Describe
Content Analysis
Using media as a source for data - requires development of a systematic process
Describe
Interview
Asking questions to a subject and recording responses - qualitative data, can be structured or unstructured
Describe
Participant Observation
Joining a group to gain information about it - qualitative, very personal, requires focus on a defined social group
Describe
Observation
Observing a group to gain information about it - can be qualitative or quantitative, requires focus on a defined social group
Describe
Questionnaire
A form, either physical or digital, filled out by respondents to collect data - can be qualitative, quantitative, or both
Describe
Statistical Analysis
Reading and analysing statistics from previous studies - good for subgroup analysis, gives good quantitative data
Describe
Secondary Research
Reading previous research an area and using the results gathered from it - usually used with other methods
Advantages of
Content Analysis
- Delivers original, primary data
- Can be targeted specifically
Advantages of
Interview
- Provides in-depth information fairly quickly
- Good way to gather information about people’s feelings, personal experience, or stances on issues
Advantages of
Participant Observation
- High quality, in-depth insights
Advantages of
Observation
- Does not influence participants
- Can give more objective insights into human behaviour
Advantages of
Questionnaire
- Gives you a broad range of data very quickly
- Minimal cost
- Closed-ended questions offer easy-to-compile data.
Advantes of
Statistical Analysis
- A good way to obtain numerical data quickly
- More reliable for large-scale issues than extrapolating from smaller data pools.
Advantages of
Secondary Research
- Diverse sources are available
- No need to re-do research yourself
- Gives broad background knowledge
Disadvantages of
Content Analysis
- Time consuming
- Need to acknowledge all sources carefully
Disadvantages of
Interview
- Maintaining effective flow of questions is challenging
- Very time-consuming
- Relatively high chance for bias in responses
Disadvantages of
Participant Observation
- Ensuring that it is not a covert process without ruining the results is difficult
Disadvantages of
Observation
- No opportunity for follow-up questions
- Does not observe motives
- Hawthorne effect - people act different when they know they are being observed
Disadvantages of
Questionnaire
- Higher chance of questions being misunderstood
- No opportunity for follow-up questions or clarification with more open-ended queries.
Disadvantages of
Statistical Analysis
- Statistics can be biased, so you need to do a lot of double-checking
- Crime statistics especially often have reporter and police bias.
Disadvantages of
Secondary Research
- 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
