Theme 4 (Pre): Quantitative research

I selected the paper “Web Third-person effect in structural aspects of the information on media websites” by Nikos Antonopoulosa, Andreas Veglisa, Antonis Gardikiotisc, Rigas Kotsakisb and George Kallirisb from the Journal of Computers in Human Behaviour with an impact factor of 2,694.

Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?
The quantitative method used in the paper is the survey method with 9150 collected questionnaires with a unique Internet Protocol address (IP) and with an age range from 10 to 79 years.
As surveys allow researchers to collect data from very large samples for a relatively low cost, surveys provide a high level of statistically significant results. Compared to other methods, surveys eliminate subjectivity as they provide all participants with a standardized stimulus. Furthermore, Surveys can be administered to the participants through a variety of ways. The questionnaires can simply be sent via e-mail or fax, or can be administered through the Internet.
A significant limitation of surveys is that it cannot be changed any longer once it has been sent out. Furthermore surveys are not ideal for questions that bear controversies as the answers may not be very precisely answered by the participants because of the difficulty of connect the information related to them. As the researcher is forced to create questions that are general enough to accommodate the general population, the questions may not be as appropriate for all the participants as they should be [1].

What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?
To be honest, and as I did already an online survey for my bachelor thesis I was quite familiar with the quantitative method “surveys” and hence more refreshed my knowledge rather than learning something new. What was most interesting for me to read was that the exclusion criteria was combined by the participant’s age below and personal monthly income to eliminate the potential false statement.

Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the quantitative method or methods have been improved?

I would say that the main methodological problem in this study is the classification into the five age groups 10–20, 21–30, 31–40, 41–50, 51+ as such an classification excludes important aspects of developmental psychology and human development processes. As the research paper examines the user’s behaviour users when visiting a media website as wells as the prediction of the impact on oneself, friends and others an eleven year old pre-pubertal boy will not share the same characteristics as a 20 year old post-pubertal adult.

Text: “Drumming in Immersive Virtual Reality: The Body Shapes the Way We Play”?
The purpose of the text “Drumming in Immersive Virtual Reality” was to investigate if differences between the real and virtual body have temporary consequences for participants’ attitudes and behaviours. In an experiment participants were participants invited to take part in a virtual drumming session and express themselves by playing hand drums, while being accompanied by a neutrally dressed virtual avatar that played a continuous supporting rhythm. With the result that Caucasian participants who were given a virtual body representation of a casually dressed dark-skinned avatar, exhibited higher variation and frequency of movement during drumming, compared to those participants who were given a light-skinned formally dressed avatar or plainly shaded white hands. This proves the point that body ownership illusions towards virtual body representations can cause significant behavioural and possibly cognitive consequences when the visual body differs from their own physical body.
By reading the text I learned that the immersion in virtual realities can have way more potential apart from pure gaming and hence can possibly be used for educational purposes.

Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?
Quantitative data are information which can be counted and which are usually gathered by surveys from large numbers of randomly, selected respondents [2], hence quantitative research are methods that explain phenomena by analysing numerical data [3]. 
Quantitative approaches are best used to answer what, when and who questions. Under the precondition that the selection process is well-designed and a representative sample is given, findings of quantitative methods can be generalised. Thus, data of quantitative methods are very precise, consistent and reliable. 
In contrast, quantitative methods are not well suited when it comes to how and why questions. When using quantitative methods is difficult to understand the context of a phenomenon. Furthermore, it could be also the case that the data may not be robust enough to explain complex issues [2, 4].

Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?
Qualitative methods describing contexts and generating hypotheses rather than counting numbers of people who think or behave in certain ways. This type of research is best used to answer how and why questions. [2] With the aid of qualitative research a deeper understanding of a topic can be achieved, including opinions and values.

Qualitative methods providing researchers with more detailed information directly from the source in order to explain complex issues. [5]. It can be said that qualitative methods complementing and refining quantitative data. Furthermore, qualitative research has also multiple methods to offer for gathering data on sensitive subjects.

However, when using qualitative methods findings usually cannot be generalised. The analysis of data is also more difficult compared to quantitative data as standard categories cannot be called in [2, 4].

[1] Sarah Mae Sincero (2012). Advantages and Disadvantages of Surveys. Available at https://explorable.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-surveys (Accessed: 24 September 2015).
[2} betterthesis.dk. Lesson 1: Different approaches to research: strengths and limitations. Available at http://betterthesis.dk/research-methods/lesson-1different-approaches-to-research/strengths-and-limitations#sthash.IzTVp3S1.dpuf (Accessed: 24 September 2015).
[3] Sagepub.com. Introduction to quantitative research. Available at: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/36869_muijs.pdf (Accessed: 24 September 2015).
[4] Rubin, A. & Babbie, E. (2009). Essential Research Methods for Social Work.
[5] Mack, N. & Woodsong, C. (2005). Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector's Field Guide.