CRS Qualitative Research Approaches 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which data collection method is most associated with ethnographic research?
- Structured telephone surveys
- Prolonged participant observation in natural settings (Correct answer)
- Randomized controlled experiments
- Large-scale questionnaire distribution
Correct answer: Prolonged participant observation in natural settings
Ethnography relies on prolonged participant observation to understand cultural practices from an insider perspective.
Question 2: In qualitative research, what does 'member checking' involve?
- Verifying participant eligibility criteria
- Sharing findings with participants to confirm accuracy (Correct answer)
- Counting the number of research team members
- Checking membership in professional associations
Correct answer: Sharing findings with participants to confirm accuracy
Member checking (respondent validation) involves returning findings to participants to verify the researcher has accurately represented their perspectives.
Question 3: What distinguishes a focus group from individual in-depth interviews?
- Focus groups use structured questionnaires while interviews are unstructured
- Focus groups leverage group dynamics and interaction to generate data (Correct answer)
- Focus groups are always conducted online while interviews are face-to-face
- Focus groups analyze secondary data while interviews collect primary data
Correct answer: Focus groups leverage group dynamics and interaction to generate data
The defining feature of focus groups is the deliberate use of group interaction and discussion to produce insights that would not emerge from individual interviews.
Question 4: Which approach would a researcher use to develop theory directly from systematically collected qualitative data?
- Phenomenology
- Grounded theory (Correct answer)
- Case study
- Narrative inquiry
Correct answer: Grounded theory
Grounded theory, developed by Glaser and Strauss, uses constant comparative analysis to inductively build theory from empirical data.
Question 5: In qualitative coding, what is 'axial coding' in grounded theory?
- The initial open coding of raw data
- Reassembling data by making connections between categories (Correct answer)
- Writing theoretical memos about emerging concepts
- Selecting the core category that integrates all others
Correct answer: Reassembling data by making connections between categories
Axial coding in Strauss and Corbin's version of grounded theory involves relating subcategories to categories along dimensional axes.
Question 6: What is the primary goal of phenomenological research?
- To describe cultural norms of a specific group
- To understand the lived experience of a phenomenon as described by those who have experienced it (Correct answer)
- To generate theoretical models predicting human behavior
- To compare outcomes across multiple case studies
Correct answer: To understand the lived experience of a phenomenon as described by those who have experienced it
Phenomenology seeks to uncover the essential, universal structures of conscious experience as described by participants who have lived through a phenomenon.
Question 7: Which sampling strategy involves selecting cases that are ordinary or typical rather than extreme?
- Extreme case sampling
- Snowball sampling
- Typical case sampling (Correct answer)
- Maximum variation sampling
Correct answer: Typical case sampling
Typical case sampling deliberately selects average, representative examples to illustrate what is normal or common in a population.
CRS Qualitative Research Approaches 2
Which data collection method is most associated with ethnographic research?