ARAŞTIRMA YÖNTEMLERİ - Deneme Sınavı - 1

Based on the fact that a whole means more than the collection of its parts, research subject is approached with a holistic perspective. Collected with this standpoint, data should also be analyzed through a holistic approach. What lies under this idea is the hypothesis that the nature of human behavior is sophisticated and cannot be easily divided into smaller parts. That is why qualitative research efforts focus on the unity of variables that comprise the problem and the relations among them. The correct answer is A.

Case study is close examination of an event or phenomenon in its context in a given time-period. Ethnography is a research design where a researcher analyzes common behaviors, language, and action models of an intact culture within their natural environment during a long time-span. Narrative inquiry is a qualitative research design where written documents or conversations are interpreted about an event or a course of events that are chronologically related. Phenomenology is a research design to study participants’ experiences about a phenomenon they define. Grounded theory is a qualitative research design aiming to find out a general abstract theory about a process, action, or interaction grounded in participants’ standpoint. The correct answer is C.

Narrative inquiry is a qualitative research design where written documents or conversations are interpreted about an event or a course of events that are chronologically related. Case study is close examination of an event or phenomenon in its context in a given time-period. Ethnography is a research design where a researcher analyzes common behaviors, language, and action models of an intact culture within their natural environment during a long time-span. Phenomenology is a research design to study participants’ experiences about a phenomenon they define. Grounded theory is a qualitative research design aiming to find out a general abstract theory about a process, action, or interaction grounded in participants’ standpoint. The correct answer is D.

An indispensable principle of ethnographic studies is “the reflection of social life as it is experienced by the members of that group”. The correct answer is E.

Interview is a data collection technique that enables a researcher to gather data that observation and questionnaire techniques cannot unravel and to examine participants’ feelings, opinions, perceptions, and attitudes. The correct answer is E.

Employing documents as a data collection technique in a qualitative research may produce the following advantages:

The correct answer is B.

First major criterion for rigor in qualitative research is “internal validity” (trustworthiness), which means questioning the true value of the research for trustworthiness and to clarify the question “Does this research have a valid value?” Answering the questions below could be advised to establish trustworthiness for a given research. The correct answer is C.

If the aim of a research is to determine how standpoints about an event or a phenomenon vary from one participant
to another, and if the event or phenomenon is conceived to be influenced by an individual’s personal features (such as political thoughts, socioeconomic status, etc.), then maximum variation sampling could be the right technique to select participants. The correct answer is D.

Steps to be followed to conduct a qualitative research are identifying the research focus or problem, selecting participants, data collection techniques, data analysis, and reporting. The correct answer is B.

For narrative research design, classification is utilized in general: thematic analysis, structural analysis, interactive analysis, and performative analysis. According to this classification, in thematic analysis, a researcher gathers many narrations and concludes findings by grouping the data conceptually via an inductive approach. As for structural analysis, what matters more than narration is the form of narration, and it is a suitable approach to provide details in case studies and to compare more than one narration. Interactive analysis focuses on the dialogue between the narrator and listener. The focal point of a performative analysis is not the words spoken, but gestures, mimes, and moves accompanying narration, and the effort to convince listeners. The correct answer is A.

A research problem has to be compatible with empirical studies, which is the criterion to distinguish what is scientific from what is not. Therefore, issues regarding metaphysical events, philosophy, theology, and astrology are not suitable to form research problems in a scientific sense as they cannot be examined in empirical studies.

The term variable is used to refer to features that can change.

A variable can bear at least two different values.

Depending on their values and control types, variables are classified in two groups.

With respect to their values, they are labeled as either discrete or continuous variables. If a variable can only assume certain values or options, and if it can be expressed through only whole numbers, then it is a discrete variable. Continuous variables, on the contrary, are those that can take any value between their bottom and top limits, that is to say, they can be expressed in fractions. 

As for the control types, variables are classified into three: dependent, independent, and control variables.

Survey serves to determine general tendency, attitude, or opinions of a population quantitatively or in numerical values by working on a sample chosen from that population. The researcher draws inferences about the population based on the data collected from the sample. Survey can be employed to assess individuals’ attitudes, opinions, tendencies, and beliefs. Most frequent data collection tools for survey are questionnaires, scales, or interviews. Survey can be implemented once (cross-sectional) or at different times (longitudinal).

In this design, a researcher should foresee the formation of two groups: one (or more) is the experimental group consisting of participants given an experimental intervention, and the other is the control group composed of participants who are not either given any experimental manipulation or provided with any test stimuli. The researcher should assign the participants in each group randomly. Subjects cannot decide which group they are going to be in. This random assignment of participants to any of the groups is known as randomization, and placement in any group is a matter of chance. Subsequently, the researcher administers the experimental intervention. In other words, s/he provides the experimental group with relevant stimuli by determining the time, setting, and situation on her/his own. Using this design, the researcher establishes a dependent variable that can be measured both before and after the independent variable is introduced. These are termed as pre-test and post-test measurements, and they indicate if the experimental process has any effect or not. This gauges the effect that the independent variable has over the dependent variable, namely the main focus of that experimental research.

Primary non-parametric statistical techniques utilized in quantitative research involve chi-square, Mann-Whitney U, Spearman Rank Correlational Coefficient P, and Kruskal Wallis Variance Analysis. Likewise, some of the frequently used parametric statistical techniques are correlational analysis, regression analysis, t-Test, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA), and multi-way analysis of variance (MANCOVA).

Qualitative research strives to build up a theory by investigating and understanding social phenomena in their natural environments. During a qualitative research process, researchers focus on people’s behaviors, actions, and interactions. Research process aims to comprehensively understand human behaviors in their natural environments, which requires the researcher be flexible, re-arrange the research process in accordance with obtained data, adopt interpretive approach, and conduct data analysis through an inductive approach.

Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research is not composed of structured processes that a researcher can follow. Thus, a well-defined starting point or rigid procedures that a researcher should follow are not among the properties of a qualitative research process. Rather, it entails a flexible approach, and the research process can be re-arranged depending on circumstances emerging during the research process. Yet, during the planning stage, researchers should

1) form a theoretical framework as the foundational basis,

2) determine a systematic, manageable, and flexible research design, and,

3) turn the research into a meaningful, consistent, and reader-friendly report.

Action research is a cyclical and spiral process that is conducive to development and change, that encompasses individuals’ own practice, that entails systematic data collection, that enables reflective questioning, and as a result of these, that provides opportunities to plan and apply new action. For instance, Let’s say that members of a political party have low levels of participation in the democratic processes within that party. In this regard, action plan can help determine the obstacles preventing members from participating in the democratic processes within the party and increase members’ participation into decision making processes by eliminating those obstacles through planning relevant actions. Action plans and implementation continues until participation is achieved. During drafting an action plan design, a researcher should keep in mind that action plans to be administered should be dynamic and flexible. In other words, a researcher should know that s/he may have to review, and revise action plans depending on their success and develop new action plans from scratch. Moreover, s/he should consider if s/he will include or exclude unforeseen issues pertinent to the research question and emerging during the process.