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We all know that, with the invention of the internet, quick access to answers and information is constantly at our fingertips. We can benefit from finding exactly what we are looking for in seconds. This kind of accessibility is advantageous for psychological research, too - it provides researchers with a plethora of opportunities to gather and share data.
Online research methods in psychology are ways in which researchers can accumulate data through the internet. This enables drawing more extensive, diverse samples.
Online research, istockphoto.com
The feasibility of the internet has overshadowed traditional pen-and-paper methods of research. The initial use of the web to collect data only traces back to the mid-1990s.
Researchers collect data from the internet using different methods explained in the following text.
Below are the types of online research methods:
Qualitative research is a methodology that seeks to develop an understanding of the human experience and various social phenomena through collecting and analysing non-numerical data.
Online qualitative research involves collecting and analysing data in the form of language, concepts, and experiences via the internet. It provides subjective information regarding an individual's perception of reality.
What is particularly useful for psychological research is that there is such a range of this content provided through the internet from people all over the world living in different environments and thus with differing circumstances.
Online focus groups enable the person researching to host a dialogue between various respondents via a platform accessed with the internet. This kind of online verbal interaction aids the researcher to understand a topic better and delves deeper into the specific attitudes of the individuals involved. It helps gather a broader insight into issues perhaps previously recognised through statistics.
A focus group may be set up if a researcher wishes to find out more about the experience of different mothers postpartum (after childbirth). It would enable qualitative data to be collected about common themes that the women address and more particular impressions.
Focus group, istockphoto.com
These may be conducted online via synchronous chat forums and software. They enable a more conversational style of collecting data and allow the respondent to expand on their experience or situation to ensure that someone is listening in real-time.
Interviews via the internet can also be programmed to be asynchronous. This means that qualitative data can be transferred to the research intermittently instead of instantly. This enables information to be collected over time and could be helpful in certain studies which require a longer time frame (longitudinal studies).
If we use the same idea of postpartum that was used above, imagine a case study surrounding a mother who has just given birth that aims to track her emotive responses to questions for a year. An asynchronous interview type could be used to gather details each month.
Quantitative research involves collecting numerical data which can be statistically analysed.
Various types of online research tools, such as surveys, use interactive methods to collect data from people for psychological studies. Surveys can focus on collected factual information from people, or they can record opinions which can then be analysed statistically.
Online cross-sectional surveys are an example of surveys that aims to collect data from a specific population at a point in time. It is designed to highlight particular characterises of a small or large population.
Social network analysis is a tool through which online patterns and behaviours between groups and systems can be tracked and examined. They point out the interdependency of structures and organisations online through utilising network and graph theory.
Brian S. Butler (2001) studied the impact of participation on the attraction and retention of group members by creating an archive of all messages sent to 206 online groups over three months.
This kind of online study tool is helpful for psychologists studying online social communication, a topic that will be even more prevalent in the years to come as we spend more time online.
Social media use, freepik.com/pch.vector
There are several advantages of conducting research online through media and the web.
The internet has made a positive impact on how psychological research is conducted. Not only is it more economical, but it also makes visible psychological phenomena that traditional research settings may be lacking.
Using the internet to conduct psychological research saves an organisation the time and money they may have spent recruiting specific samples of participants for experiments and surveys.
Researchers will not have to enter their findings into a database and hence use this time more wisely.
The internet has provided an intangible platform for conducting and collecting psychological research for those with limited access to physical resources.
It is a decentralised pool of data where individuals can access an infinite number of studies.
It also provides social psychologists with various communication archives, such as questionnaires and online groups, which remain discursive evidence. Studies can then be edited or added to further research.
The internet can target more extensive and more diverse demographics of people. It can also target specific individuals by using data-driven methods to target the kinds of individuals the study requires. This also makes observational research much easier to carry out.
Issues lie in all types of data collection, especially regarding people.
Informed consent and participant identity are essential aspects to consider when collecting data online. It is susceptible to a lack of anonymity and an inability to give fully informed consent.
People may not answer honestly to appear better or under the fear of judgment when giving answers to these surveys, etc. This affects the reliability and validity of the data.
Online research is now a crucial part of research methods for psychology. It provides a platform for empirical researchers to observe human patterns of behaviour.
Carrying out behavioural research online is significant for providing a certain standard of external validity. This is achieved as the data collected is more ecologically representative and varied because of a large pool of participants and thus diverse samples.
Data collection is fast and, in some cases, nearly immediate. Information can be accumulated from individuals no matter their geographical location.
Online research is important because it allows researchers to be more inclusive. The internet provides a medium for topics that traditional research methods may not have addressed. This is because psychologists have access to groups and populations of people who may have been under-represented by previous studies via the internet.
The internet has provided a platform for both quantitative and qualitative studies to carry more weight through their empirical and statistical validity.
Online research is the method through which data and information is collected for further use via the internet.
The purpose of online research is to broaden the horizon through which information is collected so that it can be as varied and representable as possible. It allows researches to collect data which may not have been recorded from traditional research methods.
Researching effectively online involves knowing your target demographic and knowing the method which you want to use to collect your data. If you wish to collect qualitative data, you should consider methods such as online focus groups which create a dialogue between researcher and respondents. Surveys and polls may be more effective for the collection of quantitative data.
The four main types of online research are online focus groups/interviews, surveys, polls and questionnaires.
Online research is a crucial method of empirical data collection. It allows researches to understand patterns of behaviour which are far more representative and diverse than traditional research methods may account for. It allows quick access to information for people no matter where they are situated in the world. Crucially, it provides a platform for communication between researches and a dialogue between studies to exist.
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