Deck 4: Understanding Research Philosophies and Approaches

Question 1

Positivism and interpretivism are research philosophies.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

It is important to examine your own 'taken for granted' assumptions when designing research because ________.

A) They will effect what you consider to be valid knowledge
B) They will underpin the methods you choose to gather data
C) They will effect what you consider to be useful knowledge
D) All of the above

Answer 2

All of the above

Question 3

Induction is often seen as the alternative to deduction.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Epistemology and ontology are linked because ________.

A) What you can know about something influences what you think its nature is
B) What you think something's nature is influences what you can know about it
C) Neither of these
D) Both of these

Question 5

A research philosophy contains assumptions about ________.

A) Your methodology
B) Your view of the world
C) Your sampling size
D) None of the above

Question 6

Research philosophies are about ________.

A) Development of knowledge
B) Nature of knowledge
C) Both
D) None

Question 7

Which of these is a philosophical concern for understanding the differences between social actors?

A) Subjectivism
B) Interpretivism
C) Objectivism
D) Realism

Question 8

The word paradigm means ________.

A) A theoretical framework
B) Being forced to do something
C) A branch of physics
D) A type of sampling

Question 9

There are two types of realism: direct realism and ________.

A) Indirect realism
B) Critical realism
C) Implicit realism
D) Empirical realism

Question 10

Burrell and Morgan's (1979) four paradigms are defined by four dimensions. Subjectivist, Objectivist, ________.

A) Radical change and Stagnation
B) Regulation and Chaos
C) Radical change and Regulation
D) Stagnation and Chaos

Question 11

Which of Burrell and Morgan's (1979) four research paradigms is defined as objectivist and focussing on radical change?

A) Functionalist
B) Interpretive
C) Radical humanist
D) Radical structuralist

Question 12

Which of Burrell and Morgan's (1979) four research paradigms is defined as subjectivist and focussing on radical change?

A) Functionalist
B) Interpretive
C) Radical humanist
D) Radical structuralist

Question 13

Which of Burrell and Morgan's (1979) four paradigms is concerned with providing practical solutions to practical problems?

A) Functionalist
B) Interpretive
C) Radical humanist
D) Radical structuralist

Question 14

Which of Burrell and Morgan's (1979) four paradigms assumes power to be a relationship?

A) Functionalist
B) Interpretive
C) Radical humanist
D) Radical structuralist

Question 15

A natural scientist's research philosophy is related to interpretivism.

Question 16

Epistemology refers to ________.

A) Your view of the world
B) What constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study
C) A framework of reality to understand phenomena
D) A theory of organisations

Question 17

Your 'ontology' is your belief about the nature of ________.

A) Positivism
B) Knowledge
C) Reality
D) Learning

Question 18

Highly structured, large samples and quantative techniques are data collection techniques usually associated with ________.

A) Pragmatism
B) Positivism
C) Interpretivism
D) Mixed methods

Question 19

Which of these views social entities as separate from social actors?

A) Objectivism
B) Axiology
C) Interpretivism
D) Subjectivism

Question 20

The positivist paradigm prefers working with observable reality to produce law-like generalisations.

Question 21

If you were adopting a pragmatistic research approach, to collect your data you would be most likely to choose ________.

A) A quantitative method
B) A qualitative method
C) Experiments
D) It would depend on the study

Question 22

Where there is already a lot known about your research topic it is usual to take a deductive approach to research.

Question 23

"A change in financial accounting procedures will result in higher profits being reported." This statement is a ________.

A) Ontological position
B) Value statement
C) Paradigm
D) Hypothesis

Question 24

Writing a personal statement of values is useful to ________.

A) Increase your awareness of your own opinions
B) Get your research proposal accepted
C) Demonstrate you are being objective
D) Guide your literature search

Question 25

Carefully study the stages below. Do they refer to Induction or Deduction?
Observations made
Theory developed
Hypothesis worded
Hypothesis tested on data
Theory revised

A) Induction
B) Deduction

Question 26

Defining 'customer loyalty' by the number of visits to a website per month from the same IP address is an example of ________.

A) Choosing your epistemology
B) A structured methodology
C) Operationalising your concepts
D) A flawed methodology

Question 27

Which research approach will suit the following research question best? "How does the behaviour of followers affect leadership success?"

A) Induction
B) Deduction
C) Neither
D) Both

Question 28

Which research approach will suit the following research question best? "Does trade union presence have a significantly negative influence on the profits of medium-sized companies?"

A) Induction
B) Deduction
C) Neither
D) Both

Question 29

In the deductive approach it is important to use a structured methodology.

Question 30

"Sayeed decides to conduct an online survey of commuters' means of travel to work so that he will not influence their answers in any way." What is Sayeed trying to ensure here?

A) Value freedom
B) Qualitative data
C) Replication
D) Induction

Question 31

Your research approach is the way you negotiate access to an organisation.

Question 32

Why would followers of induction criticise the deductive approach?

A) It is too complicated
B) It does not allow for alternative explanation
C) It relies on subjective data
D) None of these reasons

Question 33

Inductive and deductive approaches should never be combined in the same piece of work.

Question 34

"Rebecca conducts some interviews with students to find out their music downloading habits. She then constructs a questionnaire to see if these habits are common across all the students at her university and if there are any cultural differences between UK and Chinese students." What research approach has she adopted here?

A) Deductive
B) Inductive
C) Neither of these
D) Both of these

Question 35

"Values play a large role in interpreting results from both objective and subjective points of view." The axiological beliefs of which research approach are being stated here?

A) Pragmatism
B) Positivism
C) Realism
D) None of these

Question 36

In-depth qualitative interviewing based on small scale samples is a data collection strategy usually associated with interpretivism.

Question 37

"The activities performed by managers are now so well established in our society that 'management' can be seen as having a reality independent of individual managers." This statement is ________.

A) True, if you are an interpretivist
B) True, if you are a positivist
C) True, if you are an ontologist
D) None of these

Question 38

Which of these are depicted in the innermost section of the 'research onion' (Saunders et al 2008: 108)?

A) Research philosophy
B) Choice of methods
C) Research strategies
D) Techniques and procedures

Question 39

Which of the following is NOT a research paradigm?

A) Interviewing
B) Realism
C) Interpretivism
D) Positivism

Question 40

"Reality exists independent of humans but is interpreted through social conditioning." Which research paradigm's ontological assumptions are being described here?

A) Direct realism
B) Interpretivism
C) Critical realism
D) Positivism

Question 41

The word 'axiology' means ________.

A) Plotting your data on a graph
B) The study of value judgements
C) Adopting a multi-method approach
D) The study of reality

Question 42

In order for a positivist to study social phenomena they must first find ways to make invisible processes (like trust, for example) observable.

Question 43

Which of these is NOT an ontological assumption?

A) Qualitative data must be used
B) Reality is socially constructed
C) An objective world exists beyond our senses
D) None of these

Question 44

Our values have an important impact on the research we do and the way we do it.

Question 45

Which is most likely to be the odd one out?

A) Subjectivism
B) Objectivism
C) Positivism
D) Natural science

Question 46

Monica wants to find out whether members of a health club with higher incomes actually visit the facilities less. Which of these is an appropriate hypothesis for her to test?

A) There is a negative relationship between membership and visits
B) Income level affects gym membership
C) There is a negative relationship between visits and income levels
D) Visits are positively associated with membership

Question 47

Phenomenology and symbolic interactionism are associated with which epistemology?

A) Positivism
B) Interpretivism
C) Realism
D) Pragmatism

Question 48

What is the difference between a research approach and a research paradigm

A) Approach is broad, paradigm is narrow
B) Paradigm is objective, approach is subjective
C) Nothing, they are both sets of theoretical assumptions
D) A paradigm is a more rigorous type of research

Question 49

Caroline is researching the reasons why customers return garments to a fashion store to investigate manufacturing quality. Which of the following would she probably NOT do if she was taking a positivist approach to this problem?

A) Record the stated reasons for return
B) Develop a hypothesis
C) Interview the customers
D) Count the number of garments returned

Question 50

You have chosen to undertake your project using the inductive approach. Which factor might cause you to switch to a deductive approach?

A) You cannot generate enough data
B) You find your research question is already well researched
C) You have no access to an organisation
D) All of these