1. Which
quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the
benefits and limitations of using these methods?
I chose the paper “The Benefits of Facebook
“Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network
Sites” from the journal “Computer-Mediated Communication”, with impact factor (1.778). In this paper the quantitative method used is a statistical online survey,
where 286 participants completed the survey. The survey was cross-sectional
which means that it was a one-time survey with closed-ended questions of the
type bounded continuous (a continues scale). Benefits of surveys are that the researcher
doesn’t need to spend time meeting participants and book physical meetings. The
participants can perform the survey at a suitable time in their schedule. Another
benefit is that it’s capable of collecting data from a large number of
respondents. Limitations may be the reliability of the collected data. The
respondents may not feel encouraged to provide accurate and honest answers, or
not feel comfortable providing answers that present themselves in an
unfavorable manor (Wyze, 2012).
2. What
did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?
Unfortunately this paper didn’t provide any new information concerning
the quantitative method survey. But what I generally experienced myself this
week when creating a survey in another course, when performing pilot tests. Was
that when formulating open-ended questions, there is of great importance how
you formulate the questions to get the participants to explain their answers to
avoid short formulated answers.
3. Which
are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the
quantitative method or methods have been improved?
I wouldn’t say there is a main problem with this method but there are
some areas that could be improved concerning the contact with the participants.
As described in question 1, the
respondents may not feel encouraged to provide accurate and honest answers, or
not feel comfortable providing answers that present themselves in an
unfavorable manor (Wyze, 2012). This problem may occur independent of physical
or non-physical contact.
When answering the survey environmental
disturbing factors and mood vary between the participants. I believe that may
have an effect on the results compared to if the survey was completed in the
same environmental setting for everyone. That might give a bit more accurate result,
but would probably take more time and money than it’s worth.
Physical Activity, Stress, and
Self-Reported upper Respiratory Tract Infection
The Key points of the text are to investigate if
incidence of “Upper
respiratory tract infection” (URTI) among a group of people (1509 participants
aged 20-60 years) has relationship to physical activity and perceived stress. In
order to suggest potential strategies to reduce susceptibility of URTI. In the
beginning of the paper related works to the study are presented to establish a
fundamental ground to their hypothesis. For method, Web questionnaire was used
with 5 follow up questionnaires every third week for 4 month, to assemble data
of stress level and frequency of URTI during the test period. The results
confirmed that high physical activity decreased the risk of URTI. They also
made an interesting discovery that highly stressed people benefited more of
physical activity, especially men.
1.
Which are the benefits and limitations of
using quantitative methods?
Through collection of data from quantitative methods patterns can be
plotted to prove or disprove hypothesis. These patterns can at the same time
discover new relations that couldn’t be foreseen before the data assembly. Limitations
in this particular method used in the texted could be the response of the participants.
In this particular investigation there was a high percentage that followed
through with the test considering the time and amount of web surveys to answer.
There can also be a problem to reach participants as described in the beginning
of the text, and to reach as many needed.
2.
Which are the benefits and limitations of
using qualitative methods?
With a qualitative method there is possible to expand
responses and open up new topic areas through discussion and recording. Which
give room to analyze data deeper.
A qualitative study often limit the number of participants
because the amount of time it takes for the collected data to be analyzed. There
is also hard to generalize or plot patterns with few participants.
References
(Susan E. Wyse 2012)
http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-surveys/
Hi. I agree with you about the disadvantage or limitation with quantitative methods that the respondents are not encouraged to provide honest answers or they may not even be comfortable to answer honestly. They could pick the answer that seems expected of them or so. We don't know the condition of the respondents when they answered so when analyzing a questionnaire for example, we only have the option to take for granted that the answers are honest and represent the thoughts of the respondents. I think we always have to take into consideration when it comes to such methods that the results may not be accurate. At least that's the case when the questions concern thoughts or feelings, that is personal matters and that vary from day to day.
SvaraRaderaBut as you also wrote "This problem may occur independent of physical or non-physical contact". Of course the same problem may actually occur even with qualitative methods like interviews, where the respondents may not answer truthfully.
I guess all methods have their positives and negatives, and we just have to try to be as objective and considerate of different circumstances as possible when analyzing.