Research Methods
- Created by: imogenrey
- Created on: 28-11-17 22:20
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- Research methods
- interviews can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured.
- Semi-structured interviews
- Uses some preset questions but there is also some freedom within questions.
- + allows for some freedom in answers as questions that a structured interview might miss might come up and prove useful
- - procedure is not fully standardised so makes it harder to replicate and test fro reliability.
- Uses some preset questions but there is also some freedom within questions.
- Structured interviews
- Uses preset series of questions that the interviewer follows
- - due to lack of choice may encourage demand characteristic and behaviour to be what is socially desirable. Lowering Validity.
- + Standardised procedure allows for replication to test for reliability
- Uses preset series of questions that the interviewer follows
- Unstructured Interviews
- No preset questions except the initial one to start interview
- Topics can be investigated in further detail or answers can be elaborated on to provide more detail that other interviews might have missed.
- - Analysis of these answers may be subjective as it may have to be interpreted by the researcher. This makes results more likely to be open to researcher bias.
- No preset questions except the initial one to start interview
- Interviews can contain open or closed questions.
- Closed Questions do not allow for in-depth answers, typically only requiring a yes or no response
- Generally produce Quantitative data
- + results can be objective and scientific as no subjective analysis is required. - often data is narrow and lacks detail
- Open questions are questions which allow for an open, more detailed answer than a simple yes or no.
- Generally produce qualitative data which has to be analysed
- + rich and in-depth answers that allow for lots of detail. -analysis of this is subjective and unscientific.
- Closed Questions do not allow for in-depth answers, typically only requiring a yes or no response
- Semi-structured interviews
- A Questionnaire may also be used.
- Like Interviews these can use both open or closed questions or a mixture of both.
- Therefore can produce both Quantitative and Qualitative data +
- A questionnaire may be more appropriate than an interview in some scenarios. For example, if a large sample was used interviewing 100+ people is unrealistic.
- One problem with a questionnaire is that is may suffer from response bias where participants don't give genuine answers. This can be solved with:
- Reverse questions - e.g if a scale is used in the questionnaire is can be swapped around to ensure answers are actually genuine and see when they're not
- Distractor questions - help to hide the objective of the questionnaire from participant so reduces response bias
- Generally more representative than interviews as can give to much larger samples and isn't restricted by practical issues as much
- Like Interviews these can use both open or closed questions or a mixture of both.
- Data collected can be either Primary or Secondard
- Primary
- Primary data is data that the researcher collected themselves. Therefore it has greater relevance to the researcher.
- May suffer from practical issues and has ethical issues unlike secondary data as is actually conducted.
- Primary data is data that the researcher collected themselves. Therefore it has greater relevance to the researcher.
- Secondary
- Secondary data uses pre-existing studies research. This may be to avoid practical issues like money/time constraints
- However, it may have less relevance to the researcher as the studies won't necessarily be following the same hypothesis etc.
- Secondary data uses pre-existing studies research. This may be to avoid practical issues like money/time constraints
- Primary
- interviews can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured.
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