UNI year 1 > Academic skills > Flashcards

Academic skills Flashcards

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1
Q

List the features of qualitative methods of research

A
  • words, understanding
  • purposive sampling
  • social sciences, soft, subjective
  • inquiry from inside
  • meaning of behaviours, broad focus
  • discovery, gaining knowledge, understanding actions
  • practitioner as human instrument to gather data, prescriptive, personal
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2
Q

List the features of quantitative methods of research

A
  • numbers, explanation
  • statistical sampling
  • physical science, hard, objective
  • inquiry from the outside
  • cause and effect relationships
  • theory/explanation testing and development
  • researcher descriptive, impersonal
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3
Q

What are the common types of quantitative research designs?

A
  • descriptive
  • comparative
  • relationship/causal
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4
Q

What is a descriptive research design?

A
  • wanting to understand a situation, facts
  • describe your study participants
  • when you want to describe what is going on or what exists
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5
Q

What is a comparative research design?

A

two or more things are compared with the aim of finding something about one or all of them

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6
Q

What is causal/relationship research design?

A
  • relationship or the causal associations between variables
  • understand the nature of and relationships between variables
  • most relevant when thinking about interventions
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7
Q

What is the order of the research process?

A
  • specify
  • design
  • collect
  • visualise
  • build
  • analyse
  • report
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8
Q

Define statistics

A

science that involves collecting, summarising, analysing and interpreting data

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9
Q

What is a statistic?

A

a single number summarising a variable of interest

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10
Q

Define data

A

collection of facts or information

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11
Q

What are the 2 types of variable?

A
  • independent or explanatory
  • dependent or response
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12
Q

What is a independent/explanatory variable?

A

what you are manipulating OR what you think is associated with outcome

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13
Q

What is a dependent/response variable?

A

outcome variable

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14
Q

What are the 2 data types?

A
  • qualitative (non numerical)
  • quantitative (numerical)
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15
Q

What are the 2 types of qualitative data types?

A
  • categorical (nominal) –> named categories (non numeric), no order
  • ordered categorical (ordinal) –> numbered/named categories, natural order
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16
Q

What are the 2 types of quantitative data types?

A
  • discrete (interval) –> whole numbers, doesn’t start at 0
  • continuous (ratio) –> variables can take any value and start at 0
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17
Q

What are the 2 types of hypothesis testing?

A
  • null hypothesis
  • alternative hypothesis
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18
Q

What is a null hypothesis?

A
  • default position
  • no relationship
  • no difference
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19
Q

What is a alternative relationship?

A
  • relationship
  • difference
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20
Q

Define population

A

a total set of observations that can be made

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21
Q

Define sample

A

a selected subgroup of a population

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22
Q

What are the 3 types of sample?

A
  • simple random
  • stratified random
  • convenience
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23
Q

What is a parameter

A

a single number that summarises a variable of interest

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24
Q

What is internal validity?

A

problems due to manipulation or other causes

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25
What is external validity?
generalisability to a wider population, comparability with other literature
26
Define population total
sum of all the elements in the sample frame
27
Define population mean?
the average of all elements in a sample frame or population (usually only estimated)
28
Define sampling frame?
a list of all the units in the population from which the sample is selected
29
Define sampling error
the mean of a sample will not be the same as the mean of a population, can be minimised but not eliminated using good selection criteria
30
Define sampling variability
different samples from the same population do not always produce the same mean and SD
31
Define non-sampling error
errors not connected with the sampling method
32
Define hypothesis
an assumption, theory or tentative statement based on limited evidence or a relationship between variables which can be tested, verified or falsified
33
Define methodology
the strategy or plan of action which lies behind the choice and use of particular methods
34
Define positionality
the stance or position of the researcher in relation to the context of the study, or the population being studied
35
What is research?
the systematic gathering, presenting and analysing of data
36
What is a paradigm?
a "basic belief system or worldview"
37
What are the 4 types of paradigm?
- ontology - epistemology - axiology - methodology
38
What is ontology?
"the study of being" or the philosophy of knowledge
39
What is axiology?
- philosophical approach to making decisions of value - ethical issues that need to be considered when planning research proposals
40
What is epistemology?
philosophical study of how knowledge is acquired
41
What is methodology?
refers to the research design, methods, approaches and procedures used in an investigation
42
What are the 2 epistemology's that we need to know?
- positivism - interpretivism
43
Define positivism
knowledge is discovered
44
Define interpretivism?
knowledge is constructed
45
What are the 2 ontology's that we need to know?
- realism - constructivism
46
Define realism
objective and independent
47
Define constructivism
shaped by perception and social context
48
What is the equation for working out the Z score?
Z = X - mean/ sd
49
When is something considered to have a normal distribution?
if a continuous (ratio-interval) random variable has a symmetric bell-shape curve
50
For working out population from graphs what is one factor you need to remember?
area = population
51
What is a qualitative research question?
a (broad) question that seeks to explore experiences and meaning-making of a particular topic
52
What are the common purposes of research?
- information - facilitating change - ethical issues - academic mission
53
What are the methods for qualitative research?
- interviews - focus groups - observations - participatory
54
What are the 2 main forms of interviews?
- semi-structured - unstructured
55
What is the most commonly used qualitative method?
interviews
56
What do you find out through interviews?
- how individuals feel/think - why they hold certain opinions - explore their context/experiences - private/confidential conversation
57
What are semi-structured interviews?
- elements of structure but can be flexible - greater 'standardisation' across interviews - more researcher control over interviews
58
What are unstructured interviews?
- single question - no interview structure - participants respond freely - flexible, natural occurring data - conversational in structure - less researcher control over topics
59
What are focus groups?
- group interviews where the researcher facilitates the process - still require structure and purpose - questions around a core aim - flexible to embrace ideas from participants - room for creativity and involve tasks to aid engagement
60
When would you us focus groups?
- when conducting research with children, young people and marginalised/under-represented groups - good tool for under-researched areas as do not require prior knowledge - participants interactions can reveal group dynamics through verbal communication and body language
61
What are observations?
- method used for describing events, behaviours and artifacts in real-world settings - researcher can take an 'outsiders view'
62
When would you use observations?
- good for understanding real life, not just perceptions about real life - valuable when research is interested in practice - most effective when used in combination with other approaches
63
What are participatory methods?
- involves the participation and leadership of those people experiencing issues - aims to give power and voice to groups of individuals
64
What is the inclusion criteria?
researchers choose individuals who they believe will provide information rich cases, these can be homogenous or people from different contexts
65
What are the recruitment strategies for inclusion criteria?
- criterion based sampling - predetermined criteria - snowball sampling - participants direct the researcher to other participants - total population sampling - everyone who is involved with your topic of study
66
Define rigour
used to describe the trustworthiness of data
67
What is the 8 'Big Tent' criteria
1. worthy topic 2. rich rigour 3. sincerity 4. credibility 5. resonance 6. significant contribution 7. ethical 8. meaningful coherence
68
What is thematic analysis (TA)?
- a common approach to analysing qualitative data - flexible approach - organises and describes meaningfully in relation to research questions - use for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns in data - identifying and describing explicit and implicit ideas in data - requires involvement and interpretation from the researcher
69
Uses of TA
- understand a pre-determined idea - develop new ideas/theories - explore patterns of meaning emerging or constructed from data - interpretative
70
How many phases are there in TA?
7
71
What are the 7 phases in TA?
1. transcription 2. familiarisation with the data 3. generating initial codes 4. searching for themes 5. reviewing the themes 6. defining and naming themes 7. writing the report
72
Stage 1 - what is transcription?
the process of converting speech into text for analysis
73
Stage 1 - what 3 things should transcription be?
1. verbatim - not paraphrased or summarised or in any way 'doctored' 2. holistic - recording the words of both researcher and respondent 3. accurate - a true representation of the conversation
74
Stage 2 - what is familiarisation?
reading and re-reading of your dataset
75
Stage 2 - what are the 3 processes of familiarisation?
- developing deep knowledge of the data (immersion) - critically engaging with the data - note making of thoughts related to the dataset
76
Stage 3 - what does coding help you to do?
- systematically identify the patterns in data - reduce the data set into manageable 'chunks'
77
Stage 3 - define code
description attached to a piece of data which can be later related to a theme
78
Stage 3 - define coding
'to pull apart' data
79
List the ways you can code data
- working through texts and marking them up (colours) - cutting and sorting - using post-it notes - writing notes in the margins on the transcripts - CAQDAS (computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software) - NB. some critique of software use - still needs researcher engagement, programmes only 'assist' analysis
80
What are the 2 types of code?
- semantic (data-derived) - latent (researcher-derived)
81
What is semantic (data-derived) codes?
provide a succinct summary of the explicit content of the data, they are semantic codes because they are based in the semantic meaning in data
82
What is latent (researcher-derived) codes?
go beyond the explicit content of the data, they are latent which invoke the researcher's conceptual and theoretical frameworks to identify implicit meanings within the data
83
Stage 4 - what is a theme?
- patterns across the data sets that are important - categorising codes that 'fit' together (alignment) - commonly recurring topics and or codes
84
Stage 5 & 6 - what are the 2 key concepts in qualitative analysis?
- constant comparison - thick description
85
What is constant comparison?
process of repeatedly 'going through' your data in order to make sense of it. involves comparing codes to generate common themes
86
What is thick description?
providing enough detail to enable reader to understand the context
87
What is visual/conceptual mapping?
- condenses large amounts of data - making sense of codes/memos - start to see links and patterns - helps give structure - facilitates the writing process - facilitates understanding for the reader - can help to clarify 'storyline' before writing
88
Stage 7 - what should you use in this?
quotations from transcripts act as evidence for your theme development
89
Why do we do research?
- information - facilitating change - ethical issues - academic mission
90
Why do we want to find information in research?
- acquire new knowledge - find answers - solutions to problems
91
Why do we want to facilitate change during research?
- enhance practice - new ways of doing things - improve experiences
92
Why is ethical practice important during research?
- prevents harm to individuals and researchers - reduces waste - improves life conditions - leads to social change - ensures appropriate processes are followed
93
What is the outcomes of academic mission in research?
- profile - contributions - enterprise
94
What is research?
- systematic process - organised inquiry - study a problem systematically - add to knowledge of a problem - critical thinking - provide information
95
What are the parts within the boat research?
- systematic inquiry - collection of data - documentation of critical information - analysis and interpretation - in accordance with suitable methodologies - finding about how the world works, learn about what works and what doesn't - critical thinking
96
What is the main driving point of research?
critical thinking
97
What are the 3 types of errors (error triangle)?
- sampling variability - sampling error - non-sampling error
98
Why do we need to sample?
- human variability - sample likely to differ from population - confidence in generalisation - want to make claims about general population
99
What does quantitative research involve?
a systematic examination of phenomena through testing a hypothesis - development of statistical models to explain an observable phenomena
100
What are research ethics?
the moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or how an activity is conducted
101
What are the ethics key concepts?
- consent - participant information - confidentiality - risk assessment
102
Why do we need ethics?
- historical element - past unethical practice is now viewed differently - legal responsibility
103
What type of graph would you use for one continuous variables?
histogram
104
What type of graph would you use for nominal or ordinal data?
- bar charts - pie charts
105
What type of graph would you use for ratio/interval data?
- histogram - boxplot
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