ARAŞTIRMA YÖNTEMLERİ

Research questions should be feasible so that there is available time, energy, and even sufficient budget to investigate them. For instance, rather than administering a questionnaire to the entire population, a random sampling strategy could be selected and generalized to the population.

A variable is a concept that may refer to any variation in a context. For example, artifacts used in elections can be a variable. Gender, education, nationality are all nouns that can be counted as variables.

Systematic sampling is the selection of a sample systematically from the population- it belongs to the non-random sampling strategy. Consider the 4000 students in a list of a university campus, you may systematically select the 10th student. In other words, the researcher selects from the list the student number 10, 20, 30, and so on, until 4000. In case the researcher wants to make sure to avoid any biases possible, can randomly select the first number from a box numbered 1-10, and if the figure 2 appears, he or she can select the every 12th, 22nd, 32nd and so forth.

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, as part of empirical research, enables to describe populations and phenomena in a detailed tradition based on figures or data, and enables the political scientist to make propositions out of relationships between two or more variables. Observation and experimentation are the strategies that can be employed to test an assumption or a theory. Observation is the most used strategy by political scientists for international relations, or other social sciences while experimentation is not that commonly used due to its nature of testing. For instance, in experimentation if the political scientist is interested in understanding the relationship of a political theory and humans social well-being, there needs to be two equivalent groups to understand the relationship or to verify the theory. Consequently, experimental research earns to be explained thoroughly and rigorously due to its complex nature of working with humans and the many social, cultural, anthropological, economic, political or historical factors that need to be considered in designing experimental research for social sciences. The correct answer is D.

Correlational studies enable the researcher to identify how one or a set of variables are related to another or enable the researcher to make predictions. Especially in the case where it is difficult to conduct an experimental study, the researcher can make use of the available data to analyze the relationships among different variables. Correlational research contradicts with experimental research in the sense that no variable is manipulated in this method. In the hypothetical example, the researcher is interested in exploring if there is a correlation between the number of daily study hour and school grades average.  Using scatterplots enable the researcher to see the regression line and interpret the correlation between these two variables of interest. The correct answer is B.

Causal comparative research which is also called as ex post facto (after the fact for Latin) attempts to determine the cause or consequences of differences that already exist between identified set of subjects. These sample variables (e.g. gender, personality traits, etc.) do not allow the researcher for manipulation and they attempt to explore causation. The correct answer is C.

Coverage refers to drawing samples form a list of irrelevant samples to represent the population. The correct answer is A.

Choice A has more than one objective. Choice B implies a preferred way to answer through a leading question. Choice C contains double negative expressions. Choice D is too technical. The best answer is E.

One of the earliest, yet most expensive approach could be the face-to-face interviews. It is advantageous in that it increases the likelihood for participation. However, it has the longest duration for data collection. The correct answer is D.

Research questions should be feasible so that there is available time, energy, and even sufficient budget to investigate them. For instance, rather than administering a questionnaire to the entire population, a random sampling strategy could be selected and generalized to the population. The correct answer is E.

In order to prepare good research questions or identify hypotheses it is essential to understand the difference between independent and dependent variables. Through an independent variable, a researcher can study its effect on one or more variables. Thus how the independent variable affects the dependent variable is studied. In the example, the daily amount of caffeine consumption of adults may or may not affect the blood pressure, but not vice versa physiologically. Thus, blood pressure is the dependent variable. The correct answer is A.

Variables can be defined as ‘quantitative variables’ and ‘categorical variables., Quantitative variables are mostly able to be divided into smaller chunks such as weight in kilograms, or height in centimeters, or age in numbers, or as magnitude of interest represented in figures like 1 for little interest or 5 for high interest, or 1 for disagreement and 5 for agreement. All those ratings hold a continuum in themselves and therefore are called quantitative. Categorical variables, on the other hand, are not varying in degrees, or amounts or quantity, they rather are part of a category such as gender, one is either male or female; or marital status, married, single, divorced, or other, or such as nationality, or school type, either public school or private school. The correct answer is B.

Convenience sampling does not enable the researcher to generalize the findings from the sample to the targeted population and it is the least suggested sampling strategy (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2010). In this situation the sampling strategy selected may cause internal validity threat because the sample the researcher reached may consist of a group of volunteers and they may feel to please the data collector and this is likely to cause bias related to the field studied, and the results will not be reliable. The correct answer is C.

Correlational studies enable the researcher to identify how one or a set of variables are related to another or enable the researcher to make predictions. The correct answer is C.

Causal comparative research which is also called ex post facto (after the fact for Latin) attempts to determine the cause or consequences of differences that already exist between an identified set of subjects. The correct answer is A.

Experimental research is a research type that explicitly attempts to influence a particular variable. It is also considered to be the best method to test hypotheses related to cause-and-effect relationships. The correct answer is B.

Empirical research is about any research that is based on observational data indicating that knowledge is derived from actual experience or experiment rather than from a certain theory or belief. The correct answer is E.

One easy way of calculating descriptive statistics is using tools such as Microsoft Excel, or SPSS software data analysis packages. Through using such tools, the researcher or political scientist can easily convert the data collected from the online surveys to the program or manually insert the data collected through interviews, phone calls, or filled out questionnaires. The correct answer is D.

Research questions should be feasible, clear, significant, specific, ethical, and measurable to initiate a research study. The answer is C.