Research Methods

Question 1

Describe

Content Analysis

Answer 1

Using media as a source for data - requires development of a systematic process

Question 1

Describe

Interview

Answer 1

Asking questions to a subject and recording responses - qualitative data, can be structured or unstructured

Question 2

Describe

Participant Observation

Answer 2

Joining a group to gain information about it - qualitative, very personal, requires focus on a defined social group

Question 3

Describe

Observation

Answer 3

Observing a group to gain information about it - can be qualitative or quantitative, requires focus on a defined social group

Question 4

Describe

Questionnaire

Answer 4

A form, either physical or digital, filled out by respondents to collect data - can be qualitative, quantitative, or both

Question 5

Describe

Statistical Analysis

Answer 5

Reading and analysing statistics from previous studies - good for subgroup analysis, gives good quantitative data

Question 6

Describe

Secondary Research

Answer 6

Reading previous research an area and using the results gathered from it - usually used with other methods

Question 7

Advantages of

Content Analysis

Answer 7

• Delivers original, primary data
• Can be targeted specifically

Question 8

Advantages of

Interview

Answer 8

• Provides in-depth information fairly quickly
• Good way to gather information about people’s feelings, personal experience, or stances on issues

Question 9

Advantages of

Participant Observation

Answer 9

• High quality, in-depth insights

Question 10

Advantages of

Observation

Answer 10

• Does not influence participants
• Can give more objective insights into human behaviour

Question 11

Advantages of

Questionnaire

Answer 11

• Gives you a broad range of data very quickly
• Minimal cost
• Closed-ended questions offer easy-to-compile data.

Question 12

Advantes of

Statistical Analysis

Answer 12

• A good way to obtain numerical data quickly
• More reliable for large-scale issues than extrapolating from smaller data pools.

Question 13

Advantages of

Secondary Research

Answer 13

• Diverse sources are available
• No need to re-do research yourself
• Gives broad background knowledge

Question 14

Disadvantages of

Content Analysis

Answer 14

• Time consuming
• Need to acknowledge all sources carefully

Question 15

Disadvantages of

Interview

Answer 15

• Maintaining effective flow of questions is challenging
• Very time-consuming
• Relatively high chance for bias in responses

Question 16

Disadvantages of

Participant Observation

Answer 16

• Ensuring that it is not a covert process without ruining the results is difficult

Question 17

Disadvantages of

Observation

Answer 17

• No opportunity for follow-up questions
• Does not observe motives
• Hawthorne effect - people act different when they know they are being observed

Question 18

Disadvantages of

Questionnaire

Answer 18

• Higher chance of questions being misunderstood
• No opportunity for follow-up questions or clarification with more open-ended queries.

Question 19

Disadvantages of

Statistical Analysis

Answer 19

• Statistics can be biased, so you need to do a lot of double-checking
• Crime statistics especially often have reporter and police bias.

Question 20

Disadvantages of

Secondary Research

Answer 20

• Overwhelming amount of information
• Difficult to confirm reliability of sources - possible bias
• Need to ensure that you do not plagiarise
• You won’t learn anything somebody doesn’t already know and have published