Methodology - research methods

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  • Methodology
    • Research method - survey (questionnaires and interviews)
      • Questionnaires gather personal data and uses closed and open questions
        • Closed questions - where the anser is a forced choce
        • Open questions - leave the question open for the respondent to give their own views
        • Reliable because bias from researcher can be avoided by having set questions and a set procedure.       If questions and procedure are set so that bias is avoided, data should be reliable
        • They could be administered differently by different people, so data may be biased by the situation  making unreliable.    If fixed questions are mainly asked, then useful relevant data can be missed making invalid
      • There are three types of interviews - structured, semi-structures and unstructured.
        • Structured - planned questions throughout
          • + can be repeated and data can be compared        - forced choice so tends to lack validity
        • Semi-structured - half planned half able to explore issues
          • + more valid as can explore to get real life answers          - can be hard to compare data if issues different
        • Unstructured - areas planned but questions can follow lead of respondent
          • + More valid as respondent leads                 - less comparable and less replicable so harder to test for reliability
        • Questions can be explained and enlarged upon, so this is a good method when in depth and detailed data are required.           data tend to be valid because interviewees use their own words and are not as constrained by the questions as they are in a questionnaire
        • The interviewer may influence the data which would result in researcher bias               Analysis may be subjective and the researchers view may influence the analysis
    • Comparing questionnaires and interviews
      • Reliability                            Q: structured questions and same for all respondents, so replicable and likely to be reliable. I: each person interviewed separately in different settings and on different occasions and perhaps by a different person; difficult to replicate and test for reliability
      • Validity:           Q: set questions with forced-choice answers are likely to be less valid as may not yield true data.         I: questions can be explained and ezplored so likely to be valid and give real life and true data.

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MrsMacLean

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a great visual resource, thanks so much.  

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