Flick 3rd Edition Test Questions & Answers

Multiple Choice Quizzes

Notes

Multiple-choice questions can have more than one correct answer (up to 4). Some open questions are included, for which only exemplary answers are included. Then the number of multiple-choice questions for the chapter is reduced.

Chapter 1: Why social research?

1. Social research is able to ______.

a. solve urgent problems immediately

b. provide more knowledge for better understanding social problems

c. improve the situation of the single participant

d. prevent politicians from making the wrong decisions

2. Quantitative research ______.

a. refrains from using hypotheses

b. avoids measurement

c. tests a hypothesis by using measurements

d. does not use numbers

3. In quantitative research, single participants ______.

a. can talk freely about their individual experiences

b. are selected because of their individual situation

c. are selected randomly

d. has much influence on how the data is collected

4. In qualitative research, ______.

a. attitudes are measured

b. instruments are standardized

c. participants are selected purposively

d. statistical analysis is applied

5. Qualitative and quantitative research ______.

a. have nothing in common

b. work systematically by using empirical methods

c. are using standardized methods for data collection

d. are both using open methods for data collection

6. Online research ______.

a. is done without using any methods of social research

b. can only be pursued in a quantitative way

c. is based on developing social research methods as online tools

d. only consists of doing online interviews

7. Doing social research ______.

a. is just a drag

b. can give you insights into everyday life which you can use for practical work later on

c. is just for making studying at the university more complicated

d. never leads to any new insights

8. The relevance of social research about societal phenomena lies in ______.

a. description of them

b. understanding of them

c. explanation of them

d. in description, understanding and explanation of them

9. Social research ______.

a. can provide orientations for political and practical decisions

b. is located in a completely different world

c. is only about researchers’ making a scientific career

d. will completely refrain from practical and political areas

10. Researchers doing empirical studies ______.

a. should not let anyone how they proceed in their research

b. should do their work in the secret and undercover

c. need to make their research and practices in the field transparent to readers of their reports

d. should just do it, without much training and skills

Chapter 2: Worldviews in social research

1. Positivism means that ______.

a. research is only expected to provide positive results

b. scientific statements and knowledge refer to phenomena confirmed by the senses

c. there is an external reality separate from our descriptions of it

d. interpretation is more relevant than measurement and objectivity

2. Critical realism means that ______.

a. researchers should construct hypotheses that make them undergo acid tests of corroboration

b. researchers should be critical about the world and realistic about what research can achieve

c. methods define problems

d. the aim is verification of statements

3. Paradigms ______.

a. are belief systems not to be put to question

b. develop slowly into other paradigms

c. are never overcome by new ones

d. define the framework of the accepted research methods

4. The normative paradigm assumes ______.

a. identical everyday knowledge for researchers and participants

b. that social rules are consistent and unambiguous

c. that researchers should define rules for how participants should behave

d. that rules and meanings are subject to interpretation

a. When a person defines a situation as real, this situation is real in its consequences.

b. When consequences are real, a person defines a situation as real.

c. When the questions are good, the answers are real.

d. When the answers are real, the person is real, too.

6. Social constructionism means that ______.

a. researchers should start from understanding how participants see their world and the issue under study

b. there is no reality

c. everything is relative

d. we do not need any methods

7. Epistemology should ______.

a. give researchers an orientation for how to proceed

b. motivate the researcher to reflect only theoretically about research

c. provide arguments for criticizing research in a fundamental way

d. be irrelevant for doing research

8. Symbolic Interactionism assumes that ______.

a. people act towards things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them

b. nothing is real, all is symbolic

c. the meaning of things result from interaction

d. research should avoid direct communication with participants

9. Concurrent research programs mean that ______.

a. researchers should not collaborate

b. there can be several explanations for a phenomenon

c. explanations are in competition in clarifying an issue

d. several methodological approaches co-exist

Chapter 3: Ethical issues in social research

1. Among the central ethical principles in social research are ______.

a. informed consent

b. avoiding harm for participants

c. avoiding to inform participants

d. inform participants about the harm they can expect in the research

2. Which of the following concepts is not part of an ethical theory for social research?

a. justice

b. beneficence

c. autonomy

d. equal income

3. Informed consent implies that participants ______.

a. know who else participates in the study

b. know that they are part of a study

c. receive information to decide to be studied or not

d. know the hypotheses of a study in advance

4. Informed consent ______.

a. is not necessary when very old people are studied

b. cannot be obtained when children are studied

c. should be given by someone who is competent to do so

d. means that you cannot do research with children

5. Data protection ______.

a. means that researchers are responsible to guarantee the participants’ privacy and anonymity

b. is irrelevant for research

c. is easier to obtain in qualitative research

d. is the result of planning and reflecting the management of data in the research process

6. Codes of ethics ______.

a. are relevant only for medical research

b. define what is seen as acceptable research in a specific scientific community

c. give an orientation what to take into account in research with specific groups (e.g., children)

d. exclude qualitative research from social research

7. Ethics Committees ______.

a. evaluate proposals of research for their ethical appropriateness

b. should delimit the number of research projects

c. should mainly maintain methodological standards

d. should ignore whether research will lead to new insights or not

8. Ethics of digital research ______.

a. is particularly relevant because digital data are more easily to misuse than other data

b. does not ask for participants’ informed consent

c. is not a problem as everyone is online

d. is guaranteed by digital systems and providers (e.g., social media such as Facebook)

9. Specific research methods ______.

a. can be ethically neutral

b. imply their specific ethical questions that have to be considered

c. allow the researcher to work with deception

d. can be applied covertly (e.g., in observation)

Chapter 4: From research idea to research question

1. Research questions ______.

a. are important to guide the research process

b. can be ignored as superfluous details

c. narrow down the research in an inadequate way

d. spoil the fun in doing research

2. Good research questions ______.

a. result from social problems

b. are based on researchers’ personal interests and backgrounds

c. are as broad as possible

d. support an ‘anything goes’ approach in the methods of a project

3. Gap-spotting means that ______.

a. a research question is identified in analyzing the literature and what it does not cover.

b. a confusion exists about which is the adequate explanation for a phenomenon

c. an aspect or an area for an issue has not been recognised yet

d. the researcher tries to avoid stumbling in the field

4. Characteristics of research questions include ______.

a. that they are clear and focused

b. that they cover novel aspects

c. that they ignore the literature

d. none of these is correct

5. Bad research questions ______.

a. are, for example, a general statement

b. state a problem but are not a question

c. are specific and clearly focused

d. are descriptive

6. Research questions ______.

a. guide which literature should be searched and reviewed

b. are refined in the light of the literature that was found

c. guide the collection of data

d. are important for analysing the data

7. Hypotheses ______.

a. are typical of qualitative research

b. are indispensable for qualitative research

c. are the basis of a quantitative study

d. replace research questions in quantitative studies

8. Research questions ______.

a. include a basic question and a study unit for which this question is asked

b. only name a study unit

c. are limited to mentioning a basic question

d. none of these is correct

9. Formulating a research question ______.

a. is the way to make researchers’ personal interest and identification with the research work

b. will help to make a project manageable

c. will clarify, what a study should produce as outcome

d. all of these

10. A hypothesis ______.

a. formulates a relation (e.g., if… then…) that can be tested empirically

b. is the result of the researcher’s hypothetical thinking

c. formulates a relation that is impossible to be or become real

d. is free of any theoretical background

Chapter 5: Reading and reviewing the literature

1. A scientific literature review should include ______.

a. journal articles

b. academic books

c. comic strips

d. tabloid articles

2. Secondary resources are ______.

a. resources of secondary importance

b. autobiographies

c. biographies

d. reviews of primary resources

3. Meta-analysis ______.

a. summarizes existing studies about an issue

b. should be general

c. are without a concrete focus

d. are not important in scientific fields

4. Areas of literature to cover in a literature review include ______.

a. theoretical literature

b. empirical studies

c. popular magazine

d. political statements

5. A literature review should reveal ______.

a. which theories and concepts are used in a field

b. your opinion about the issue

c. your sympathy for certain researchers

d. your general rejection of the research done in the field

6. The structure of a literature review should be oriented on ______.

a. reaching from the funniest to the most boring articles

b. thematic fields of the study (under planning)

c. the focus from the general to the concrete aspects

d. guiding the reader to your specific approach (e.g., a research question to pursue)

7. Building an argument on a literature review ______.

a. should only focus on the point you want to make

b. should ignore contradicting or competing approaches in the field

c. mainly be focused on not to confuse the reader

d. allow readers to follow your argument by weighing up pros and cons

8. Referencing the literature is successful ______.

a. if you only refer to one textbook and take all references as secondary quotations from it

b. when you include the relevant literature as original sources

c. when readers can trace back the original literature from your review

d. when they are limited to ten sources maximum

9. Referencing should ______.

a. be systematic and oriented on one system of referencing

b. reproduce the ways of referencing used in the original resources

c. not be too systematic

d. not be time consuming in doing it

10. Plagiarism ______.

a. is a modern way to manage the mass of literature

b. saves time

c. should be avoided as it is illegal and unscientific

d. means that you take other authors’ formulations and/or ideas without quoting them

Chapter 6: Steps in the research process

1. Planning your research ______.

a. is not necessary as it is an obstacle to creativity

b. can be oriented on several steps that are relevant in (almost) every research project

c. is a textbook idea rather than practical for your work in the field

d. will not work anyway

2. In quantitative research ______.

a. a step by step planning of the itinerary of research is possible

b. you should know about your sample before starting data collection

c. formulating a research design is a crucial step in the process

d. interpretation of results does not play a role

3. In qualitative research ______.

a. a number of steps are similar to the research process in quantitative research

b. planning is not necessary

c. steps should never be more interwoven

d. planning research is not influenced by the work in the field

4. A rough plan for a project of your own research should include ______.

a. the research question

b. the number of participants

c. your happiness about doing this kind of research

d. none of these

5. Operationalization ______.

a. means to transform a hypothesis into entities that can be measured or observed

b. means to transform a hypothesis into questions that can be answered

c. is the crucial step in qualitative research

d. is not necessary in quantitative research

6. Access to the research site ______.

a. is important only in qualitative research

b. is important only in quantitative research

c. defines what you can apply of your methods in the field

d. should be clarified before data collection begins

7. Imagine the study that you have in mind. What might go wrong in the process?

a. You will have problems to find participants.

b. You may find out that you are not familiar with your instruments.

c. The participants may provide boring answers.

d. All of these.

Chapter 7: Designing social research

1. A research proposal ______.

a. should include the plan of the study from the research problem to the results

b. does not need to include the research questions

c. can be without discussing the methods to be used

d. is best presented when not focusing on details of timeline and resources

2. A timescale for a project should include ______.

a. steps in the process research process

b. a grid of months or weeks of the project

c. milestones when which step should be accomplished

d. just an information how long the project will run

3. Research designs for a study should answer questions like ______.

a. what will be studied?

b. why will it be studied?

c. how will it be studied?

d. how could the information material for participants made more aesthetic?

4. Quantitative research designs ______.

a. are constructed around variables and their relations

b. are about controlling the conditions of the study

c. include a sampling plan

d. none of these are correct

5. Longitudinal designs ______.

a. address a process over time

b. include repeated collection of data

c. can be used only in qualitative research

d. can be used only in quantitative research

6. Retrospective designs ______.

a. cover a process looking back from today

b. include repeated collection of data

c. cannot be used in qualitative research

d. are seldom used in quantitative research

7. Random sampling means that you ______.

a. don’t have to develop a sampling procedure

b. need a procedure to guarantee the same chance for every member of the population to be in the sample

c. approach people on the street whom you meet by chance

d. want to make the generalization of your findings possible

8. Purposive sampling means that you ______.

a. select single cases for your study according to their relevance

b. apply substantial rather than formal criteria

c. look for typical cases

d. all of these

9. Convenience sampling means that you ______.

a. select the cases (people or institutions) that are ready to be studied

b. apply the best strategy

c. apply a strategy to use if other more systematic alternatives do not work

d. apply a strategy which is often applied due to limited resources

10. Sampling and access in digital research can be ______.

a. based on the same principles as offline research

b. more complicated as you may not meet the people you select for checking if they really meet the criteria (gender for example)

c. more selective as it is limited to users of the Internet, of Computers, tablets or smartphones

d. all of these

Chapter 8: Deciding on your methods

1. Decisions in the research process ______.

a. are defining what is done and how

b. are not necessary to reflect – just do the research

c. should be taken implicitly

d. should be documented for becoming a part of reporting the research later

2. Research problems in quantitative research ______.

a. should be checked by fitting an empirical study.

b. do not need to be checked for ethical justification

c. should be clearly defined

d. are not important to clarify as long as we can measure something to analyse statistically

3. Aims of quantitative research can be ______.

a. to do a hypothesis testing study

b. to do a population description study

c. just to do another study

d. can be formulated without taking the population into account

4. Research questions in quantitative studies ______.

a. can be the point of reference for all methodological decisions in the process

b. can be adapted to the researchers’ research program

c. are not important

d. are important only in leading to hypotheses

5. Deciding about methods in quantitative research can mean to ______.

a. use existing instruments (e.g., a questionnaire)

b. adapt existing instruments to your population and issue

c. develop a new instrument

d. all of these

6. Deciding about methods in a qualitative study ______.

a. refers to the distinction between direct and indirect access to what happens

b. should be based in the research issue

c. should be driven by what your pet method is

d. is not necessary

7. Generalisation in qualitative research ______.

a. is impossible

b. can mean to develop a typology from comparing cases

c. begins when you refer to features of people in a situation rather than about the individual participant

d. refers to the general population in a country

8. Deciding to combine methods should result from the ______.

a. need to do so because of the issue of your study

b. research question

c. available resources

d. wish of being trendy

9. To do research online can be ______.

a. a surrogate for traditional ways of doing research

b. an extension of traditional research methods

c. a complete re-orientation of research

d. mainly a way of chatting about research

10. Indication of research methods means ______.

a. that you select methods with an eye on the research question and the target group of the study

b. that certain methods are put on an index and can no longer be used

c. that decisions for methods are made by considering the knowledge about the issue and the population

d. none of these

Chapter 9: Triangulation and mixed methods

1. Mixed methods ______.

a. refer only to a combination of qualitative and quantitative research

b. mean that you mix up features of certain methods

c. can be used in various designs

d. will only lead to confirming results

2. Designs of mixed methods research ______.

a. include phase design

b. are characterized by various forms of dominance

c. are per se better than other forms of designs

d. include combinations of theoretical perspectives

3. Qualitative and quantitative research ______.

a. cannot be combined

b. can support each other

c. will only lead to confusion if used together

d. pursue the same logic of research

4. Triangulation includes ______.

a. investigator triangulation

b. theory triangulation

c. numerical triangulation

d. sensitive triangulation

5. Methodological triangulation includes ______.

a. within method triangulation

b. between method triangulation

c. beyond method triangulation

d. triangulation of method and methodology

6. When would you use triangulation?

a. for covering multi-perspective analysis of a complex issue

b. to study an issue from several angles (patients and doctors’ views for example)

c. for finding diversity in several views

d. all of these

7. Results of triangulation may ______.

a. converge

b. contradict each other

c. complement each other

d. all of these

8. Triangulation should be used ______.

a. when you search for results on different levels

b. when you want to combine knowledge and practice as perspectives in your study

c. always

d. in order to impress reviewers and readers

Chapter 10: Using existing data

1. Existing data ______.

a. comes from other researchers

b. is not data to use

c. is unproblematic to use

d. can be documents from everyday lives

2. Which statement is correct about information and data?

a. When using information from the Internet you need to turn them into data.

b. Information becomes data when methods are used with them.

c. Data are selected from available information.

d. None of these

3. Secondary analysis means that you ______.

a. use other researchers’ data for your study

b. use your own data from earlier research for your study

c. can avoid using methods in your research

d. have full control of the quality of your data

4. Secondary data analysis can ______.

a. take a comparative perspective in a cross sectional approach

b. only be quantitative research

c. only be qualitative research

d. be based on a time-series perspective

5. Problems of secondary analysis include ______.

a. that you might not be familiar with the data and their production

b. that data have a different structure compared to what you need for your research

c. that data are missing

d. all of these

6. Research with documents ______.

a. can be qualitative and quantitative

b. can ignore the context in which the documents were produced or used

c. should reflect the purposes behind the documents

d. is always faster than other forms of research

7. Criteria for selecting documents include ______.

a. authenticity

b. credibility

c. aesthetically convincing

d. originality

8. In research, social media can ______.

a. be an issue of research

b. deliver data free to your door

c. can be used as a tool for collecting data

d. can be helpful for contacting and finding participants

9. Features of using social media:

a. Data and information may disappear.

b. You know all you need about your participants.

c. They are a stable and reliable context for research.

d. You can rely on stable links and don’t have to worry about any biases.

10. Big Data ______.

a. can be used without thinking about methods or sampling

b. can over-challenge the researcher with the sheer amount of information they offer

c. are a stable basis for doing research

d. can be used in qualitative and quantitative research if the research question fits

Chapter 11: Collecting data

1. Survey questions should be ______.

a. demonstrating your mastering of academic vocabulary

b. as complicated as possible so that the interviewees cannot reflect their answers

c. clear, unambiguous, close to everyday language and short

d. suggesting a specific answer

2. Positioning of questions refers to ______.

a. making the researchers’ standpoint visible, so that the participants’ may agree

b. the fact that answers to questions are influenced by the questions asked before

c. the need of reflecting effects of questions on other questions when constructing a questionnaire

d. the suggestion that longer questions should be asked in the end, shorter ones at the beginning

3. Questionnaires ______.

a. should be used with small samples for exploring an issue about which not much is known

b. are used for testing hypotheses

c. are helpful for surveys with big samples

d. are standardized

4. Criteria for semi-structured interviews include ______.

a. non-direction in the relation to the interviewee

b. aiming at specificity of interviewees’ views

c. to refrain from asking questions, to listen to the interviewees’ narratives

d. standardization of questions

5. Expert interviews aim at experts’ ______.

a. technical knowledge

b. process knowledge

c. interpretative knowledge

d. biographical knowledge

6. What characterizes as narrative interview?

a. Interviewees shall recount their story with the issue or of their lives.

b. Interviewers refrain from interrupting with questions during such a narrative.

c. A generative narrative question leads to the interviewee’s story before it ends with questions.

d. All of these

7. Forms of observation:

a. participant observation

b. standardized observation

c. covert observation

d. all of these

8. Tasks of virtual ethnography:

a. to navigate the site used for the ethnography

b. to build relationships

c. to teach participants computer skills

d. to document what is seen and collect data on this way

9. Scales in social research include ______.

a. nominal scales

b. ordinal scales

c. evaluative scales

d. consensual scales

Chapter 12: Analyzing data

1. Contingency analysis means ______.

a. in quantitative content analysis, that you look for various concepts that appear in newspaper texts at the same time

b. that you analyse the meaning of concepts

c. just another term for quantitative content analysis

d. just another term for qualitative content analysis

2. Measures of central tendencies:

a. arithmetic means can be used for interval scale data

b. arithmetic means can be used for nominal scale data

c. the mode that can be used for nominal scale data

d. dispersion

3. Transcription in interview studies should ______.

a. follow rules that are applied to all interviews

b. should be adequate in their precision to the analysis that is planned

c. provide summaries of interviews

d. be done differently for every participant

4. Techniques of qualitative content analysis include ______.

a. summarizing content analysis to reduce the original material

b. the use of paraphrases

c. explicative content analysis clarifying meanings of statements

d. interpretative content analysis

5. What characterises grounded theory coding?

a. open, axial and selective coding

b. asking questions to the material, such as ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘when’ etc.

c. using the paradigm model

d. all of these

6. Steps of thematic analysis:

a. familiarizing yourself with your data

b. counting the themes addressed by the interviewee

c. searching and reviewing themes

d. working with semantic and underlying codes

7. Narrative analysis includes ______.

a. analysis of biographical data

b. reconstruction of the case history

c. criticizing the interviewees’ stories

d. distinguishing narrative and other formats of presenting in the interviewees’ accounts

8. Discourse analysis includes ______.

a. coding and analysing texts with guiding questions

b. looking at features of the text producing a specific meaning

c. looking for variability and constructions in the text

d. asking participants for consenting the analysis

9. Data analysis in mixed methods and triangulation can include ______.

a. a separate analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data

b. identifying common themes in the different data sets

c. deciding which is the right set of data

d. using software packages

Chapter 13: What is good research? Evaluating your research project

1. Among the basic criteria for evaluating quantitative research are ______.

a. reliability

b. validity

c. curiosity

d. dignity

2. Forms of reliability ______.

a. retest reliability

b. face reliability

c. communicative reliability

d. parallel study reliability

3. Validity refers to ______.

a. research designs

b. measurement instruments

c. researchers’ personalities

d. participants’ intentions

4. Criterion validity means ______.

a. that the result correspond with an external criterion

b. other results confirm what was found in a study

c. members’ consensus with the results

d. correspondence of the results with the researchers’ belief system

5. Objectivity can be addressed on the following level:

a. data collection

b. data analysis

c. interpretation of the results

d. none of these

6. Representativeness ______.

a. is obtained by using random sampling

b. means that only the most important members of a field are studied

c. means that findings from a sample can be generalized to the population

d. participants feel themselves represented in the results

7. Credibility ______.

a. is a criterion in qualitative research

b. is based on the researchers’ prolonged engagement in the field

c. is the opposite of using member checks

d. defines how far the researchers’ beliefs are correct

8. Peer debriefing means that you ______.

a. present your research to other researchers for identifying blind spots

b. try to influence other researchers to share your view on the results of your study

c. ask the peers of your participants about what they heard about them

d. use exchange with other researchers as a criterion in qualitative research

9. Among the big tent criteria what Tracy suggested for qualitative research are ______.

a. worthy topic and rich rigor

b sincerity and credibility

c. resonance

d. all of these

Chapter 14: Writing up research and using results

1. It is important to write about your research ______.

a. to make results known

b. to make procedures transparent

c. to reflect about what you did in your study

d. all of these

2. A quantitative research report should include ______.

a. the theoretical background of the study

b. the hypothesis

c. philosophical considerations about why one should refrain from research in the area

d. a detailed report of encounters with single participants

3. Describing the empirical procedure of a quantitative study should include ______.

a. the type of study that was conducted

b. measurement of variables

c. a detailed reasoning why a quantitative study was done

d. theoretical backgrounds of the study.

4. In reporting the results it is important to include ______.

a. every detail of the findings

b. the raw data (all scales that were filled by every participant)

c. a condensation of the main and essential findings

d. the biographies of the researchers

5. Evidence means ______.

a. all findings of a study

b. the major outcome of a study

c. the basis of a scientifically informed practice (in medicine for example)

d. the statement of one participant

6. Writing up qualitative research should include ______.

a. most general aspects of the situation

b. how materials were collected and analysed

c. means and standard deviation of the results

d. a description of the control group

7. Van Maanen has suggested the following forms of presentation of qualitative research:

a. realist tales

b. confessional and impressionist tales

c. fairy tales

d. novels

8. Impact with research can be made if ______.

a. the findings are focused and nailed down so that practitioners and lay people see their relevance

b. the language of writing about research is as complicated as possible

c. the audience is expected to adapt to the researchers’ world view

d. the report is as long and as detailed as possible