Test bank

Chapter 12: Content analysis, thematic analysis and discourse analysis

1. A psychologist at a British university wishes to understand the psychological impact that a new disease outbreak is having on the mental health among residents in London. In order to develop robust research questions, she must first:

a. speak to her colleagues.

b. develop questions based on her expertise.

c. conduct a rigorous review of existing research.

d. read a book about disease outbreaks.

2. A researcher wishes to examine how the British print media construct climate change in language. To analyse the media, he should use:

a. content analysis.

b. thematic analysis.

c. grounded theory.

d. discourse analysis.

3. A social constructionist epistemology focuses on:

a. how people think about psychological phenomena.

b. how people construct psychological phenomena.

c. how people identify psychological phenomena.

d. how people perceive psychological phenomena.

4. Which of the following types of data is most appropriate for thematic analysis?

a. Structured interviews

b. Quantitative survey data

c. Quantitative experimental data

d. Semi-structured interviews

5. A PhD student has just finished conducting 20 interviews which she intends to analyse using content analysis. The next step is to:

a. transcribe the interviews.

b. analyse the audio recordings.

c. write the report.

d. jot down notes on the interviews.

6. A researcher wishes to interview a sample of ethnic minority individuals about how they perceive the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. Which method of data analysis would be inappropriate for analysing perception?

a. Discourse analysis

b. Thematic analysis

c. Content analysis

d. None of these

7. All forms of data analysis include at least an element of:

a. discourse analysis.

b. thematic analysis.

c. content analysis.

d. none of these.

8. In data analysis, a coding scheme is:

a. a set of principles that will guide your analysis.

b. a way of understanding particular words.

c. only relevant to discourse analysis.

d. a theme.

9. Which of the following methods of data analysis can be either qualitative or quantitative?

a. Content analysis

b. Discourse analysis

c. Thematic analysis

d. Grounded theory

10. A researcher is interested in the main themes in her interview study of the impact of Brexit on people’s sense of identity. How should she develop her themes?

a. By counting the number of words used

b. By integrating the codes which best address her research questions

c. By stating her opinion about the data

d. By asking her colleagues what they think

11. A realist epistemology views language as:

a. a social construction of reality.

b. a relatively clear window into individual cognition and motivation.

c. emotion only.

d. attitude only.

12. Foucauldian discourse analysis focuses on:

a. the primacy of power structures in discourse.

b. the use of metaphor in discourse.

c. the use of similes in discourse.

d. fine-grained micro-level linguistic analysis.

13. Which of the following is NOT a recognised means of assessing the quality of qualitative analysis?

a. Internal reliability

b. Sensitivity to context

c. Commitment and rigour

d. Transparency and cohere

14. A researcher wishes to apply tenets of Identity Process Theory to the analysis of women’s accounts of living with a chronic health condition. She should:

a. add in some theory during the write-up.

b. integrate the theory in the coding scheme.

c. only focus on material that matches the theory.

d. None of these.

15. The codes generated during a content analysis of qualitative data should be driven by:

a. your research interests.

b. the research questions.

c. observations that seem interesting.

d. what your colleagues say.

16. A PhD student is researching a community that he is also a member of. He is concerned that his thematic analysis might be excessively influenced by his own identity, knowledge of and views about the community. Which of the following should be consider?

a. Abandoning the research project

b. Discussing his emerging findings with a colleague

c. Describing his findings using the first-person pronoun

d. None of these

17. Which of the following epistemological approaches underpins thematic analysis?

a. Social constructivism

b. Social constructionism

c. Realism

d. Any of the above

18. The primary units of meaning (or ‘patterns’) identified and reported in discourse analysis studies are:

a. discourses.

b. content categories.

c. themes.

d. variables.

19. Which of the following can be a pitfall of all methods?

a. Using them inflexibly

b. Using them to analyse qualitative data

c. Using them to analyse quantitative data

d. All of these

20. A researcher wishes to understand the causes of obesity in young people. Which of the following methods should he not use?

a. Thematic analysis

b. Discourse analysis

c. Grounded theory

d. None of these