ARAŞTIRMA YÖNTEMLERİ - Deneme Sınavı - 5

Dillman, Smyth, and Christian (2014) underscore that the researcher needs to avoid four types of errors as cornerstones of good quality surveys.
• Coverage error, which refers to drawing samples form a list of irrelevant samples to represent the population
• Sampling error, which exists any time when the researcher reaches some of the sample and not all members. For instance, instance, to understand the attitudes of political participation of university students the researcher only randomly selects students from one province as the available population rather than the whole country to generalize the findings to the target population;
• Nonresponse error, which occurs when some particular units of analysis tend to answer some particular items which are likely to influence the estimate of the findings;
• Measurement error is described as the difference between the estimate produced and the true value in case the respondents may answer inaccurately to the survey questions.

Tips for writing good survey questions
• Each question should have only one single objective. ‘I volunteer at governmental elections and NGOs’ Note, what if the participant only volunteers in one institution!
• Adopt the same definitions or concepts throughout the survey. For instance, if your key term is university students, keep it like that, and do not alternate it with college students in different parts of the survey.
• Avoid leading items that imply a preferred way to answer.
For example:
‘I think that women make best teachers.’
1) Totally Disagree 2) Disagree 3) Undecided 4) Agree 5) Totally agree
• Avoid rating within the questions such as ‘I always attend student protests.’
1) Never 2) Rarely 3) Sometimes 4) Frequently 5)Always
Avoid loaded questions, especially during face-to-face interview survey, which may emotionally charge the respondent. For example: Do you have cancer?
• Use questions that are simple and easy to understand, and cause no misunderstanding.
• Avoid using technical jargon. It may discourage the individuals to continue with the survey.
• Avoid negative or double negative expressions such as ‘I do not like the politicians,’ or ‘I do not dislike politics.’
• Be precise, avoid estimations such as ‘Estimated how many students are there in your class?’ ask ‘What size is your class.’

-Research questions should be feasible.

-Research questions should be significant.

- Research questions should be ethical.

-Good quantitative research questions should be specific. 

-Good research questions should be measurable.

Random sampling is a strategy that enables every member in the population to become selected and be a part of the study. Random sampling is essential as it avoids the likelihood to select a biased sample.

Content-related validity requires expert judgment in the field of study. Decision on ‘Have I asked the most appropriate question/item to find answers?’.

Greene, Caracelli, and Graham (1989) suggest that five major objectives or motivations exist for conducting MMR. The first one is ‘triangulation’, which provides validation and concurrence of results gained from various methods and designs investigating the same circumstance. ‘Complementarity’, as the second motivation, seeks for further detailing, improvement, interpretation and description of the results obtained from one method with results from the other method. The third one is ‘initiation’, which means unearthing the bias, and discrepancies that cause re-designing of the research question. ‘Development’, the fourth motivation, includes utilizing the findings from one method to deliver clues to other method. The last motivation, ‘expansion’, seeks to expand the size of research with different methods for different investigation factors.

Some of the advantages using the MMR are listed below (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004, p. 21; Johnson and Christensen, 2004, p. 646):
-Researchers can use numbers to add precision to words, pictures and narrative.

-A grounded theory can be created and tested by researcher by means of it.
-A researcher can also use MMR to increase the generalizability of the results.

According to Johnson and Christensen, (2004, p. 647) the weaknesses of
the MMR are as follows:

-It is more time-consuming.

The first type of research objective, exploration, comprises inductive methods to figure out an opinion, argument and the like. In this way, it brings about intuition, hypotheses, deductions or generalization.

Significance enhancement refers to interpretation and utility of findings.

The researchers can follow the steps in a linear way. Firstly, the goal of the study is determined, and then this leads to objectives, purpose, research questions and design linearly. In the last step, the sampling design is selected.

Parallel sampling: Sample for the quantitative and qualitative components of the study are different but are drawn from the same population of interest.

Convergent design: conducting qualitative and quantitative research concurrently, giving equal status to qualitative and quantitative strands, analysing the qualitative and quantitative data separately, making general comment by combining the results.

Exploratory design: conducting qualitative and quantitative research sequentially, begging the study with qualitative data collection and analyses, conducting the quantitative phase based on the qualitative phase by testing
or generalizing the qualitative results, explain how the quantitative data are built on qualitative results.

-Questionnaires can be seen in three categories. The first is the closed ended or structured ones, the second is open ended or unstructured ones, and the last is a mixture of closed ended and openended questionnaires. 

-Actually it can be said that closed ended questionnaires give the researcher
quantitative or numerical data and open-ended ones give qualitative or text information.

-To exemplify, when a participant of study is distant, the researcher may send the questionnaire by post. But the return rate of them become quite low.
Moreover, they can be delivered online. In this process, the rate of return may be slightly higher as it is easier for respondents to reply.

Onwuegbuzie and Teddlie (2003) present a seven-stage conception of the mixed methods data analysis process within the MMR model. These stages are respectively data reduction, data display, data transformation, data correlation,
data consolidation, data comparison, and data integration.

Conversion: The extent to which the quantitizing or qualitizing yields quality meta-inferences

Using quantitative methods to sample data from the entire population also created a lot of controversy, as in the example of the 1990 Census which provoked a major lawsuit in the US for not including the differentiated poor living in the inner cities and the loss of their political presentation. The correct answer is A.

Quantitative research, or also called scientific research method, is a way of obtaining information that provides the researcher with accurate and reliable data that is numeric in nature and has been obtained through testing or comparing ideas in the public arena. Quantitative research is based on observation and the measurement of repeated incidences of a political phenomenon. The correct answer is C.

Deontology is an ethical perspective that judges researchers’ actions according to some absolute/universal duties requiring certain types of action. The correct answer is D.

Research misconduct does not include honest error or honest difference of opinion. Therefore B is the incorrect answer.

A literature review is considered to be a research methodology in its own right when it is carried out systematically. In other words, if a literature review):

Deepening the knowledge related to the research topic is only a purpose of literature review in a study.