Research Method
Lecture 5
Introduction
• Research methods are simply the ways of data collection. Developing your
research method is an integral part of your research design. When planning
your methods, there are two key decisions you will make.
• First, decide how you will collect data. Your methods depend on what type of
data you need to answer your research question:
• Qualitative vs. quantitative: Will your data take the form of words or
numbers?
• Primary vs. secondary: Will you collect original data yourself, or will you use
data that has already been collected by someone else?
• Descriptive vs. experimental: Will you take measurements of something as it
is, or will you perform an experiment?
• Second, decide how you will analyze the data.
• For quantitative data, you can use statistical analysis
methods to test relationships between variables.
• For qualitative data, you can use methods such as
thematic analysis to interpret patterns and meanings in
the data.
• In this lecture, we will know about two of the research
methods.
Case Study
• There are about 10 to 12 research methods. Today
in this lecture we are going to know about two of
them. First, we begin with case study.
• Case study is a method of exploring and analyzing
the life of a social unit be that a person, a family,
institution, cultural group or even an entire
community.
• Case studies are associated with in-depth research
studies.
•The aim of case study is to determine
the factors that account for(to form total
of something) the complex behavioral
pattern of the units and relationship to
its surrounding milieu(atmosphere).
•“Introduction to commercial television
in India” a case study by Crabtree and
Malhotra in the year 2000 is a good
example.
Nature of Case Study
• Finding new perspective, meanings, interpretation.
• It studies practical, real-life situations by focusing
particularly on a situation, event, program or phenomenon.
• Provides a detailed description of topic under study.
• To discover new or re-check relationship and intricacies
involved in it.
• Aims at studying the unit as a whole.
Advantages of Case Study
• Helps in finding clues and ideas for further research.
• Assists in forming valid hypothesis.
• Leads to obtain a wealth of information about a research topic.
• Used in gathering descriptive and explanatory data.
• Helps in the stratification of the sample.
• Used to learn why a problem has occurred.
• Allows the researcher to work on a wider range.
• Enlarges the area of experience of the researcher.
• The more is the data sources, the more will be the valid study.
Disadvantages of Case Study
• Criticized of being biased to studies.
• Do not have a scope of improvement to generalization.
• Time consuming.
• May produce massive quantities of data that are hard to
summarize and use.
• Generalizations are drawn from a few cases.
• Comprises of detailed study of the subject over a long period of
time.
• Incapable of verification and the generalizations drawn not very
accurate as not verifiable.
Interview Method
• Interview can be used as a method as well as a tool of
research.
• Interview maybe regarded as a systematic method by
which a person enters more or less imaginatively into the
life of a comparative stranger.
• Interview can be defined as a systematic and scientific
method by which interviewer enters the process of
thinking of interviewee through interpersonal
communication process.
Importance of Interview
• Enables us to know and study even those events that are not open
to observation, which are only known to the respondent.
• Only method of studying abstract and intangible personal factors
like attitude, feelings or reactions etc.
• Events on historical and emotional background can be studied. It
enables to follow the real significance of an event.
• Through interview one can gain the real experience of a person as
it can be best narrated by the one who has experienced it.
• Interview enables us to study past events also. Observation is
completely dependent on the current events.
Purpose of Interview
• Securing certain information from the subject, which cannot be
gathered from any other sources. The interviewer tells the topic to
the subject. The interviewer listens to the narration and tries to
collect data.
• The interest of the researcher is more centered in the attitudes
and expressions of subject. His attention is more focused at the
reactions and changes.
Types of Interviews
• There are basically four types of interviews.
• 1. Structured Interview: This interview is also called as controlled,
guided or directed interview.
• 2. Unstructured Interview: This interview is also known as uncontrolled,
unguided or undirected interview.
• 3. Focused Interview: This type of interview is used to study social and
psychological effects of mass communication e. g. “the effect of crime
programs on youth”.
• 4. Repetitive Interview: When it is desired to know some gradual
influence of some social, psychological or communication process,
this interview is conducted.
Preparation for an Interview
• Understanding the problem and situation
• Interview guide
• Selection of interviewees (cases)
• Preparation of panels for repetitive interviews
• Information about interviewees
Limitations of Interview
• The validity of data is doubtful as interviewee is always having no confidence
on the interviewer.
• Difficult task to convince people for interview.
• It is necessary for the interviewer to be an expert of human interactivity for
attaining accuracy in the data.
• The researcher must device its own control system, so that the respondents
can be checked from telling lies.
• Interview method has lots of subjectivity.
• There is no source of direct verification of what the respondent says.
• Qualitative interview are influenced by emotions and sentiments.