Deck 16: Combining Methods in Social Science Research

Question 1

Identify two of the five major qualitative approaches treated in your text and discuss their disadvantages.

Answer 1

-
-Qualitative interviews
-interviewer effect
-Focus groups
-possibility of groupthink
-a polarization effect exists
-only a few topics can be addressed in a focus group session
-moderator may affect outcome
-produces fewer ideas than individual interviews
-Field research
-group may change behaviour if members know they are being studied
-accessing some groups may be difficult
-Historical research
-limited by the availability and quality of documents and data
-sources may be biased
-context of meanings within times in history must be taken into account
-Qualitative content analysis
-fairly limited range of research questions can be addressed with this technique
-qualitative coding technique subject to interpretations
-coding procedures subject to interpretation

Question 2

Identify two of the four major quantitative approaches treated in your text and discuss their advantages.

Answer 2

-
-Survey research
-possible to cover large populations
-can cover a large range of topics
-questions from respondent to respondent are comparable because they are asked in the same way and order
-Quantitative content analysis
-nonreactive
-possible to use probability sampling techniques
-data can be rechecked and reanalyzed to check for accuracy
-often inexpensive
-Existing statistics/documents and secondary analysis
-data are often free and fairly easy to access
-using existing sources frees up the immense amount of time that the data collection procedure can take
-many better known,nationally represented data sets (i.e., NLSCY,GSS,Labour Force Survey)are highly reputable and are unlikely to have serious flaws
-Experimental research
-the only technique that allows causation to be demonstrated

Question 3

What is one of the major advantages of field research compared to other qualitative approaches?

A)Participants in the study tend to feel empowered.
B)Participants can give accounts in their own words and unexpected responses are encouraged.
C)It’s possible to make comparisons across time and space.
D)The researcher is able to gain a deep understanding of a group and its members.
E)Implied meanings in “text”situations can be revealed.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

What is one of the major disadvantages of using field research compared to other qualitative forms of data collection?

A)The sample is often limited to university undergraduates.
B)Subjects’behaviour may change if they know they are being studied.
C)A fairly limited range of research questions can be addressed with this technique.
D)It can take the researcher a considerable amount of time to become acquainted with the data.
E)The conditions under which the research and data gathering take place are often artificial.

Question 5

Compare and contrast the development of theory in mixed methods research.What determines how theory is generated in sequential mixed methods studies and in concurrent mixed methods studies?

Question 6

What happens if,while using a mixed methods research design,a researcher obtains conflicting results in the qualitative and quantitative parts of a mixed methods study? What possibilities exist for a researcher if the results appear to be contradictory or do not agree with each other?

Question 7

What are the strengths and limitations of mixed methods research incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches? Do you think a researcher should strive to use mixed methods research? Why or why not?

Question 8

What is one of the major advantages of survey research compared to other quantitative approaches?

A)It is the only technique that allows for causation to be demonstrated.
B)It is possible to cover very large populations in a relatively simple way and in a straightforward manner.
C)It is often inexpensive.
D)It is nonreactive.
E)Data are often free and fairly easy to access.

Question 9

What is one of the major advantages of using focus groups compared to other qualitative forms of data collection?

A)Participants tend to feel empowered.
B)Participants can give accounts in their own words and unexpected responses are encouraged.
C)It’s possible to make comparisons across time and space.
D)The researcher is able to gain a deep understanding of a group and its members.
E)Implied meanings in “text”situations can be revealed.

Question 10

Identify two of the four major quantitative approaches treated in your text and discuss their disadvantages.

Question 11

________ approaches assume that facts are objective,that they can be collected by value-free researchers,and that the pursuit of truth can be achieved through the testing of causal hypotheses.

A)Explanatory
B)Positivist
C)Nonreactive
D)Qualitative
E)Survey-based

Question 12

What is considered to be a principal advantage of using quantitative methods as an approach to doing social research?

A)It allows for the possibility of investigating how members of the social world understand their social experiences.
B)Concepts can be standardized.
C)It allows the researcher to become immersed in the people and situations he or she is studying.
D)The subjective experiences of the research participants can be studied and analyzed.
E)In quantitative research the deeper meanings that individuals attribute to social life can be revealed.

Question 13

For which type of quantitative social science research is the "interview(er)effect" most likely to be a problem?

A)Survey research
B)Nonreactive research
C)Qualitative interviewing
D)Quantitative content analysis
E)Field studies

Question 14

What are the major advantages and disadvantages common to all quantitative approaches?

Question 15

Which of the following statements most closely describes the term triangulation?

A)Using two different theoretical approaches in one research project
B)Displaying the final results of the research in a variety of ways,such as graphs,charts,tables,and diagrams
C)Gathering data primarily through the use of qualitative open-ended interviews but then coding the interviews so they can be used for statistical analysis
D)Using more than one qualitative or quantitative technique
E)Employing at least three different concepts in a single research question

Question 16

Discuss the kinds of decisions a researcher must make in terms of sequential and concurrent data collection and analysis when designing a mixed methods study.What procedures must be followed?

Question 17

Identify two of the five major qualitative approaches treated in your text and discuss their advantages.

Question 18

What is one of the major advantages of experimental research compared to other quantitative approaches?

A)It is the only technique that allows for causation to be demonstrated.
B)It is possible to cover very large populations in a relatively simple way and in a straightforward manner.
C)It is often inexpensive.
D)It is nonreactive.
E)Data are often free and fairly easy to access.

Question 19

What are the major advantages and disadvantages common to all qualitative approaches?

Question 20

What is one of the major disadvantages of using existing statistics compared to other quantitative forms of data collection?

A)The sample is often limited to university undergraduates.
B)Interviewer effect can be an issue.
C)A fairly limited range of research questions can be addressed with this technique.
D)It can take the researcher a considerable amount of time to become acquainted with the data.
E)The conditions under which the research and data gathering take place are often artificial.

Question 21

What is considered to be the principal advantage of using qualitative methods as an approach to doing social research?

A)Qualitative methods give “voice”to research participants.
B)Qualitative methods are relatively inexpensive.
C)Qualitative methods allow for causality to be established.
D)Qualitative methods involve the collection of data from large samples.
E)Qualitative methods require the researcher to spend a lot of time getting to know the research participants in a study.

Question 22

What are the two main properties of a mixed methods research (quantitative and qualitative)?

A)Determining the research question and the priority of approaches
B)Determining the priority and sequencing of approaches
C)Determining the research question and the sampling techniques
D)Determining the sampling techniques and the sequencing of approaches
E)Determining the sequencing of approaches and the data collection

Question 23

Which of the following is considered a strength of mixed methods research?

A)Generalizability of findings may increase.
B)Conflicting results from quantitative and qualitative components can easily be resolved by resorting to epistemic prioritization.
C)It often takes less time to do mixed methods research than other kinds of social research.
D)It allows for very narrow research questions to be answered.
E)From a philosophical perspective,both qualitative and quantitative approaches are easily combined.

Question 24

In mixed methods research,__________ data collection refers to when data for different parts of a mixed methods project are collected in stages,while __________ data collection refers to when qualitative and quantitative data are collected at the same time.

A)concurrent;sequential
B)sequential;concurrent
C)monostrand;multi-method
D)multi-method;monostrand
E)systematic;simple

Question 25

What is one of the major disadvantages of using focus groups compared to other qualitative forms of data collection?

A)There is always the problem of the “interviewer effect.”
B)There is always the problem of the “polarization effect.”
C)Accessing some individuals or groups may prove to very difficult.
D)The sources may be biased.
E)A fairly limited range of research questions can be addressed with this technique.

Question 26

Which of the following best exemplifies the practice of epistemic prioritization?

A)Krithiga found her qualitative interview data coincided perfectly with her focus group data and so decided to report only on the qualitative interview data to avoid redundancy
B)Percy found his qualitative interview data conflicted with his quantitative content analysis data and so reported on the ways method influences results instead of reporting his findings
C)David found his telephone survey data conflicted with his focus group data and so decided to report only those findings that were based on the telephone survey data
D)Karen found her qualitative interview data shared few themes with her archival data and so reported on the disjunction between historical and contemporary discourses
E)Annette found her structured interview data conflicted with her fieldwork observations and so conducted a second set of structured interviews with a revised list of questions

Question 27

Professor Bertha Bettina conducted a research project exploring adolescent girl peer group pressure.She used closed-ended questionnaires and focus groups.Of the 221 girls that fit the criteria for inclusion,90 girls agreed to complete the self-administered questionnaire;of those,50 girls agreed to participate in focus groups.During analysis,descriptive statistics about behaviours reported by the girls were joined with major themes that came out of the focus group interviews. Which one of the following types of sampling designs did Professor Bettina use?a.Simple random sampling
B)Nonprobability purposive sampling
C)Cluster sampling
D)Simple random sampling and cluster sampling
E)Multi-method sampling

Question 28

What is one of the major disadvantages of using quantitative content analysis over other quantitative forms of data collection?

A)They make studying hidden or deviant groups possible.
B)The range of research questions that can be addressed is fairly limited.
C)It is nonreactive.
D)Coding techniques are subject to interpretation.
E)It is unlikely that all the concepts the researcher is interested in will be included in the data.

Question 29

What is one of the major disadvantages of using qualitative interviews compared to other qualitative forms of data collection?

A)There is always the problem of the “interviewer effect.”
B)There is always the problem of the “polarization effect.”
C)Accessing some individuals or groups may prove to very difficult.
D)The sources may be biased.
E)A fairly limited range of research questions can be addressed with this technique.

Question 30

What is one of the major advantages of using qualitative historical research methods compared to other qualitative forms of data collection?

A)It is nonreactive.
B)Data collection allows the researcher to formulate a deep understanding of a group and its members.
C)It is limited by the availability and quality of documents and data.
D)Using existing sources frees up the immense amount of time that the data collection procedure can take.
E)It does not involve a sampling phase.

Question 31

A central concern of ________ is the question of how texts function in particular institutional settings to produce ruling relations that shape the experiences of individuals.

A)multi-method research
B)mixed methods research
C)institutional ethnography research
D)qualitative content analysis
E)quantitative content analysis

Question 32

What two methodological approaches were used in Kidd's (2004,2006)sequential study of suicide among street youth in Canada?

A)Qualitative interviews and survey research
B)Focus groups and survey research
C)Content analysis and field research
D)Discourse analysis and survey research
E)Survey research and field research

Question 33

What is one of the major disadvantages of using experimental research compared to other quantitative forms of data collection?

A)It is not suitable for researching sensitive issues.
B)It relies on latent coding which is susceptible to interpretation issues.
C)The moderator may affect experiment outcomes.
D)Many of the questions social scientists are interested in cannot be tested.
E)It is possible to explore “meaning”of events,experiences,etc.,in much detail.

Question 34

Professor Xavier Zaniff wants to conduct research on the experiences of newly arriving immigrants in Toronto,Montreal,and Vancouver from 2012-2017.His research design includes two data collection techniques: focus groups and in-depth interviews.Which research design is he using?

A)Monostrand design
B)Quantitative research design
C)Historical research
D)Multi-method research
E)Mixed methods

Question 35

Despite a general agreement among social scientists that mixed methods research is an ideal way to approach research questions,very few researchers engage in this type of research.Why is this the case?

A)It is very time consuming and labour intensive.
B)It is often the case that social scientists consider themselves predominantly “quantitative”or “qualitative”and that to undertake mixed methods requires them to step outside of their comfort zones and,perhaps,master a new technique.
C)The results of the research are often difficult to publish due to the increased likelihood of obtaining contradictory findings.
D)A and B
E)A and C

Question 36

Professor Klaus von Stoppen obtained conflicting results in the qualitative and quantitative parts of his mixed methods study on illicit drug use among high school students in Saskatoon.What approach should he take to resolve this contradiction?

A)He should get another researcher to re-do the study.
B)He should re-do the study.
C)He does not need to resolve the contradiction.
D)He should make the decision to prioritize one approach over the other.
E)He should reanalyze the data to examine the reasons behind the contradictions.

Question 37

In social scientific research,__________ design is the opposite of mixed methods design.

A)priority
B)concurrent
C)sequential
D)univariate
E)monostrand

Question 38

Which of the following is not one of the weaknesses of mixed methods research?

A)It is very labour intensive.
B)It can be very expensive.
C)Conflicting results can be difficult to resolve.
D)Generalizability of findings decreases.
E)Some “purists”argue mixing methods violates the philosophical underpinnings of these approaches.

Question 39

What is one of the major advantages of using qualitative interviews compared to other qualitative forms of data collection?

A)They make studying hidden or deviant groups possible.
B)They are inexpensive.
C)They are nonreactive.
D)Participants tend to feel empowered.
E)They allow for unexpected answers.

Question 40

Professors Bertha Bettina conducted a research project exploring adolescent girl peer group pressure.She used closed-ended questionnaires and focus groups.Of the 221 girls that fit the criteria for inclusion,90 girls agreed to complete the self-administered questionnaire;of those,50 girls agreed to participate in focus groups.During analysis,descriptive statistics about behaviours reported by the girls were joined with major themes that came out of the focus group interviews. Which one of the following types of data analysis did Bettina use?a.Sequential data analysis
B)Monostrand data analysis
C)Multi-method data analysis
D)Triangulation
E)Concurrent data analysis

Question 41

Define the following:mixed methods sampling

Question 42

What distinguishes multi-method research from mixed-methods research?

A)Multi-method research combines methods sequentially,while mixed-methods research combines methods concurrently
B)Multi-method research combines methods concurrently,while mixed-methods research combines methods sequentially
C)Multi-method research combines methods from the same paradigm,while mixed-methods research combine methods from different paradigms
D)Multi-method research involves triangulation,while mixed-methods research does not
E)Mixed-method research involves triangulation,while multi-method research does not

Question 43

Define the following:monostrand design

Question 44

Define the following:priority

Question 45

Define the following:mixed methods

Question 46

Define the following:epistemic prioritization

Question 47

Define the following:concurrent data collection

Question 48

Define the following:multi-method research

Question 49

Define the following:sequence

Question 50

Define the following:triangulation

Question 51

Define the following:interviewer effect

Question 52

Define the following:sequential data collection

Question 53

Define the following:institutional ethnography (IE)

Question 54

Define the following:concurrent data analysis

Question 55

Define the following:sequential data analysis