Research Methods And Their Strengths And Weaknesses Flashcards
(6 cards)
Content Analysis - Quantitative
Strength:
Theoretical - positivists, reliable, data can be cross-checked
Ethical - no participants needed, guidelines set out by BSA are easy to follow. issues surrounding validity are not concern as the content can be accurately represented
Practical - cheap method, easy to access data on topic
Limitations:
Theoretical - interpretivists, statistics provide little information about human stories, decreases validity
Ethical - subjective approach at times, emotional harm to social group being represented as they’re not presented fully, an accurate insight not gained = decrease in validity
Practical - time consuming methods, cannot collect data on a large amount of content, reduce generalisability
Questionnaires - Quantitative
Strength:
Theoretical - Positivists, standardise questions, potential to pre-code data, reliable and more reliable
Ethical - informed consent given, increase validity as participants feel comfortable answering questions, more likely to be honest, give true insight into topic.
Practical - distributed to a large geographical area, sample likely top access participants required for research, increase representiveness of research, reflects characteristics of target population
Weakness:
Theoretical - Interpretivists, standardised nature of questions the respondents may select the nearest answer that describes their situation, may not be fully relevant, low in validity
Ethical - if topic is sensitive nature some respondents may feel some form of emotional harm and may lie to give socially desirable responses. impact on validity, does not give true insight.
Practical - can be subject to low response rates, reducing overall sample size, can affect generalisability of the data, wider claims might not be bae to be made about the hole population
Structured Interviews - Quantitative
Strength:
Theoretical - Positivists, use of closed and standardised questions and responses, data collected likely to be objective, numerical and this increases reliability, it is replicable. ensure that the data has value freedom.
Ethical - interviews can explain the aims and objectives of the research, lead participants to feel more comfortable, rapport builded. informed consent to be given, increases validity as participants are more likely to answer honestly.
Practical - gain access to the required participants for research and response rate is likely to be higher. increase the representative of the research as your sample will reflect characteristics of target population.
Weakness:
Theoretical - Interpretivist, not suitable for researching sensitive issues, participants cannot expand on their responses, reduce validity of the research as a meaningful insight cannot be gained.
Ethical - if questions make participants uncomfortable lead to emotional harm, safeguarding issues. lack of conversational flow, participants may not state that they feel uncomfortable, may not feel they have the full right to withdraw, leading to them lying, give socially desirable answers, impact validity, not provide true insight.
Practical:
Theoretical - time consuming, can be difficult to access large sample of participants. would impact on the generalisability of the research as wider claims cannot be made to all who hold characteristics being researched.
Semi-Structured Interviews - BOTH (generally qualitative)
Strength:
Theoretical - Interpretivists, can produce data that is more qualitative. they are flexible, unstructured questions means in-depth data can be gained, increasing validity.
Ethical - more chance of rapport, encourages informed consent to be given, allow more for empathy & understanding of sensitive topics being discussed by participants. more safeguarded, more comfortable to answer honestly, increase validity.
Practical - pre arranged, your able to gain access to the required participants for the research and response rate is likely to be higher, increase representativeness of the research
Weakness:
Theoretical - Positivists, don’t like the flexibility, argue that if rapport being built will then make interview biased and lose objectivity, impacting on the reliability pf research data, makes it difficult to replicate.
Ethical - questions that make respodents uncomfortable can lead to emotional harm and safeguarding issues, validity decreases as respondents will give socially desirable answers.
Practical - more time consuming, can be difficult to access a large sample of participants. impact on the generalisability, wider claims cannot be made to all who hold the characteristics being researched.
Instructed Interviews - Qualitative
Strength:
Theoretical - leads to lots of in-depth data collection as interviewer can probe and ask extra questions, rapport and verstehen can also be built. increases validity meaning interpretivits would like this method.
Ethical - Informed consent will be given, participants can build rapport with interviewer makes more conversational flow, not feel emotional harm, anger more honestly, increase validity.
Practical - pre-arranged interviews, able to Giana access to required participants for the research, response rate is likely to be higher, increase representativeness, reflect characteristics of the target population.
Weakness:
Theoretical - Positivists, lack of structure of this method, argue that if rapport builds then the interviewer can come biased and lode objectivity and therefore impact on reliability of research data, difficult to replicate.
Ethical - if questions make participants feel uncomfortable, lead to emotional harm and safeguarding issues, decrease validity.
Practical - Interviews can be informed consent so only a small sample is gathered. decreases the generalisability as wider claims cannot be made.
Focus Groups - Qualitative
Strength:
Theoretical - Interpretivists, rich and in=depth discussions are encouraged, questions and themes set out will be tailored to specific groups, create relaxed and informal setting = increases validity as participants feel more comfortable to answer honestly.
Ethical - informed consent will be given, participants can build rapport, respondents will provide more rich and valid data.
Practical - able to gain access to required participants for research, response rate likely to be higher. increase representativeness of the research as your sample reflects characteristics of target population.
Weakness:
Theoretical - positivists, if rapport is built then interviewer can become biased and lose objectivity, reduce the reliability as it’ll be hard to replicate.
Ethical - respondents may feel uncomfortable f sensitive topics arise or respondents might dominate the discussions lead to people feeling uncomfortable, might duffer emotional harm. decreases validity.
Practical - data recording and analysis can be difficult and time consuming as all respondents will give varying accounts and opinions on the topics being discussed, sample size likely to be small, reduce generalisability of the results as wider claims cannot be made about the whole population based on a small group of people.
