1. Which of the following is not associated with a postmodern approach to psychological research? [TY13.1]

1. Idealism.
2. Realism.
3. Constructivism.
4. Relativism.
5. Constructionism.

2. What is the role of a reflexive journal in grounded theory? [TY13.2]

1. To record data that are collected in the field, but that need to be analysed at a later stage, once the researcher has had an opportunity to reflect on them.
2. To allow participants to record their own thoughts and feelings about the research process – in particular, aspects of it that they are uncomfortable with and that they can discuss with the researcher later.
3. To allow researchers to record their thoughts about the research process, so that the rationale for their decisions is recoverable at some later stage.
4. To allow researchers and participants to reflect upon each other’s activity so that differences in their perspective can be reconciled by a third party.
5. To record specific features of the physical environment that reflect on the research process as a whole, but that might be omitted from quantitative analysis.

3. In devising an interview schedule for a study that will involve interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), which of the following should one try to include? [TY13.3]

1. Double-barrelled questions.
2. Jargon.
3. Open questions.
4. Value-laden questions.
5. Offensive questions.

4. Which of the following activities might be carried out as part of discourse analysis? [TY13.4]

1. Transcription of a conversation between two people at a breakfast table.
2. Identification of changes in pitch when a person is speaking.
3. Interpretation of linguistic features in the context of their production.
4. Both (b) and (c).
5. All of the above.

5. A team of researchers investigating young people’s attitudes to marriage favours a contextualist approach to qualitative research in which commitment to the scientific method places emphasis on the perspective of participants and researchers and features of the research context. Which of the following approaches is most likely to appeal to the researchers? [TY13.5]

1. Content analysis.
2. Analysis of contextual variance.
3. Grounded theory.
4. Discourse analysis.
5. Repertory grid analysis.

6. Which of the following qualitative methods does not require coding categories (e.g. themes and concepts) to be defined at an appropriate level – such that they are neither too specific nor too general? [TY13.6]

1. Thematic analysis.
2. Grounded theory.
3. IPA.
4. Discourse analysis.
5. None of the above (all incorporate this requirement).

7. Which of the following statements is true? [TY13.7]

1. It is generally better for a researcher to use one method to collect and analyse data as this avoids confusion.
2. Researchers who use different methods to examine the same issue are more likely to misrepresent features of the phenomena they are investigating.
3. Good researchers do not have methodological preferences as they are aware that these encourage disagreement and conflict.
4. Qualitative methods are interesting, but they have not had much impact on psychology.
5. None of the above.

8. Which of the following is not usually a step in interpretative phenomenological analysis?

1. Definition of research question and sample.
2. Data collection and transcription.
3. Identification of themes in the first case.
4. Identification of themes in subsequent phases.
5. Organization of themes.

9. What is the purpose of an interview schedule in qualitative research?

1. To ensure that questions are asked at the right time
2. To ensure that interviews do not go on for too long.
3. To specify the issues that a researcher wants to explore and the questions that he or she wants to ask.
4. To ensure that different researchers do not ask the same question.
5. To provide an audit trail for quality assurance purposes.

10. According to Spears and Smith (2011) which of the following is true?

1. Experiments are ‘paradigms of discourse’ in which the production of particular results is to some extent contingent upon participants accepting the authority of the experimenter to talk about the experimental situation in particular ways.
2. Experiments are ‘paradigms of power’ in which the production of particular results is to some extent contingent upon participants accepting the authority of the experimenter to define the experimental situation in particular ways.
3. Experiments are ‘paradigms of sense-making’ in which the production of particular results is to some extent contingent upon participants understanding the meaning that the experimenter is trying to communicate.
4. Experiments are ‘paradigms of protest’ in which the production of particular results is to some extent contingent upon participants trying to engage in an argument with the experimenter about the purpose of the research and their reason for being there.
5. Experiments are ‘paradigms of conformity’ in which the production of particular results is to some extent contingent upon participants trying to help the experimenter produce the results that he or she wants.

11. “An approach to research that attempts to develop person-specific analyses of phenomena in the particular context in which they arise. This is not oriented to the discovery of universal causal laws (of the form ‘A always leads to B’).” What is this a glossary definition of?

1. Idiographic approach.
2. Nomothetic approach.
3. Constructivist approach.
4. Reflexive approach.
5. Phenomenological approach.

12. “A qualitative research practice in which understanding of a phenomenon is inductively derived from studying that phenomenon from the perspective of those to whom it is relevant. In this way, the researcher does not begin with a theory and then test it; instead, theory is discovered, developed and provisionally verified as it emerges from systematic examination of data.” Which qualitative research method is this a glossary definition of?

1. Taxonomic analysis.
2. Content analysis.
3. Grounded theory.
4. Discourse analysis.
5. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

13. “A research method that attempts to discover the meaning of phenomena for participants, but that also recognizes – and attempts to do justice to the fact – that this is necessarily bound up with the meaning that those phenomena have for researchers.” What research practice is this a glossary definition of?

1. Conversation analysis.
2. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
3. Thematic analysis.
4. Linguistic analysis.
5. Discourse analysis.

14. “The plan for an interview that provides details of the issues that a researcher wants to explore and the questions that the researcher wants to ask. It may also include details of prompts to be used in the event that a question proves difficult for an interviewee to answer.” What is this a glossary definition of?

1. Interview plan.
2. Interview schedule.
3. Interview protocol
4. Semi-structured protocol
5. None of the above

15. “The meaning that a given phenomenon has for the people who experience it.” What is this a glossary definition of?

1. Hermeneutics.
2. Double hermeneutic.
3. Triple hermeneutic.
4. Phenomenology.
5. Experiential reflexivity.