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Research Methods
MCQ questions for Quantitative research methods
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is statistical literacy? | '..the ability to understand and critically evaluate statistical results that permeate daily life' (Wallman 1993) |
| What are the three stages of statistical literacy according to Watson 1997? | 1. A basic understanding of probabilistic and statistical terminology 2. An understanding of statistical language and concepts 3. A questioning attitude towards claims without proper statistical foundation (as well as uncritical uses of statistics) |
| What is reliability? | The extent to which results of a measuring process (eg experiment, survey) can be replicated (=consistency) |
| What is validity? | Whether or not the measurement does what it is intended to do (= expression of crucial relationship between indicator and concept) |
| Are reliability and validity independent? | Yes, an invalid indicator can produce consistent results |
| How do you measure validity? | Measurement Validity Face Validity Criterion Validity Concurrent and Predictive Validity Construct Validity Convergent Validity |
| How do you measure reliability according to Clarke (2021)? | Stability (over time), internal reliability and inter-rater reliability |
| What is empirical research? | Systematic and purposive collection of information about the social world |
| How does empirical research work? | Applications of various research tools/methods for data collection, reflects ideas about the nature of social phenomena and how best to study and understand them and uses different traditions in social research (e.g. positivism, interpretivism, feminism) |
| What is induction? | Building theory from findings and examples |
| What is abduction? | Researcher grounds theoretical understanding of the social world that s/he is studying in the language, meanings and perspectives of those who inhabit these worlds |
| What is deduction? | Applying/testing theory/hypothesis |
| What is falsification? | Attempts to find data which might show the theory to be false |
| What are the four types of research design? | 1. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs 2. Cross-sectional and longitudinal designs 3. Case studies 4. Comparative studies |
| What type of study is the Growing Up in Ireland study? | Longitudinal research design |
| What is a sample? | Part of the population selected for economic reasons - (n) - (I believe the economics stuff is just an example) |
| What is the population? | The totality of elements under study (N) |
| What is the sampling frame? | An actual list of elements from which the sample is drawn (e.g. a list of TD's, electoral register, admissions records) |
| What is the sampling error? | The difference between (probability) sample and population from which it is drawn. Sampling errors should be random/unsystematic and follow a normal distribution, non-response as a source of sampling error |
| What are the two main types of sampling procedures? | Probability and non-probability sampling |
| What are the types of probability sampling? | Simple-random sampling, systematic, cluster and stratified sampling |
| What are the types of non-probability sampling? | Judgement, convenience and quota sampling |
| Who wrote and Spirit Level and what year did it come out? | Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009 |
| What is the Spirit Level about? | The question of how have we, as humans, created so much mental and emotional suffering despite being the wealthiest now in all of human history - so this study investigates this query |
| What is GDP and GNP? | Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product |
| What did Wilkinson and Pickett argue in the Spirit Level? | They argued that many health and social problems were the result of income inequality (rather than income per person) |
| What were the 10 health and social problems that were used in the Spirit Level as indicators of inequality? | Life expectancy, teenage births, obesity, mental illness, homicides, imprisonment rates, mistrust, social immobility, lack of education and infant mortality |
| How many countries were studied and compared in the Spirit Level? | 10 |
| What were Wilkinson and Picketts findings? | Nearly everyone does better in more equal societies |
| What country was found to have the highest level of inequality? | Singapore |
| What country was found to have the lowest level of inequality? | Japan |
| Who is the main person behind the website Gapminder? | Hans Rosling |
| What is the purpose of the website Gapminder? | To combat misguided global strategies rooted in outdated stereotypes and misconceptions |
| What is the World Values Survey? | A worldwide network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life - a source of empirical data on the majority of the worlds beliefs and values |
| How is the World Values Survey conducted? | Face-to-face surveys conducted according to fixed rules and procedures, and core questionnaire translated into the local language |
| What are the 6 major sources of error in survey research? | 1. Poorly worded questions 2. The way the question is asked by the interviewer 3. Misunderstandings 4. Respondent's memory problems 5. The way the information is recorded 6. The way the information is processed |
| What are the 5 most common administration of questionnaires? | 1. In person 2. By telephone 3. Postal 4. Computer-assisted (CAPI, CATI) 5. Online |
| How does the administration of surveys affect the response rate? | Postal surveys are far less effective than door-to-door calls regarding response rates, so yes - in person is more effective |
| What is 'reactivity'? | how answers are shaped by participants' awareness of social conventions |
| What does SPSS stand for and what is it? | Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, is a statistical software for processing data collected (?) |
| In our questionnaire, how many students are registered compared to how many completed the survey? | 256 students registered, 98 fully completed it, 12 partially completed it |
| How many variables were used in our survey from class? | 30 - ID number and 29 questions from the modified World Values Survey |
| What are the four large levels of measurement (variables)? | Nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio |
| What are the two types of variables? | independent versus dependent variables (otherwise called cause (indep.) and effect (dep.)) |
| How does cause and effect work? | The independent variable (cause) influences change in the dependent variable (effect) - but it can sometimes be difficult to establish the direction of cause-effect relationships |
| What are the four key steps of hypothesis testing according to Fielding and Gilbert? | 1. Make some appropriate assumptions 2. Select a statistic, sampling distribution and significance level 3. Compute the value of the test statistic 4. Make a decision to accept or reject the hypothesis |
| How do you test a hypothesis? | To start the process, we need to formulate some hypotheses. Here it is important to distinguish between what Salkind (2011) and others call the null hypothesis (H0) and the alternative/research hypothesis (H1) |
| What is the difference between the null hypothesis (H0) and the alternative/research hypothesis (H1) | The null hypothesis would say that there is no relation between the two variables, while the alternative hypothesis would say that there is some kind of statistical relation between them |
| What are the two types of statistical analysis? | 1. Descriptive statistics 2. Inferential statistics |
| Describe descriptive statistics | frequencies (count), measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) and dispersion (range, standard deviation and variance), usually a single variable. |
| Describe inferential statistics | Generalising from sample to population, based on probability theory and hypothesis testing, normally involves two ro more variables |
| On SPSS, what code do you enter to find a question with no answer? | 99 |
| What wave of research is the World Values Survey currently on? | 8th wave |
| What is a theory according to Bryman? | A group of ideas that aims to explain something (in our case it aims to explain the social world) |
| In table 1.1 of Bryman's book, what is the order in which a research proposal/research paper should be carried out? | 1. Literature Review 2. Concepts and theories 3. Research question/s 4. sampling cases 5. data collection 6. data analysis 7. writing up |
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