Advantage And Dis-Advantage The Sources Of Secondary Data

Focus groups are in-depth interviews undertaken with a group of about eight to twelve people. They involve interaction between the participants. The aim of focus group research is to learn and understand what people think about a topic at length and in detail.

“Research in health and social care usually relies on obtaining information from individuals using social research methodologies”. (Whitehouse, M, 2010:428). Questionnaires are suitable for obtaining important information from many individuals in a survey who are answering the questions this is known as ‘respondents’. Questionnaires gives us the opportunity to ask questions of participants but also allows answers to be given according to the options constructed by the researcher using a response frame. A response frame allows a limited choice of different responses. Also there are self-completion questions this allows respondents to fill in the answers themselves. The questionnaire may be delivered to individuals directly by hand or by post or even online the researcher may contact through an email address. They may be asked to complete a customer satisfaction questionnaire. For example at college we are sent online questionnaires through are student email, questionnaires

The data collection that was chosen in qualitative research is interviews. Interviewing involves asking questions and getting answers from participants in a study. Interviewing has a variety of forms (Rowley, 2012). These forms are: individual, face-to-face interviews and face-to-face group interviewing. Asking and answers of question can be done by the telephone, face-to-face, and also many include other electronic devises. Interviews can either be structured, semi-structure, and unstructured (Rowley, 2012).

There are multiple types of survey methods utilized in research. Three of the main survey methods include interviews, electronic surveys, and written surveys. In interviews, the assessor works directly with the respondent to obtain responses to the survey. Utilizing interviews allow researchers to obtain comprehensive and thorough responses. Moreover, the interviewer is able to follow-up on certain responses if more information is needed. Despite these benefits, interviews have some potential disadvantages. It is difficult to obtain a representative sample of a population willing to participate in an interview. Additionally, this type of survey is often costly in time and money. Furthermore, there is potential for interviewer bias to affect

This method can minimize error in constructing the sample because my participants may lie less and could be open minded compared to written surveys. This method is also the oldest and most highly regarded method of survey research. Face-to-face interviewing gives an opportunity to elevate the response rate from participants, typically higher than telephone or mail surveys. Face-to-face interviews can be recorded as well because it is more accurate than taking notes as one researcher can listen to the recording at a later time to ascertain accuracy. Additionally, it is easily compared to other interview methods and it creates a bond between the interviewer and interviewee because at the end of the interview you can thank a person for their cooperation and ask him or her for further remarks related to the topic such as if the interviewee knows anybody who became a victim of identity theft. Through face-to-face interviewing, an interviewer can get a more complete response because some respondents cannot read or write and consequently it will be the most interactive way to interview them and if the interviewee does not understand the question you can restate or clarify questions so the respondents can understand. Participants can also ask questions of the

Questionnaires can be printed onto paper, then handed out to people and posted through their doors, or they can be accessible through the internet – sent to people via email or completed as an online questionnaire. An advantage of this is “it allows minimal contact between the researcher and the participant.”

Survey’s can be very helpful in gathering data, but they may be a double edged sword as this leaves a large area for self-report

To my understanding the idea behind the focus group method is that group processes can help people to explore and clarify their views in ways that would be less easily accessible in a one to one interview. Group discussion is particularly appropriate when the interviewer has a series of open ended questions and wishes to encourage research participants to explore the issues of importance to them, in their own words, generating their own questions and pursuing their own priorities. When group dynamics work well the participants work next to the researcher, taking the research in new and often unexpected directions.

Primary and secondary sources are ways in which data can be retrieved. As Serakan (2006) stated, “Primary data refer to information obtained by the researcher on the variables of interest for the specific purpose of the study”. Various evidence suggesting to what methods of primary research can be conducted and which are most effective for the previously mentioned problem description are stated in this chapter.

Another commonly used technique for collecting qualitative data is the interview. Interviews are conducted with a variety of objectives. Often they are used to collect historical data from the memories of interviewees. In other studies, they are used to collect opinions or impressions about something. In others, interviews are conducted to help identify the terminology used in a particular setting. They are sometimes used in combination with observations. In this case, they serve to clarify things that happened or were said during an observation, to elicit impressions of the meeting or other event that was observed, or to collect information on relevant events that were not observed. For the most part, interviews are more open ended and less structured (Merriam, 2001). Frequently, the interviewer asks the same questions of all the participants, but the order of the questions, the exact wording, and the

The strength of questionnaires is it can give an insight into respondent’s thoughts and opinions and also cost efficient as it is inexpensive.

In order to obtain data, I decided to use the method of partaking in interviews. The interview process was straight, forward and direct. It consisted of ten questions that were used to analyze the person’s identity and view of their community. The questions in the interview questioned the person’s values, morals, lifestyle, income, knowledge of problems in society, and social status. Specifically, I used a open-ended question process. Most of the questions were open-ended which allowed for the participants to expand on the questions in their answers. However, there were some closed-ended questions in the survey, which served to create a more narrow, focused response. The close ended questioned allowed for my participants

Carson et al (2001, p.114) refers to focus groups as “A research technique that collects data through group interaction on a topic or topics”. They also suggest that the central distinctive characteristic of focus groups is group interaction, which generates a mass of data, which would be

In developing surveys and questionnaires, it is important for researchers to determine the best method of delivering the questionnaire to participants. Researchers have several methods available, such as face-to-face interviews, electronic mailing of a questionnaire or telephone interviews survey (Cooper & Schindler, 2011). Each of these delivery methods has positive and negative aspects. For instance, although delivery by mail or telephone questionnaires are the popular methods of data collection, both methods provide similar advantages, including access to a variety of participants, lower costs with collecting data, and an increase in

secondary data has advantages because they are easy to access and its cheaper, it is not time consuming comparing to primary data, secondary data are data collected by a party not related in the research process, but they are collected randomly for some other purposes for the company, maybe in the past or for the coming future, this becomes a secondary data only when it is used to analyses or to find something currently. Secondary can give a hint on how to begin the initial research to help the researcher understand better on what’s going on. They may be available in written, typed or electronic forms. Secondary data can be collected internally, or externally, external data are collected from outside sources to refer and analyze. Than a luxury, HVAC systems are more