Mock exam

Which of the following statements about the quality of case study designs is not correct?

A major feature of qualitative methods is their facility to describe and display phenomena as experienced by the study population. The research concerned with identifying what exists in the social world and the way it manifests itself, is called:

The qualitative analysis approach which aims to identify deterministic laws and the essential character of phenomena, involving an iterative process of defining a problem, formulating and testing hypotheses, then reformulating the hypothesis or redefining the problem until all cases ‘fit’ the hypothesis (Robinson, 1951) is called:

The key feature(s) of in-depth interview is (are):

A researcher intends to perform a qualitative study concerning the impact of mergers and acquisitions on employee’s work satisfaction. In the research design he considers to explore, on one hand, the changes occurring at the micro-level, namely how individual employees perceive the merger over time. On the other hand, he studies the changes occurring at the macro-level, namely how the organization changes after the merger. What is the most appropriate choice for the research design?

There is much diversity among qualitative researchers in the meaning attached to ‘generalization’ and whether qualitative research findings are capable of supporting wider inference. The generalization form, whether what is found in a research sample can be generalized to, or held to be equally true of the parent population from which the sample is drawn, is called:

Proposition 1: A good research design is clearly defined, with coherence between research questions and methods, which will generate valid and reliable data. Proposition 2: Given that social and business research involves an element of the unknown, qualitative research offers the advantage of flexibility. Research design is therefore not a discrete stage, but a continuing process.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a case study:

Proposition 1: In in-depth interviews, responsive questions asked to find out more about what has been raised, and whose aim is to obtain greater clarity, detail or depth of understanding – for example to elicit further description, an example, an explanation, and so on, are called prompts. Proposition 2: In in-depth interviews, those questions which come from the researcher rather than directly from what an interviewee has said, used where the researcher wants to ask the interviewee to reflect on something else – perhaps something raised in other interviews, or that the researcher thought might be relevant from his own reading and thinking, are called probes.

Proposition 1: Theoretical sampling is a particular type of purposive sampling in which the researcher samples incidents, people or units on the basis of their potential contribution to the development and testing of theoretical constructs. Proposition 2: Theoretical sampling is the process of data collection for generating theory whereby the analyst jointly collects, codes, and analyses his data and decides what data to collect next and where to find them, in order to develop his theory as it emerges.

Which of the following options for choosing sample frames does not belong to the ‘existing information sources’ type:

Proposition 1: In in-depth interviews, ‘perspective-widening’ questions belong to the type of content-mining questions. Proposition 2: In in-depth interviews, ‘amplificatory probes’ questions belong to the type of content-mapping questions.

Existing criteria to assess the quality of quantitative research are reformulated in order to approach the quality of qualitative research. The criteria concerning the replicability of qualitative research findings and whether or not they would be repeated if another study, using the same or similar methods, was undertaken, is called:

Consider the following excerpt from an in-depth interview. ➢ Interviewer: Have you ever applied for a benefit?

• Interviewee: No, I haven’t, I wouldn’t want to. ➢ Interviewer: Why is that?
• Interviewee: I’ve always managed to be self-sufficient all my life and I couldn’t bear to ask for money I wasn’t entitled to. ➢ Interviewer: What makes you say you are not entitled to it?
• Interviewee: Well, I haven’t paid towards it at all so I am not really entitled to anything, am I? I would feel very uncomfortable. It would feel like I was having to accept charity.

Which type of content mapping questions uses the interviewer in the fragment presented above?

The qualitative researcher needs to be aware of the different phases through which groups can pass, and to make use of each. The model of group phases (Tuckman and Jenson, 1977) identifies the following five stages in small group development:

Data analysis in grounded theory research involves:

Which of the following questions from an in-depth interview can be suspected of being a leading question?

Proposition 1: The range of sampling strategies where the intention is to produce a sample which is statistically representative of the sampled population, where the sample is selected randomly and each unit has the known probability of selection is generally appropriate for qualitative research. Proposition 2: Stratified purposive sampling, a hybrid approach in which the aim is to select groups that display variation on a particular phenomenon, but each of which is fairy homogeneous (so that subgroups can be compared), is generally appropriate for qualitative research.

In focus groups, the researcher’s role (or moderator’s role) is:

The approach whose aim is to generate or discover a theory, and where the researcher has to set aside existing theoretical ideas is called:

Different approaches to purposive sampling, designed to yield different types of sample composition are available, depending on the aim and coverage of the study. The deliberate sampling strategy to include phenomena which vary widely from each other, and where the aim is to identify themes which cut across the variety of cases or people is called:

When case study research is being used as a method to develop pertinent hypotheses and propositions for further inquiry, it is a form of:

Existing criteria to assess the quality of quantitative research are reformulated in order to approach the quality of qualitative research. The criteria addressing the extent to which the phenomena under study is being correctly and accurately reflected, as perceived by the study population, is called:

Proposition 1: Structured observation leads to less bias. Proposition 2: Undisguised observation leads to less bias.

‘Enabling and projective’ techniques are potential useful research instruments to be considered when designing fieldwork research. A short description of a particular circumstance, person of event, which might be described verbally by the researcher or a written version shown, is called:

In grounded theory, categories are developed during data analysis phase. Which of the following statements is not true?

If the researcher is engaged in a community when doing participant observational research, thereby actively participating in the core activities without being committed to the group’s values, goals or attitudes, this can be considered:

Which of the following concepts should be analyzed when observing a phenomenon?

Documents not only show advantages as sources of data. Which of the following statements covers best the disadvantage(s) associated with documents as sources of data?