Deck 1: Research Questions, Design, Strategy and Choice of Methods

Question 1

When researchers first try to specify their research question precisely there are 5 key elements to the strategy they should adopt - 4 of these elements are: define the level of analysis they will use; conduct a literature review; identify the existing theories that are relevant to the research topic; and assess the resource constraints that will limit what questions might be addressed. What is the fifth thing they should do?

A) Conduct a pilot study
B) State what results they hope to find
C) State what hypothesis they will test
D) Map the relationships between the facets of the broad issue to be investigated

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Psychologists employ many 'levels of analysis' in their theorising. Some of the most common ones are: the neurophysiological, interpersonal and macro-societal levels. Which other frequently used level of analysis is listed?

A) Statistical
B) Intrapsychic
C) Psychical
D) Paralogical

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What is secondary data?

A) Information of limited value
B) Information collected as an after thought
C) Information collected initially for another purpose
D) Data which is discarded after primary analysis

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the things listed can a review of published literature not typically help a researcher to do?

A) Refine their research question
B) Choose a theory to use to explain their results
C) Access findings from previous research that were inexplicable
D) Discover all the relevant studies that found no statistically significant results

Question 5

Which of these methods is used in systematic literature reviews in qualitative studies?

A) Meta-narrative
B) Ethnography
C) Idiography
D) Randomised

Question 6

In a case study research design, what is the characteristic that differentiates it from other types of research design?

A) It involves collecting data from only a single person
B) It involves collecting data from a single person on only one occasion
C) It involves collecting data from one person or one community
D) It involves collecting data from one person on a number of different occasions

Question 7

Once upon a time, a student who conducted a literature review relied solely on information from Wikipedia. Why might this result in her tutor criticising her work?

A) She had not used the primary sources in which the research was published
B) She had relied on someone else's summary of the research studies
C) Her selection of studies to review was limited to those chosen by someone else
D) All of a-c

Question 8

According to the 12^th International Conference on Grey Literature, what is 'grey literature'?

A) Research reports of findings that are controversial
B) Research reports that are not commercially published
C) Research reports that are old or ageing
D) Research reports that are unavailable publicly

Question 9

Which of the following labels is also used for a 'forest plot'?

A) Histogram
B) Branch plot
C) Blobbogram
D) Flowchart

Question 10

What is a 'research design'?

A) The overall plan for a piece of research before, during and after data collection
B) The description of the type of data to be collected in the research
C) The method for collecting data
D) The way the data collected will be analysed

Question 11

If you are doing a piece of research, how should you determine that what you are doing is ethical?

A) Think about whether it accords with your own set of ethical values
B) Find out if other researchers have done it in the past
C) Do the research and monitor if anyone raises ethical issues
D) Get the research design vetted by an ethics committee before commencing to do anything

Question 12

How should the data from pilot studies be used?

A) It should be added to data collected in the main study
B) It should be used to examine whether the data elicitation method is effective
C) It should be used to determine how to analyse data from the main study
D) It should be used to revise the hypothesis to be tested in the main study

Question 13

What level of measurement are standardised psychological tests assumed to be at?

A) Nominal
B) Ordinal
C) Interval
D) Ratio

Question 14

What are multi-method approaches to research?

A) They use a battery of research methods within a single research project
B) They involve collaborations with researchers from disciplines outside of psychology
C) They use different levels of analysis on the same data
D) They rely on 'big data'

Question 15

Which of these statements best describes what is meant by a 'paradigm' in science?

A) A theory or model
B) An example or pattern
C) A set of concepts for what are deemed to constitute legitimate contributions to a field
D) A specific method

Question 16

Which of the listed has never been used as a paradigm in psychology ?

A) Psychoanalysis
B) Behaviourism
C) Constructivism
D) Intrapretivism

Question 17

Is quantitative research associated with positivism?

A) Always
B) Often
C) Rarely
D) Never

Question 18

How do qualitative researchers traditionally use the concept 'validity'?

A) It is used to reflect the level of agreement that an interpretation of data elicits
B) It is used to reflect the extent to which the data agree with the researchers' expectations
C) It is used to reflect the extent to which the data correspond to an independent test or criterion
D) It is used to reflect the degree to which the findings are popularly believed to be true

Question 19

What is the key distinction between positivism and neo-positivism?

A) Neo-positivists reject the importance of critical rationalism
B) Neo-positivists challenge the absolute primacy of the senses as a source of knowledge
C) Positivists are strongly aligned with the hypothetico-deductive method
D) Positivists believe that data are collected to test previously proposed theory

Question 20

Which of the following questions is an ontological question?

A) Is human memory a literal reproduction or a construction of the past?
B) What is the nature of knowledge?
C) How is knowledge acquired?
D) How do we justify our claims to knowledge?