?

Answer 3

A series of written questions a researcher presents to the respondents of a survey in order to collect quantitative data. Each respondent answers the same set of questions.

Question 4

Give a brief note on qualitative research, including characteristics.

Answer 4

Seeks to understand the ways people interpret and make sense of their experiences and the world they live in. Systematic. Subjective. Inductive and theory. Holisitc. Non-generalisable. Analyse words, meanings, conversations, pictures and objects.

Question 5

What is the meaning of systematic in terms of qualitative research?

Answer 5

Requires a lot of detailed record keeping. The researcher must adapt a systematic approach to keep records organised. Has a looser time frame to quantitative.

Question 6

What is the meaning of subjective in terms of qualitative research?

Answer 6

Interpretation is required by the researcher, reduces how the researcher’s opinions influences their findings.

Question 7

What is the meaning of inductive and theory in terms of qualitative research?

Answer 7

Used to create a theory where very little is known about a particular topic.

Question 8

What is the meaning of holistic in terms of qualitative research?

Answer 8

Endeavours to understand entirety of experience.

Question 9

Give a brief note on quantitative research, including characteristics.

Answer 9

Gathers data that can be easily represented in numerical and statistical format. Systematic. Objective. Deductive. Generalisable. Uses large samples. Data can be converted into numerical format. Easily measured.

Question 10

What is the meaning of systematic in terms of quantitative research?

Answer 10

Means of measuring variables is developed and finalised before primary research begins.

Question 11

What is the meaning of objective in terms of quantitative research?

Answer 11

Data collected during the study cannot be influenced by the researcher.

Question 12

What is the meaning of deductive in terms of quantitative research?

Answer 12

On measuring the relationship between the variables, the researcher can say if the hypothesis was proven or not.

Question 13

What is the meaning of generalisable in terms of quantitative research?

Answer 13

The findings can be applied to a broader population.

Question 14

What is a case study?

Answer 14

An in-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or an individual.

Question 15

What is ethnography?

Answer 15

The extended observation of the social perspective and cultural values of an entire social setting.

Question 16

What is research hypothesis?

Answer 16

An idea which the sociologist guesses might be true but has not been tested against the evidence.

Question 17

What is emperical evidence?

Answer 17

Evidence that comes from direct experience, scientifically gathered data or experimentation.

Question 18

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 18

A testable educated guess about predicted outcomes between two or more variables.

Question 19

What is reliability?

Answer 19

A measure of a study’s consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced.

Question 20

What is the scientific method?

Answer 20

An established scholarly research method that involves asking a question, researching existing sources, forming a hypothesis, designing and conducting a study and drawing conclusions.

Question 21

What is the difference between survey and interview?

Answer 21

A survey collects data from subjects who responds to a series of questions about behaviours and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire. An interview is a one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject, it is a way pf conducting surveys on a topic.

Question 22

What is validity?

Answer 22

How well the study measures what it was designed to measure.

Question 23

What are independent and dependent variables?

Answer 23

Independent variables are the cause of the change. Dependent variables are the effect, or the thing that is changed.

Question 24

What is the Hawthorne effect?

Answer 24

Where people change their behaviour because they know they are being watched as part of a study.

Question 25

What is random sampling?

Answer 25

Every person in a population has the same chance of being chosen for a study.

Question 26

What is field research?

Answer 26

Gathering primary data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey.

Question 27

What is participant observation?

Answer 27

Where researchers join people and participate in a group’s routine of activities with the purpose of observing them within that context.