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.
- We will start by applying online research methods to psychology.
- The different types of online research and online research examples will be discussed.
- To finish, we will explore online research's advantages, including the importance of online research and its disadvantages.
Online Research Methods
The feasibility of the internet has overshadowed traditional pen-and-paper research methods - the initial use of the web to collect data traces back to the mid-1990s.
Online research methods in psychology are ways researchers can accumulate data through the internet. This enables drawing more extensive, diverse samples.
Online research methods are often used when researchers need to collect data quickly or need data from a large sample. Various types of research methods can be used. However, online research can't always be used.
Online Research Psychology
Online research is a research method that involves collecting data from the internet through techniques such as questionnaires. Online research is becoming more common due to how cost, resource and time efficiency and has led to a decrease in traditional research involving pen-and-paper techniques.
Types of Online Research: Qualitative Methods
Online research is now a crucial part of research methods for psychology.
One example of this is online focus groups that 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 in understanding the topic better and delves deeper into the specific attitudes of the individuals involved. It helps gather a broader insight into issues.
A focus group may be set up if a researcher wishes to learn more about the experience of different mothers postpartum (after childbirth). The research would collect qualitative data about common themes that the women address and more particular impressions and experiences.
Another example is online interviews which 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.
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. Doing this may be beneficial as it enables information to be collected over time and could be helpful in certain studies which require longer time frames, i.e. longitudinal studies.
If we use the same idea of postpartum used above, imagine a case study of a mother who has just given birth, The study aims to track her emotive responses to questions for a year. An asynchronous interview type could be used to gather details from each month.
Online Research Examples: Quantitative Methods
Various 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.
Quantitative research involves collecting numerical data which can be statistically analysed.
Online cross-sectional surveys are an example of surveys aiming to collect data from a specific population at a time. It is designed to highlight particular characterises of a small or large population.
- Between 2011 and 2015, Chekroud et al. (2018) conducted a cross-sectional survey to collect data over the internet from 1.2 million Americans to assess the association between exercise and mental health. The data was collected and published online. They found that those who exercised had 43.2% fewer days of poor mental health than those who did not exercise within the last month.
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.
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.
Figure 1 - The internet has led to a more interconnected world, making it easier for researchers to collect information from vast and diverse populations, freepik.com/pch.vector.
Advantages of online research
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.
There are economic benefits to using the internet to conduct psychological research; it saves an organisation the time and money they may have spent recruiting specific samples of participants for experiments and surveys.
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.
The internet can target more extensive and 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.
Importance of Online Research
Online research is important because it caters to subjects that traditional research methods perhaps neglected. It suddenly provides a platform for groups of people who may have been underrepresented in psychological research.
One of the main goals of researchers is to collect data from a representative sample; this becomes easier with the use of the internet. Researchers can target their research to recruit people with specific characteristics or a broad target population that considers socioeconomic, age, gender and cultural differences. With this, the findings from the research are more likely to be generalisable.
Disadvantages of Online Research
Issues lie in all types of data collection, including when using online research.
Informed consent and participant identity are essential aspects to consider when collecting data online. Online research 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. These concepts are known as social desirability and affect the data's reliability and validity.
Online Research - Key takeaways
- Online research methods in psychology allow researchers to accumulate data through the internet, enabling a more diverse sample.
- Online qualitative data can be collected through virtual focus groups and chat system interviews. These are particularly useful in gathering observational data via more personal and conversational research styles.
- Online research examples of quantitative methods are online cross-sectional research and social network analyses.
- The key advantages of online research are that it is cost-effective, data is more accessible through a pool of mass information, it can target more diverse groups of people and conducting research online overall increases the external validity of the data.
- Online research is important because it caters to subjects that traditional research methods perhaps neglected. It suddenly provides a platform for groups of people who may have been underrepresented in psychological research.
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