Research Basics

Question 1

What are the different types of knowledge?

Answer 1

Explicit:

• know what
• codified
• formalised

Tacit (Polanyi 1966):

• know how
• context dependent and personal
• includes cultural beliefs, mental models, skills etc.

Embedded:
-locked in processes, structures etc.

Question 2

What are knowledge sources?

Answer 2

-Perception (empiricism)
\+intuition, common sense, tradition
\+personal experience (introspection, memory)
\+second-hand experience (testimony)
\+trial and error
-inductive/deductive reasoning (rationalism)
-empirical research
\+scientific sources
\+structured observation
\+experimenting

Question 3

Why is research superior?

Answer 3

-less likely to be biased
-because of:
+structured way of collecting, analysing and interpreting data
+pre-determined procedures
+repicability
+clear quality criteria
-emipircal rather than normative
-objective rather than subjective
-systematic rather than random
-rigorous rather than haphazard

Question 4

What is described by the term ‘theory’?

Answer 4

• much more than pursuing ‘facts’, research is aimed at developing theory
• definition: a broad, natural explanation for a wide range of phenomena. Theories are concise, coherent, systematic, predictive, and broadly applicable, often integrating and generalizing many hypotheses.
• facts can be observed or measure; a theroy is based on interpretation of facts
• a theory is always provisional/tentative

Question 5

The scientific method behind QRM

Answer 5

• observations
• question
• preliminary background research (inductive)
• hypothesis
• deductive research to test the hypothesis
• more integrated theroy or falsification
• leading to a new hypothesis
• adjustment of the theory when findings do not support it
• no cherry-picking!

Question 6

What is measurement?

Answer 6

Measurement is the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event, which can be compared with other objects or events

Question 7

What is a construct?

Answer 7

A construct is a focused, abstract idea on something inferred from an observable phenomenon. Most constructs are (part of) theories and may be complex.

Question 8

Variables and values

Answer 8

characteristic = variable
assigned number = value
comparison = quantitative analysis

Question 9

Constructs, variables and items

Answer 9

Contructs are broad concepts or topics we want to study. These need ‘operational definitions’, in order to make them measurable. Operational definitions specify how a variable can be calculated, and what values it can have.

Variables are used to measure constructs.

Items are single questions in a questionnaire.
These single items are variables, but variables may also be computed from the values of more than 1 item.

Question 10

What are the different measurement levels?

Answer 10

Nominal: no quantitative value, names

Ordinal: ordered
Interval: ordered, we know the exact difference between values, no real zero

ratio: continous, with a real zero

Question 11

What are independent and dependent variables?

Answer 11

When you compare groups, the variable which defines the group is the independent variable. What you want to compare on them is a dependent variable. In case of causality, the cause is independent and the effect the dependent variable.

Question 12

What is reliability?

Answer 12

Reliability is the consistency of a measure. A construct is considered to be more or less stable. A measure for that construct should therefore give the same value, regardless of the circumstances.

Test-retest reliability: consistency over time

Internal consistency: consistency across items

interrate reliability: consistency across different researcher

Question 13

What is validity?

Answer 13

Validity is the extent to which a measure actually measures the construct it is supposed to measure.

face validity: the measure appears ‘on its face’ to measure the construct

content valdity: whether the measure covers the construct in its entirety

criterion validity: whether the measure correlates with other measures that shoulg be correlated or does not correlate with measure of unrelated constructs

predictive validity: if the criterion is measured in the future

Question 14

What are internal and external validity?

Answer 14

Internal:

• whether an experimental condition or treatment makes a difference to the outcome or not
• and whether there is enough evidence to support the claim

External:
-generalisbability of the condition or treatment across settings