Free Research Methods MCQs with Answers

• A. assessing the potential risks for research subjects
• B. protecting the anonymity of participants
• C. selecting a relevant theoretical perspective
• D. safe storage of the raw data collected in the process

Explanation: Choosing a theoretical perspective is a research-design decision, not an ethical requirement.

• A. the funding of certain projects
• B. assuming that men and women are the same
• C. women not being objective
• D. using males as the accepted norm
• E. a lack of female researchers

Explanation: Androcentrism treats men or male experience as the standard against which human experience is understood.

• A. with the group for months and sometimes years
• B. taking copious notes
• C. close to the leadership of the group that he/she is studying
• D. open and honest about his/her intentions
• E. discreet about his/her research

Explanation: A complete participant secretly joins or participates fully in the group, so revealing the research role could alter members’ behaviour or…

• A. an unobtrusive
• B. field research
• C. qualitative analysis
• D. content analysis
• E. ethnography

Explanation: Unobtrusive methods collect evidence without the researcher directly interacting with the people being studied, such as analysing existing…

• A. qualitative research
• B. ethnography
• C. secondary research
• D. field research
• E. non-participant observation

Explanation: Using books and journal articles that already exist is secondary research because the researcher is analysing previously collected or…

• A. the cost of the stamps
• B. some respondents are paranoid
• C. the inability to follow-up
• D. the response rates
• E. the mail is slow

Explanation: Mail questionnaires commonly suffer from low response rates because recipients may ignore them, forget to return them, or be unreachable.

• A. exhaustive
• B. tangible
• C. comprehensive
• D. relevant
• E. mutually exclusive

Explanation: The categories overlap at ages 30 and 40, so one respondent may fit more than one category.

• A. correlation
• B. variation
• C. observation
• D. measure of central tendency
• E. spurious relationship

Explanation: When two variables change together, such as increasing age and declining eyesight, their association is called a correlation.

• A. measures of variation
• B. measures of correlation
• C. measures of enumeration
• D. measures of central tendency
• E. measures of coefficients

Explanation: Mean, median, and mode identify the typical or central value in a distribution, so they are measures of central tendency.

• A. Cluster samplingHealth Foundations & Medical Research
• B. Ethnography
• C. Field research
• D. Variation
• E. Triangulation

Explanation: Triangulation strengthens a study by using several methods, data sources, or researchers to examine the same issue.

• A. valid
• B. reliable
• C. factual
• D. internally consistent
• E. instrumental

Explanation: A measure is reliable when repeated use produces consistent results, including when different researchers apply the same operational…

• A. ideas
• B. populations
• C. variables
• D. indices
• E. theories

Explanation: A hypothesis expresses expected relationships between variables, which are the measurable forms of its concepts.

• A. theory always precedes research
• B. theory can be developed independent of research
• C. research always precedes theory
• D. research is dictated by the theoretical perspective
• E. the relationship between theory and research is cyclical

Explanation: Theory guides research, while research findings can refine, reject, or develop theory, making their relationship cyclical.

• A. control group
• B. experimental group
• C. representative group
• D. correlation group

Explanation: The class receiving the changed treatment, essay testing, is the experimental group.

• A. representative samples
• B. naires
• C. interviews
• D. observation techniques

Explanation: Interviews usually produce higher response rates because an interviewer can explain questions, encourage participation, and reduce…

• A. hypothesesAccess Government Careers
• B. experiments
• C. surveys
• D. representative sampling

Explanation: Representative sampling gives different sections of the population a suitable chance of being included, allowing survey findings to…

• A. sample
• B. research design
• C. experiment
• D. scientific method

Explanation: A research design is the detailed plan specifying how data will be collected, measured, and analysed.

• A. first
• B. third
• C. second
• D. fourthTry Prep Courses

Explanation: In the commonly taught sequence, the researcher first identifies a problem or question and then formulates a testable hypothesis.

• A. two respectable responses/answers
• B. two answers but incompatible with each other
• C. None of theseSubmit Research Papers
• D. Both A and B

Explanation: A double-barrelled question combines two questions in one, so respondents may have two separate answers that do not agree.

• A. range
• B. parameter
• C. median
• D. mean

Explanation: The range is a measure of dispersion because it shows the distance between the highest and lowest observations.