1. Parmenides was a Greek philosopher who stated that initially nothing comes from nothing, and
therefore existence is eternal. His statement belongs to the field of:
A. Epistemology
B. Methodology
C. Ontology
D. Paradigm
The statement is about what exists. Ontology is about the nature of reality, hence about
what exists.
2. Read the following research questions:
1. What does it mean to people to retire?
2. To what extent do people develop new interests when they retire?
Which research method would be most suitable to find the answers to these questions?
A. Question 1 qualitative, question 2, qualitative
B. Question 1 qualitative, question, 2 quantitative
C. Question 1 quantitative, question 2 qualitative
D. Question 1 quantitative, question 2 quantitative
‘meaning’ is difficult to capture in numbers – question 1 is best addressed using qualitative
research. ‘Extent’ suggests a quantity – question 2 is best addressed using quantitative
research.
3. Which of the following research questions is typically answered following a qualitative research
design?
A. Which factors cause people to make a career switch?
B. What is the influence of divorce on people’s career path?
C. What are the experiences of people who make a career switch?
D. Are employees of large companies more prone to making a career switch than employees of
small companies?
‘experiences’ are difficult to capture in numbers – the question in C is therefore typically
addressed with qualitative research. A suggests a comparison of factors – weighing factors
requires a quantitative approach. B suggests a causal relationship – establishing causality
requires a quantitative approach. D suggests a comparison between two groups in terms of
numbers – hence requires a quantitative approach.
4. A researcher does research on how people experience leisure during different periods in their
lives. She conducts narrative interviews. What will be a typical response from the perspective of
qualitative, narrative research to criticism that her research is subjective?
, A. “You are right, and I definitely need to add a questionnaire to corroborate my findings”
B. “You are right, and I should have chosen a quantitative research approach instead”
C. “You are right, and I describe the process of analysis so that you can check my
interpretation”
D. “You are right, and my report presents my personal view on the topic”
In narrative research, stories are valued. Usually positioning themselves in a constructionist
paradigm, narrative researchers will not bother that much with more traditional quality
criteria and methods to assure quality. They will therefore not see the need to corroborate
or choose a quantitative approach instead. They will be convinced that their research is
valuable and does not just present their personal view. In order to convince readers of this,
they will choose to describe the process of their analysis as stated in C.
5. Cathy wants to find out why alumni decide to become part of an alumni network. She interviews
alumni who are part of the network, and alumni who are not officially part of it. To find these
people, she asks alumni if they know people who are not part of the network. What type of sampling
does Cathy employ?
A. Convenience sampling
B. Probability sampling
C. Purposive sampling
D. Snowball sampling
Finding respondents through other respondents is typical for snowball sampling.
6. In a study on how Jamaican children perceive tourists, Gamradt (1995) asked them to complete an
‘activity book’ containing sentence completion exercises and a space for drawing ‘a visitor who had
come to Jamaica from far way’. By providing many of those completed sentences and drawings in his
research report, the author gave access to the way in which he interpreted his data. This practice is
considered a means to increase:
A. Dependability
B. Generalizability
C. Credibility
D. Transferability
Giving access to the data allows others to ‘repeat’ the analysis. Dependability concerns the
question if results could be repeated. Providing data will not help to establish claims for
generalizability/transferability (information about the sample and contextual information
would be needed for this). It also does not help to establish credibility defined as confidence
in the ‘truth’ of the findings. We do not have information about the quality of the data, or
what the researcher did to warrant the quality of the data and his analysis.
, 7. “[…] essentially requires the researcher to provide sufficient detail of the original observations or
commentaries - and the environments in which they occurred - to allow the reader to gauge and
assess the meanings attached to them.”
The word between brackets should be:
A. Analysis
B. Methodology
C. Thick description
D. Transferability
Providing detail in order for readers to assess the meaning of the data can be regarded as a
definition of thick description. Thick description also helps to establish claims of
transferability (the idea that findings are relevant in other contexts), but this objective is not
mentioned in the quote.
8. A researcher has done research on opinions about and user experience of new HRM software. He
has conducted interviews, and reports about the outcomes of these interviews in a report. However,
he feels insecure about whether his interpretation of these interviews is correct. In order to become
more certain about his interpretation, you should suggest the following to him:
A. Use member-checking
B. Use thick description
C. Conduct a survey in addition to the interviews
D. To reflect in his report about how his interpretations could be biased
The researcher wants to check his interpretation. His interviewees can be consulted if he
interpreted what they told him in the interview correctly. This is called member-checking (or
respondent validation). Thick description cannot be used to check your own data – it serves
to convince others, not yourself. A survey could be conducted if the researcher would doubt
about the data themselves (data triangulation). Reflecting about bias is a good practice, but
will not help to increase confidence in the interpretation.
