quantitative research methods Flashcards
Questionnaires
A tool for measring attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes that people hold towards issues, topics, and other people
Advantages of questionnaires
Few ethical issues
Usually objective with no bias
High chances of representativeness
Quick way of getting large quantity of data
High in reliability
Disadvantages of questionnaires
Limited data
Respondents may lie
Leading questions may involve bias
Low response rate Is a threat
Lacks validity
Structured interviews
When the researcher asks the same questions to all participants in person
Interviewer effect
When the respondent provides answers that they feel the researcher wants to hear
Researcher effect
When the relationship between researcher and respondents may bias resposes
Advantages of structured interviews
Reliable because it is standardised
Generally has a high response rate
High in representativeness
Training interviewers is inexpensive
disadvantages of structured interviews
People may refuse to participate
More expensive than questionnaires
Inflexibility due to preset questions
Low in validity (closed questions)
Interviewer and researcher effect
Experiments
Research method that follows a set procedure to test a hypothesis
Field experiments
Experiments done in an open environment such as the real world
Laboratory experiments
Takes place in a closed environment so that conditions can be closely monitored
Variables
Factors that can be changed by the researcher to understand their effect in behaviour
Experimental group
The subjects of a group whose variables are changed to test their effects on behaviour
Control group
A group for which variables are kept the same to compare with the experimental group
Hawthorne effect
When the subjects of an experiment realise that they are being observed and change their behaviour
