Comparison of Data Collection Methods - Research Paper Example

Data Collection Comparison Methods Instructor Course Date Introduction Statistics uses different research designs for research methodology that suits to a particular problem under study. Studies that involve cultures, norms and behavior of a particular society or group of individuals usually require such methods that directly involve the participant under study. Such is the case if a company wanted to know the changing tastes of its products on consumers. Thus studies such as ethnology, phenomenology and use of narratives suit the research problem in data collection. They use criterion such as stories, artifacts used by a particular group, interviewing the participants, observing their behaviors and by use of secondary data. The data is collected directly from the field that enables the research to draw accurate and reliable conclusions. Comparison and contrasting different data collection methods The design uses various criteria such as interviews, observations, artifacts, secondary data, use of samples and data from stories. Their similarities and differences are discussed below; Artifacts and stories Both of them are usually constructed into culture of a given society and provide information from the ancient times to the current periods and must be interpreted by the researcher for a good conclusion to be arrived at. However, artifacts are more honest than the stories. This is because; in artifacts the researcher views for her/himself and can identify the hidden meaning (Goertz, & Mahone, 2012). On the other hand, stories can sometimes be made up that suits the researchers and at times the participant may lie. This provides false data that compromises the research. Primary data and secondary data Both the criteria try to seek information from a particular source to a particular problem. They are methods of inquiry into a particular study regarding a research problem. The data must be then analyzed for interpretation. Never the less, primary data uses firsthand information from the field and can be used for comprehensive analysis. They are done to acquire new solutions to a particular problem and interact with the participant directly (Tracy, 2013). However, secondary data secondary data uses already stored data to improve on the existing analysis, or for references purposes and do not meet with the participant. Interviews and observations Both methods involve direct actions of the researcher and the responded hence obtains first hand information. This ensures actions such biasness; lies and inaccurate information’s are minimized hence ensuring an honest data. Furthermore, both the interview and observations must notify the responded of their presence, intentions and how they would involve them in the study if they are to succeed in the study (Tracy, 2013). However, there are contrasting issues on the two methods of study as discusses below; Interviews are usually well structured that provides an easier way to collect data from the field. The questions are made simple and clear. Observation on the other hand is a reduced amount of planned methods of data collection thus are difficult to monitor. Interviews are usually constructed to provide based fact information about a research problem on a specific group of persons while observations tend to analyze the system fully. Observers may de destructed from the key issue of the research since the locals tend to behave differently when a visitor is around, he/she may be overtaken by events and unique society norms (Dagnino, 2012). This may make them to miss important information required in the research. This is quite the opposite with interviews since they deal directly with the questions. Ethnography studies. Ethnographic study is the research that uses qualitative methods rather than the quantitative criteria. It does not major on the entire population but rather seeks to find out the in-depth analysis of a particular group that includes characteristics, behavior as those of a particular culture (Murchison, 2013). Ethnographers however will be forced to stay with the representative if they are to obtain true and accurate information that can be used in the study. For instance, if anthropology wishes to study a particular community or certain culture, he/she must be close to the audience to obtain more information about their norms. Nevertheless, researchers tend to be biased about this kind of research since they are normally skewed. This is caused by majorly the facts that, most of them carry with them a particular view from another culture into their areas of study which influences their decision making on particular issues (Boellstorff, 2012).. This makes the data to be prejudiced. They also develops favoritism among the populace, influences data since most of the time they want what favors them. Phenomenological studies Phenomenological study is the study of individual’s experiences in a lifetime as group. It determines the structure that causes consciousnesses and experiences to persons. The study tries to evaluate on how society or a particular group understands the existence of a phenomena, how it came to be and their interpretations on the issue (Gardi, Glove & Robson, 2014). Thus through diverse experiences overtime, we actually determine the conciseness of an individual. It is more of an inquiry process that provides interpretations to a particular occurrence. The participant tries to make logic of their private lives and his/her surroundings. It uses various methods such sampling, research questions and well structured interviews that are presented to the researcher to provide information. The research methodology uses complex and creative ways to provide the analysis for the data. The researcher then reads through the information collected, groups the data and finds for correlations that can be used to make the analysis. Different cases are taken through the same process and then the final conclusion is made about a problem. Narrative stories This is a type of qualitative research that uses stories from personal experiences, journals, and family tales so as to understand on how individuals create meanings into their life. These stories are used as the fundamental tools of analysis (Bochner, 2014). The researcher develops a research question from the problem that will be seeking information from the stories. The data is then collected in form of any relevant storage method. The researcher can then determine the most important data he/she needs for the analysis. Types of problems that would lend researcher to the use the designs. When the data to be collected is complex and quantitative ways of collecting data are rendered not to help the researcher (May, 2011). The researcher may decide to use the designs since they are simple and provides more accurate information. For instance ethnography only requires the researcher to stay among the population, phenomenology simplifies it further as it only deals with samples and narratives provides for only stories that the researcher can easily record for analysis. When the researcher is in dire need to use unique methods in data collection, then the three designs are very much effective since he can decide to use interviews, samples, focus groups observations to collect data. The design focuses more on subjectivity and not objectivity of the research. This allows rooms for opinions, ideas, emotions that allow the participant to participate fully in the research. For example, under the three designs, the researcher and the participant meet one-on-one can socialize which makes the participant to be confidence and provide full information (Little, 2013). This enables the researchers to get more accurate data concerning a particular problem. Issues faced by researchers while using the designs The research designs usually deals with various groups with diverse cultures. These categories usually have tensions among them hence limit their accessibility. Thus the researcher only goes to those who allow him to do so and forced to avoid the rest hence reducing the data variation that might have been useful in analysis. Presentation of the collected data may be cumbersome. This is due to the fact that, the researcher has to deal with many different groups, participants and numerous story tellers in case of narratives (Harper, & Thompson, 2011). These diverse minds all provide different answers to a particular same problem. The researchers thus have many suggestions and analyzing them into one particular document is quiet difficult. Most of the time, the language of the researcher and the responded are not similar hence complicates communication. This may force the researcher to be trained to know the language spoken which may prove to be difficult (Goertz, & Mahoney, 2012). Again different cultures have diverse meanings to a particular word or artifacts hence there is problem of misinterpretations making the researcher to miss the important information leading to wrong conclusions. The researcher always works alone in the process of data collection. This comprises the reliability and validity of the data as no one is available to counter check his findings. Most of the designs also require a lot of time for the researcher to adequately collect reliable information thus requires a lot of preparations before an individual can start the research methodology (Babbie, 2013). For example, in the use of ethnography which may take years and years before a detailed data is collected. Conclusions Studies that involve people is usually a difficult study to carry out and the researcher must be at his best if he/she is to collect data efficiently. They need to be flexible in the study, can adapt to the new environments and understands the participants more so as not to compromise the result. However, it does involve one-on-one interaction between the researcher and participant that makes the data to be reliable since that information collected is always a firsthand data that if well analyzed can provide true interpretation. References. Babbie, E. R. (2013). The practice of social research. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Cengage Learning Boellstorff, T. (2012). Ethnography and virtual worlds: A handbook of method. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Pr. Bochner, A. P. (2014). Coming to narrative: A personal history of paradigm change in the human sciences. Dagnino, G. B. (2012). Handbook of research on competitive strategy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Goertz, G., & Mahoney, J. (2012). A tale of two cultures: Qualitative and quantitative research in the social sciences. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. Harper, D., & Thompson, A. R. (2011). Qualitative Research Methods in Mental Health and Psychotherapy: A Guide for Students and Practitioners. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. In Gardi, E., In Glover, N., & In Robson, A. (2014). LHC phenomenology. In Stimson, R. J. (2014). Handbook of research methods and applications in spatially integrated social science. LeCompte, M. D., & Schensul, J. J. (2013). Analysis and interpretation of ethnographic data: A mixed methods approach. Lanham: AltaMira Press. Little, T. D. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Quantitative Methods, Volume 1: Foundations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA. May, T. (2011). Social research: Issues, methods and process. Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press. 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