Research Basics
This type of research focuses on words, meanings, and experiences rather than numbers.
What is qualitative research?
Interviews, observations, and focus groups are examples of these.
What are qualitative research methods?
Participants should understand a study and voluntarily agree to take part. This is called what?
What is informed consent?
This asks questions about the nature of reality.
What is ontology?
Asking whether you have enough time, access, and resources to conduct a study is checking this.
What is feasibility?
This type of reasoning or research moves from gathering data and observations toward building a broader theory.
What is inductive reasoning?
Qualitative researchers often try to understand the “how” and this other question.
What is “why”?
This committee reviews research involving human participants.
What is the Institutional Review Board or IRB?
This perspective says social reality is shaped through human interactions and meanings.
What is social constructivism?
A good qualitative research question is usually open-ended rather than this.
What is yes-or-no / closed-ended?
A characteristic such as age, gender, or income that can take different values is called this.
What is a variable?
Studying people in their everyday natural environment is known as this type of inquiry.
What is naturalistic inquiry?
Children, prisoners, and people with cognitive impairments may be considered this type of population.
What is a vulnerable population?
This area of inquiry asks how we know what we know.
What is epistemology?
A researcher’s own assumptions or expectations can create this problem.
What is researcher bias?
This reasoning begins with a theory or idea and tests it.
What is deductive reasoning?
Detailed descriptions of people, places, and interactions that include context and nuance are called these. Some might say it's the difference between a blink and a wink.
What are think descriptions?
Researchers should protect participants’ private information through this ethical principle.
What is confidentiality?
This approach focuses on understanding the meanings people give to their experiences.
What is interpretivism?
This term refers to the overall strategy or approach used to answer a research question.
What is methodology?
Repeating a study to see whether similar results can be found is called this.
What is replication?
This method involves spending time with a group or community and often participating in events or daily life to understand their everyday lives and culture.
What is participant observation?
This tribe sued after blood samples collected for diabetes research were used for other studies.
Who are the Havasupai?
This theoretical framework develops theory from the patterns found in collected data.
What is grounded theory?
If you want to see how people actually behave in a setting rather than only ask them about it, this method would be especially useful.
What is observation?