During this week I’ve read the article “Internet addiction in students: Prevalence and risk factors” (2013) and “Drumming in Immersive Virtual Reality: The Body Shapes the Way We Play” to get an in-depth understanding of research methods - in specific: the quantitative research method.
During this week’s lecture and seminar we delved deeper into the concept of quantitative research methods in a quest to extrapolate which features that defines this type of research, why it’s useful, and also why it’s problematic. However, since this theme was the first theme within this course where I felt like I really had a fundamental understanding of the central concepts, I can’t really say I’ve learned a lot of new information other than the emphasis of the importance of thoroughly developing and choosing the right scientific method when conducting experiments and tests.
At the lecture Ilias described quantitative methods are numerical measurements based on quantitative data - leading to a result which can be used in statistical analysis. This is opposed to the qualitative research method where results are not data which can be statistically analyzed. Furthermore, I understood to a larger extent the value of designing your method before implementing it. For instance, during the lecture Ilias spoke of formulating questionnaires and that it was important to think of every aspect of the test and its fundamental research question before sending it out - and also to test the questionnaire to make sure it fills its intended purpose before letting it roam.
The seminar was interesting in the sense that we got to discuss everyone’s overview of the entire theme. Even though it proved rather broad and abstract we discussed what the uses of each method were, since none of us could find a qualitative study within neither Ilias’ nor our personally chosen articles. We ended up discussing the notion of and absolute truth not existing, and that neither scientific method could be seen as “better” than the other - only more usable in certain types of experiments. Our conclusion was that the research question decides whether or not it is more suitable to perform a quantitative or a qualitative method. Furthermore, the way I see it, quantitative methods can generally be seen as yielding results which can be more easily generalized over, than results from qualitative methods. For instance, having a questionnaire as the main source of data from thousands of people gives the authors a position in which they can more easily generalize as opposed to having data from a dozen interviews - even though the interviews give a lot more depth for the 12 interviewees than the thousands of questionnaire answers give on the thousands of respondents. Thus, the importance of choosing the correct method for your particular research is highlighted.
Hej,
SvaraRaderaConcerning your criticism of the paper of Internet addiction you had read for this topic, I am not sure that I would agree with that. Also standardised big scale questionnaires can reveal deeper insights into behaviours such as addiction to something. Maybe a combined study of qualitative and quantitative methods had been a good choice, but I don't think that a solely qualitative method had necessarily led to better results. However, it seems that the seminar and the lecture gave you another understanding of the benefits of a quantitative study, too, so maybe you have changed your opinion on that?
Hi Fredrik,
SvaraRaderaI also felt that I had a fundamental understanding of the concepts that were discussed during this theme, but that my view on them perhaps broadened and gave me a deeper understanding of them during this week. I don't know if I agree with you that qualitative data cannot be statistically analyzed. In my opinion even those types of data can be converted into analyzable values, or maybe that the answers given from participants can be interpreted and then compared to some kind of definition or classification which in turn can be statistically analyzed. I totally agree with the thought that a questionnaire needs to be thoroughly thought through before sending it out to participants, it's such an important part of the research and you can't really afford to not cover all the data that you want to explore!
Hi,
SvaraRaderaGreat explanation that no "method could be seen as “better” than the other - only more usable in certain types of experiment". Also, you summarized very important point that piloting and testing are compulsory before conducting the experiment. You analyzed research paper "Internet addiction in students: Prevalence and risk factors”. Did scholars do piloting before sending questionnaires? For example, after the seminar I found out that my chosen research paper did not mention anything about testing and piloting of chosen research method. That could be a possible limitation of the study.
Hello! Nice reflection, what you came up with during the seminar seems to be exactly what I did as well. The opinion in my group leaned towards quantitative research being the better method, but I agree more with your opinion that none of them is better than the other one. As you said, it all depends on the research question, but I do think that quantitative research seems to be more popular among scientists, while qualitative research is preferred by researchers within social studies, which is interesting! Regarding questionnaires, they do seem more complicated than I first thought, there are so many aspects to think of when making them! As stated before, it's difficult to be objective, which I think one must try to be when making them, and not ask leading questions etc. But perhaps it's easier to be objective using quantitative methods, than qualitative methods which often requires a more intimate research? (it might be easier to distance oneself from the samples in quantitative research).
SvaraRaderaYou especially enjoyed reading your pre post about quantitative methods. You have a good inside into your chosen paper and analysed it critically. And I totally agree with you: I also think that questionnaires are used to exhaustively - mainly at online research. A lot of researchers seem to use them because they are quickly designed (if not done carefully), even more quickly evaluated and you do not have to observe participants while they are doing the study. Moreover, too many questionnaires are badly designed and the intension if the research is obvious. I do not want to deny their usefulness in some cases and they can be definitely useful as a second data source in order to enhance the findings of another quantitative methods. But it general I would say that in many cases where questionnaires are used a different research methods would have been a better choice.
SvaraRaderaHi! your reflection shows that you have taken a good time on your thoughts about this theme. Would be interesting to know if your previous knowledge came from writing a thesis or if you have done something els where you have learned these concepts. The majority that have written their thesis seemed to feel the same way. I especially liked the sentence where you summarize your groups conclusion on what decided which method is the more suitable for a research. And I agree on it depending on the research question and what it is that you want to understand better! You also brought up a very important point on testing your questions before distributing them to the participants. Because a mistake such as bad formulated question open for misunderstanding could cost the researcher both money, time and reliable data. Keep it up!!
SvaraRaderaHi!
SvaraRaderaGreat reflection, it was an interesting read. I thought it was different this week as well since we actually know more about it to begin with. It seems we all agree on the combination of quantitative and qualitative research depending on the subject. I agree that qualitative data can be difficult to handle, even if you translate it into different parameters. It still requires more work, but it also gives more understanding of complex problems so more work doesn't mean it's not necessary to do. I found it strange in the research articles I've read recently that they tend to gather so much data quantitativly, but interview only a few. Then again, you don't need interviews or face-to-face meeting to get quantitative data. But I still wonder how much data you need for it to be "valid" and "enough".
Keep up the good work!
Hi,
SvaraRaderaI have the same feeling with you for the central terms.In some way,I think it is more straightforward to use the quantitative and qualitative methods in our studies and researches.Acturally,in the seminar,we talked a lot about uses and choices of quantitative methods in different study area.And we mostly agree that the quantitative methods should be more pratical in the natural science.At least,we could collect data we expect.In other words,We connect the quantitative analysis with the data and its surroundings.But for the humanities,we are concern with the concepts.It is hard to shape the study and scale the results in an accurate way.I think it is not the whole of the concepts in the theme,however,the good way to make sense.Thanks for sharing.
I find that your seminar group reached the same conclusion as mine. The research question should dictate the research method entirely, not the other way around. And in that sense, no method is superior to another, they produce different answers to different questions. We need to be aware of this when conducting our own research.
SvaraRaderaHello.
SvaraRaderaI also found this theme to be easier to understand since it was not so abstract and I already had knowledge about it prior to this week. Just like you are saying I also do not think that one method is better than the other, it totally depends on the problem/question that we a trying to solve/answer. It is very important to choose the method that you know will be able to answer the question. Very complex questions for example could possibly only be answered with a qualitative method.
Good job on the reflections!
Hi, very nice reflection, i am enjoy reading your post, i can not agree more for your opinions in this paper, espically "absolute truth not existing, and that neither scientific method could be seen as “better” than the other ". There is not an absolute measurement criterion, the method be used should depending on what we expect to research. Different field will be required use different methods even in a same research. I could say i do not got so much feels like you in this week, however i still obtain the technical for design a questionnaire which i think is the most useful part. Whatever, thank you so much for you wonderful post.
SvaraRaderaHi,
SvaraRaderaI agree on that this week’s theme was a lot easier than the ones concerning philosophical concepts. Many of us have done a thesis previously and know about qualitative and quantitative methods. Piloting is a good way of testing your questionnaire. I had Ilias as my supervisor during the bachelor thesis and he exhorted us to conduct one. By reading this week’s blog posts I realise that many did not conduct a pilot study, another reason why we should have gone through some of this content prior to the bachelor thesis. I enjoyed reading your post and think that you summarized this weeks theme in a concise way and adding your interesting thoughts.