The nature and process of social research
Because of the number of things that can go wrong in research there is a need for:
Flexibility and perseverance
Sympathetic supervisors
An emergency source of finance
Wisdom to know the right time to quit
Flexibility and perseverance
Answer (a) is the correct answer, according to Townsend and Burgess (2009b, cited on page 16) because of the unpredictability of the research process. Key interviewees become unavailable or play ‘hard-to-get’, response rates prove too low to be usable, a new publication reveals significant development in the research topic and so on. We hope supervisors will always be sympathetic to your problems but it is your research, your dissertation, not theirs and it is, therefore, your responsibility to discharge it properly. Extra cash can be a help, from time to time, but is unlikely to resolve the problems outlined. Knowing when and how to change course is important, as is knowing when not to quit!
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 14
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 14
Flexibility and perseverance Answer (a) is the correct answer, according to Townsend and Burgess (2009b, cited on page 16) because of the unpredictability of the research process. Key interviewees become unavailable or play ‘hard-to-get’, response rates prove too low to be usable, a new publication reveals significant development in the research topic and so on. We hope supervisors will always be sympathetic to your problems but it is your research, your dissertation, not theirs and it is, therefore, your responsibility to discharge it properly. Extra cash can be a help, from time to time, but is unlikely to resolve the problems outlined. Knowing when and how to change course is important, as is knowing when not to quit!
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 14
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 14
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The core ingredients of a dissertation are:A. Introduction; Data collection; Data analysis; Conclusions and recommendations.
B. Executive summary; Literature review; Data gathered; Conclusions; Bibliography.
C. An emergency source of finance
D. Introduction; Literature review; Research methods; Results; Discussion; Conclusion.
What does ‘sampling cases’ mean?
A. Sampling using a sampling frame
B. Identifying people who are suitable for research
C. An emergency source of finance
D. Sampling people, newspapers, television programmes etc.
Which of the following is not a type of research question?
A. Predicting an outcome
B. Evaluating a phenomenon
C. An emergency source of finance
D. A hypothesis
Which comes first, theory or research?
A. Theory, because otherwise you are working in the dark
B. Research, because that’s the only way you can develop a theory
C. An emergency source of finance
D. The question is meaningless, because you can’t have one without the other
When planning to do social research, it is better to:
A. Approach the topic with an open mind
B. Do a pilot study before getting stuck into it
C. An emergency source of finance
D. Forget about theory because this is a very practical undertaking
Why is data analysis concerned with data reduction?
A. Because far too much data is collected than is required
B. Because we need to make sense of the data
C. An emergency source of finance
D. Because the sample size has been exceeded
Which of the following is not a data-collection method?
A. Research questions
B. Unstructured interviewing
C. An emergency source of finance
D. Participant observation
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