Theme4: Quantitative research

 Paper: Internet and Social Media Use as a Resource Among Homeless Youth

Eric Rice, Anamika Barman-Adhikari (2013)Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

1.Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

This paper uses a form of survey with relative questions. First a convenience sample of 201 homeless youth was recruited. Then every participants answered survey items pertaining to Internet and social networking technology use, demographics, sex and drug risk taking behaviors, living situation, service utilization, and mental health during the self-interview. Through collecting data and conducting analyses which is based on statistical software package SASTM , the statistics are presented in detailed description.

One of the benefit is that collecting data directly from the research subjects approach most authentic situation. The other one is that all the data are collected in the tables which clearly present a broad overview of the result. While the limitations are also existed. First, these data are self-reports and youth maybe over or under representing their actual use of the internet. Second, these data are drawn from a convenience sample, and are subject to the biases of such a sampling strategy. Third is that no data is for media literacy or media competence of these youth. Fourth, this data was collected as a part of a large study and did not collect detailed data linking specific relationships to specific types of communication via specific media.   

2. What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?

Through reading this paper, I learnt how to make a scientific research survey, in specific classifying the participants and construct sustainable questions which are related to research topics. In addition, the limitation of the group of interviewees should be taken considered during the recruitment.

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

The research data is based on self-interview so that reliability risks may exist. The result which stands for personal experiences of subjects lack of empirical data. Maybe taking a long-time observation as the experiment after the interview and recording their daily internet using details will enhance the accuracy of presented data.

Drumming in Immersive Virtual Reality written by Konstantina Kilteni, Ilias Bergstrom, and Mel Slater is a great example of scientific research method. What I learnt from the text include preparation for the test, experimental procedure and even the data analysis. The paper gives some descriptions of key concepts in the research which is meaningful for getting a better understanding. Then relating to previous literatures is also significant and strength the reliability of the research. After reading this paper, I got some ideas about how to create an effective method.

Question:

1. Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?

From Wikipedia, Quantitative research is generally made using scientific method, which can include:

·       The generation of models, theories and hypotheses.

·       The development of instruments and methods for measurement

·       Experimental control and manipulation of variables.

·       Collection of empirical data

·       Modeling and analysis of data

Quantitative methods can be used to verify which of such hypotheses are true.Qualitative methods might be used to understand the meaning of the conclusions produced by quantitative methods.

2. Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?

Qualitative methods are usually base on quantitative methods and investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when, or who. qualitative researcher holds that understanding comes from exploring the totality of the situation often has access to large reams of "hard data", and begins with propositions proceeding in a scientific and empirical way throughout the research process. But it can be concentrated only on the particular cases to produce useful information and and any more general conclusions are only hypotheses.