Mixed methods research: combining quantitative and qualitative research

Question 1

What is the name of one of the arguments that suggests that research methods are inextricably linked to epistemological commitments?

a) Triangulation argument

b) Postmodern argument

c) Embedded methods argument

d) Positivist argument

Question 2

Which version of the debate about multi-strategy research suggests that quantitative and qualitative research are compatible?

a) Technical version

b) Methodological version

c) Epistemological version

d) Feminist version

Question 3

What is triangulation?

a) Using three quantitative or three qualitative methods in a project

b) Cross-checking the results found by different research strategies

c) Allowing theoretical concepts to emerge from the data

d) Drawing a triangular diagram to represent the relations between three concepts

Question 4

How might qualitative research facilitate quantitative research?

a) By providing hypotheses that can later be tested

b) By helping with the design of survey questions

c) By informing the schedule of a structured interview

d) All of the above

Question 5

How might quantitative research facilitate qualitative research?

a) By identifying specific groups of people to be interviewed

b) By showing the frequency of different responses to a survey item

c) By imposing a rigorous positivist framework on it

d) By combining laboratory experiments with structured observation

Question 6

Whereas quantitative research tends to bring out a static picture of social life, qualitative research depicts it as...

a) Symmetrical

b) Statistical

c) Processual

d) Proverbial

Question 7

How might qualitative research help with the analysis of quantitative data?

a) By identifying a sample of respondents for a follow-up study

b) By providing hard, statistical data about them

c) By making the research more value-laden and subjective

d) By helping to explain the relationship between two variables

Question 8

How can multi-strategy research help us to study different aspects of a phenomenon?

a) By reducing the standard deviation of scores around the mean

b) By allowing the researcher to interview first women, and then men

c) By revealing both the macro and the micro level

d) By making it unnecessary to have more than one stage in the research process

Question 9

When might unplanned multi-stage research be described as a "salvage operation"?

a) When the researcher abandons their original strategy and starts all over again

b) When the second research strategy is used to explain unexpected or puzzling results

c) When there is a paradigm shift from quantitative to qualitative research

d) When it is ethically unsound to use only one research strategy

Question 10

Which of the following is not a feature of multi-strategy research?

a) It is inherently superior to mono-strategy research

b) It must be competently designed and conducted

c) It must be appropriate to the research questions

d) The skills of all researchers must be well integrated