Practise

1. Somebody argues that ‘interviews give an authentic insight into people’s experiences’. What is their research model?

a. Positivist

b. Naturalist

c. Constructionist

d. impossible to tell

e. None of these

Ans: B – Naturalist

2. Somebody argues that ‘in interviews, interviewer and interview together produce meaning’. What is their research model?

a. Positivist

b. Naturalist

c. Constructionist

d. impossible to tell

e. None of these

Ans: C – Constructionist. A constructionist model encourages researchers to focus upon how phenomena come to be what they are through the close study of interaction in different contexts. These interactions create their own reality, and there is no need to compare this to an assumed, external ‘reality’.

3. ‘In qualitative research, it is important to check what interviewees tell you against facts you can find about them.’

a. always true

b. sometimes true

c. always false

d. sometimes false

e. an aspiration that is neither true nor false

Ans: C – always false

4. Constructionist analysis of documents involves ______.

a. checking whether they are true or false depictions of reality

b. analysing the stories they tell

c. mixed methods research

d. all of these

e. None of these

Ans: B – analysing the stories they tell. In constructionist analysis, what is important is understanding how reality is created through discourse, not comparing this against ‘true or false depictions of reality’.

5. The analysis of visual data includes the study of ______.

a. photographs

b. advertisements and cartoons

c. videos of workplace activities

d. all of these

e. None of these

Ans: D – all of these. All of these are forms of visual data that can be analysed.

6. Using multiple datasets is appropriate for non-Positivists if we ______.

a. avoid seeking a ‘true’ reading

b. use such datasets to add breadth, complexity, richness and depth to our inquiry

c. avoid using our data to adjudicate between accounts

d. all of these

e. None of these

Ans: D – all of these. All of these are compatible with a non-Positivist approach; it depends on the reasoning behind using multiple datasets.