Chapter 1: The Selection of a Research Approach

Test Bank

Note: An asterisk indicates questions which also appear in the online student quizzes.

Multiple Choice

1. Research aligned with this worldview focuses on asymmetrical power relationships and inequities, while linking political and social action to confront social oppression at all levels.

a. postpositivism

b. constructivism

c. transformative

d. pragmatism

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Transformative Worldview

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Which of the following is true of a pragmatic research approach?

a. Researchers look for complexity of views related to how individuals construct meaning.

b. The focus is on answering philosophical questions.

c. Sensitivity to individual power structures is paramount.

d. Truth is what works at the time and all available approaches to understand the problem can be used.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Pragmatic Worldview

Difficulty Level: Easy

*3. Which of the following is the main focus of constructivism?

a. participant’s views of a situation

b. determining proper research methods

c. finding the truth

d. cause and effect

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Constructivist Worldview

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Which of the following is not a characteristic of post-positivist research?

a. reductionism

b. a set of logically related steps

c. belief in multiple perspectives

d. focus on objective meanings

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Postpositivist Worldview

Difficulty Level: Easy

*5. Which of the following represents a quantitative research design?

a. narrative research

b. survey research

c. ethnography

d. phenomenological research

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Quantitative Designs

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

*1. A researcher’s background, ideas, and experiences become central to the research process in both qualitative and quantitative research.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Qualitative Designs

Difficulty Level: Medium

*2. Qualitative research develops theory, while quantitative research tests theory.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Three Approaches to Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. The experience of homelessness would be a great topic to study using a phenomenological research design.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Qualitative Designs

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Exploratory sequential mixed methods uses broad quantitative data in the initial phase to then explore the views of the participants in the second phase.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Mixed Methods Designs

Difficulty Level: Medium

*5. Postpositive research is also known as the scientific method.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Postpositivist Worldview

Difficulty Level: Easy

Essay

1. Creswell (2017) advances 3 research approaches. Identify the 3 approaches and briefly explain how to distinguish them from each other.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Three Approaches to Research

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Identify the three components do researchers need to think about in planning a study and provide an example of each component.

Worldview options – postpositivism, social constructivism, transformative, pragmatism

Design options – qualitative, quantitative, mixed method

Methods options – interview data, observation data, census data, statistical analysis, instrument based questions, performance data, pretest/posttest, text and image analysis.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Three Components Involved in an Approach

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. A worldview is “a basic set of beliefs that guide action” (Guba, 1990, p.17). According to Creswell, each researcher brings a worldview to a study. How do individuals develop their worldviews and how might these worldviews affect research design?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Philosophical Worldviews

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Under which conditions might a qualitative research approach be more useful than a quantitative approach?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Research Problem and Questions

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Choosing one of the 4 worldviews that Creswell outlines, describe a possible research study that aligns with the worldview that includes a topic, a research design, and appropriate research methods. Be sure to explain how your topic aligns with the chosen worldview.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Research Approaches as Worldviews, Designs, and Methods

Difficulty Level: Hard