Research Methodology

    Content analysis
    The data from each row in a coding schedule can be entered into a quantitative analysis computer program called:
    SPSS is a computer software package that aids quantitative analysis of numerical data (see chapter 16). It can be used for analysis of data generated by any quantitative strategy, with particular strengths for data derived from probability samples. Assuming the texts examined in content analysis to have been robustly sampled, then all of the numbers generated can be input to SPSS for statistical analysis. This includes the column headings in a coding schedule, the variables; with the rows entered as individual record data. NVivo is a similar type of computer programme for use with qualitative data (see chapter 25) but doesn’t help with this kind of data.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 293
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Language in qualitative research
    What is meant by the term “adjacency pair” in CA?
    One of the basic tools of CA is the identification of “adjacency pairs” in patterns of speech. This term refers to linked phases of conversation that typically occur together, such as a question and answer, or an invitation and acceptance. The identification of an “adjacency pair” in analysis can indicate shared acceptance of a speech convention, so lack of the ‘appropriate’ response can also be the subject of analysis.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 529
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Planning a research project and formulating research questions
    Which of the following should you think about when preparing your research?
    There is a certain amount of “groundwork” that you can do before beginning your data collection and analysis. For example, you can prepare for the research by thinking about possible sampling strategies, whether sampling frames exist and how they can be accessed, ethical issues you will have to address, and ways of negotiating access to organizational data and/or people you would like to survey.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 85, 86
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Language in qualitative research
    What have conversation analysts found that people generally do to “repair” the damage caused by a “dispreferred response”?
    Ethnomethodologists and conversation analysts are interested in studying the way in which people “account” for behaviour that was unexpected or potentially threatening to the interaction order. If one person invites another to a party, for example, clearly the “preferred response” is acceptance. However, when the invitation is declined, a “dispreferred response”, the person invited will often go on to provide a set of reasons to justify their decision, which reassures the ‘inviter’ that their relationship is not in jeopardy. These responses indicate nothing at all about the motivations of the people involved, just their conversation patterns.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 529
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Qualitative data analysis
    What do Strauss & Corbin mean by “open coding”?
    Strauss & Corbin (1990, cited on page 574) refer to three types of coding: open, axial and selective. “Open coding” generally occurs in the initial stages of the research and involves examining the data in detail in order to generate a wide range of concepts, which can later be grouped into categories. “Axial coding” reassembles the data along new ‘axes’ and “selective coding” isolates the core category, the focus around which all other categories will be integrated.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 574
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Ethics and politics in social research
    Which of the following is a form of harm that might be suffered by research participants?
    One of the most commonly cited ethical principles is that we should not cause harm to our research participants. This can take many forms, including physical injury, psychological distress or emotional harm, loss of self-esteem, being persuaded to conduct morally reprehensible acts, and having one’s physical, intellectual or emotional development hindered. We must also be careful about security of our research records, so that respondents may not be identified, or otherwise harmed through loss of confidentiality.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 126-129
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Asking questions
    Which of the following is a general rule of thumb for designing questions?
    Closed questions are usually at the heart of survey questionnaires, so it might even be a ‘rule of thumb’ to make sure that you have included them in your own questionnaire. There is a choice between vignette-based and open questions from time to time, although both can be used together in a structured interview. The correct answer here is to keep your basic research questions in mind when composing individual questions, of whatever type. Each question should rest on a separate hypothesis that responses to it will tend to produce data for the basic research concepts. If they don’t, they lead nowhere as far as findings are concerned and you have wasted the respondent’s time as well as your own!
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 252
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Social research strategies: quantitative research and qualitative research
    What is the epistemological position held by a positivist?
    Positivism holds that only those phenomena that can be perceived by our senses are ‘real’ and that knowledge of them is somehow ‘real’ knowledge. Positivists believe that the methods used in the natural sciences can, indeed should, be used in the social sciences. Essentially this means being completely objective, in other words ‘value-free’, while gathering empirical data. Although mostly deductive, it allows inductivism as a means of disproving previously held theories or, perhaps more likely, widely-shared hypotheses. Positivists believe they can come to explain human behaviour, whereas the hermeneutic approach to knowledge suggests we can attempt merely to understand it.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 24
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Sampling in quantitative research
    Which of the following is not a characteristic of quota sampling?
    Since ‘quota’ sampling is a type of ‘non-probability’ sampling, random selection cannot be one of its characteristics. It is somewhat less than scientific in its approach but can be very useful in providing quick indicators of response to events, which could later be tested on a probability sample. The researcher chooses respondents who are members of particular strata of society until a specified quota is reached. The quotas themselves are usually intended to reflect the size of the segment in the population as a whole.
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 188-190
    Author: rikazzz Comment
    Using existing data
    Which of the following provides official statistics that could be analysed as secondary data?
    Table 14.1, on pages 316 and 317, shows a list of reliable data sets with details on each, including the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS). This is a relatively new survey, which combined (and replaced) the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) and the National Food Survey (NFS) in 2001. It provides quantitative data about household income and expenditure, gathered through the use of “structured diaries” (see chapter 10) and “structured interviews” using CAPI (see chapter 9).
    Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 316,317
    Author: rikazzz Comment