The Survey Method Of Choice For A Researcher

Face-to-face interviews will be interview guide approach where there will be an outline of topics and issues that the interviewer will cover with the participant (Babbie &Rubin, 1993). Having an outline it allows the researcher to compare responses between participants and it reduces the interviewer biases (Babbie & Rubin, 1993). An outline is constructed where it will guide the researcher with the participant from one concern to another but in a conversational approach (Babbie & Rubin, 1993). Moreover, a study without any set structure the researcher and participant can get side tracked and not answer the questions needed for the study research. The length of the interview will be approximately thirty minutes, but there will be no time restriction. The information will be recorded similar to a focus group, with a recording device and notes occasionally. Before analyzing the data, the researcher will examine his or her “own thoughts and feelings” because it’s a crucial process in understanding the participants (Babbie & Rubin, 1993, p.

Interview: the advantage of face to face interviews is that the researcher can adapt the questions as necessary, clarify doubt and ensure that the responses are properly understood, by repeating or rephrasing the questions. The researcher can also pick up non-verbal clues from the respondent through the body language.

In our daily activities as humans, we consciously and unconsciously observe what people do around us, how they do it, and sometimes ask why they do what they do. In so doing we gain a better understanding of their ways of life. Anthropologist and sociologist too mention but a few, professions employ the daily observations we engage in as humans in a methodology called participant observation. Dewalt and Dewalt (2002:1) define participant observation as “a method in which a researcher takes part in the daily activities, events, rituals and interactions, of a group of people as one of the means of learning the explicit and tacit aspects of their life routine and culture.” Participant observation can be carried out in roles

Flexible and inexpensive, focus groups consist of six to ten participants (Hartman, 2004, p. 408). Additionally, a moderator guides the discussion among its panel members that allows researchers to observe real-time verbal responses and nonverbal cues (Hartman, 2004, p. 402; Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 160). Focus groups moderators also have the ability to introduce new ideas to gain a greater understanding of concerns from respondents (Hartman, 2004, p. 402). However, a concern with focus group is the lack of anonymity due to the face-to-face participation.

“Problems researched with the use of appropriate methods greatly enhance the value of the research.” (Sekaran, 2003) Data can be collected through interviews, questionnaires, observations, and through other techniques, like projective tests. In even more detail, interviews can be conducted in a variety of different ways such as over the phone, through the computer, interviews through the electronic media, and face-to-face. Questionnaires can be conducted personally or administered electronically. “Interviewing, administering questionnaires, and observing people and phenomena are the three main data collection methods in survey research.” (Sekaran, 2003) As stated before, data can be collected in many different ways; however the value of the research is only greatly enhanced when personal opinions and bias is left out of the collection of data.

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

The telephone surveys or the web surveys are more convenient for participants to complete, in the comfort of their own home, or on the go, as long as they are very brief, with only a few questions asked. However, it is very easy to lie or exaggerate, especially if you’re not directly in the presence of the interviewer. This is where face-to-face interviews come in – a direct way of obtaining information, with the interviewer asking the participant questions. Also, if you are using random sampling, you can easily select and ask random people on the road to take part in your survey, avoiding

To comprehend why focus groups are famous, and where they are suitably utilized, we investigated a portion of the suppositions that underlie the utilization of focus groups as a method for information accumulation. In particular, we needed to see whether there is a "group contrast" in the sort of reactions a group interview produces compared and an individual interview. We additionally examined a few contrasts amongst the group and individual interview members, as far as

Looking at survey polls, there are various ways we can detect if we should trust these surveys or not. These surveys are portrayed as inductive arguments which mean that the person conducting the surveys is looking to validate his argument, or provide that there is a guarantee of truth in the conclusion. The website conducting the surveys is also trying to prove that their assumptions are correct. However, we cannot simply just believe the data that these polls provide, there has to be something that makes them weak or strong. Taking into consideration the amount of people surveyed, we can determine if a poll is able to represent the target population. Since a survey is an inductive generalization, a sample is taken from the target population

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.

The communication approach requires questioning, measuring, and recording personal responses (Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 218). Gatherings respondent’s thoughts, motives, objectives, and expectations are critical in the communication approach (Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 216). Self-administered, telephone, and personal interviews are means of the communication approach. Self-administered surveys are advantageous with low-cost, require nominal staffing, more anonymous, and can facilitate quick data collection (Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 225). However, self-administered surveys have disadvantages with low response rates, unable to probe responses, anxieties of participants, and potential skewed response data (Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 225). Telephone surveys are beneficial in accessing hard-to-reach

). Moreover, they are likewise curious about what individuals think about issues, however, when investigating practices, they are referring to individuals’ behaviors (Creswell, 2012). A major reason researcher employs this design is that it is not as time-consuming as some the other designs, and normally it only requires once to administer the instrument and to collect the data (Creswell, 2012). Closed-ended questions will be posed by the researcher as the researcher interviews the respondents. When conducting one-on -one interviews the researcher must develop or locate an instrument and make sure all interviewers are trained in the best practices of interviewing (Creswell, 2012). The training will involve becoming familiar the instructions

As stated by (Reddy, 2016) and (Hughes, 2015), some of the advantages of interviews are that interview methods are more personal in nature and great for creating quantitative data. It is very simple and less costly than other process of communication. Interview method is possible to reach a large number of people at the same time. Any interview increases the knowledge of both the interviewer and interviewee because they can change their views and ideas. Unstructured interview questions can be finished more flexible and adaptive depending on the

Finally, focus groups provide in-depth data. They are a good way to involve the target group in the research process in a more intimate way. Researchers can observe the group while they are having dialogue to gauge authenticity. This tool also allows the researcher to use visual stimuli to interact with its target. However, this tool is not the most efficient way to gather information. As with most of the tools mentioned, it is time consuming. Therefore, not scientific. Focus groups can produce obscure results if they are not strictly moderated. Additionally, they often must be incentivized for participation.

Using one or more social work research reports as an example, discuss critically one of the applied research methods addressed in the course. This includes: describing the method in detail, appraising its strengths and weaknesses and assessing the circumstances in which this method should – and should not – be used.