For this week theme, I choose the same journal as the
previously week, “Computer in Human Behavior”. The article that I chose is,
“The use of interactive media among today’s youth: Results of a survey” by
Antonie Van den Beemt, Sanne Akkerman, Robert-Jan Simons.
The presented study investigates the existence of
patterns among youths use of interactive media. The researchers use a
quantitative method in form of an online survey. 178 Dutch students between the
ages 10 to 23 participated in the online survey. The survey consisted of 23
questions regarding how often they used interactive tools with answer
categories of a five –point scale from “never” to “every day”. The survey also
contained different predetermined sentences, which allowed the user to answer
in form of how much they agreed. The collected data showed diversity in the use
of interactive media applications. They divided the data in four different
categories according to the behavior of the participations, to indicate the
diversity in the interactive media use.
By using a survey you collect huge amount of data
about the specific interest area. The quantitative method allows you to specify
and narrow down the answers you like to examine. A main problem with the
quantitative method is that it doesn’t answer the question why. Using the
survey the researcher only gets answers to, how and when the participants use
the interactive media. In the result you can read that the boys played twice as
much games as girls. But it doesn’t explain why it is so, which would be
necessary for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon.
The text, “Physical Activity, stress,
and self-reported Upper respiratory tract infection”, presented a study that
examined the correlation between physical activity and stress factor and how
they effected the human immune system. The questionnaire was sent to women and
men, aged 20-60 year living in middle-sized region in Sweden. The data from the
study was presented on a very structured way. The discussion was interesting to
read and especially the part about the differences between men and women
regarding the relation between stress and psychical activity.
1. Quantitative methods allow you to
systematically collect empirical and useful data, summarize it and analyze the
result based on the hypothesis. It is beneficial on studies that require larger
quantity of data for more accuracy. Though it can be hard to examine the deeper
understanding of the object in the study. There is a risk that the study may be
too impersonal.
2. Qualitative methods are primarily used to get a deeper understanding of
the target audience. The social reality and the data collection are
simultaneously being analyzed to capture the people aspect for a further study.
Because of its specific nature, the result of the study can differ if it is
done in different time, context or focus group.
References
Fondell,E., Lagerros, Y.T., Sundberg, C.J., Lekander, M., Bälter, O., Rothman, K., & Bälter, K. (2010). Physical activity, stress, and self-reported upper respiratory tract infection. Medecine and science in sports and exercise, 43(2), pages: 272-279.
Van den Beemt.A, Akkerman.S, Simons.R.J (2010), The use of interactive media among today’s youth: Results of a survey ). Computer in Human Behavior, Volume 26, Issue 5, pages: 1158-1165. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com.focus.lib.kth.se/science/article/pii/S0747563210000622
Hej Havva!
SvaraRaderaI find your selected paper, the use of interactive media among today’s youth, really interesting!
You mentioned that quantitative methods do not answer the question why. As you say, explanations of why something happens enable us to have a deeper understanding. Would you say that this is the case with all quantitative methods or with the quantitative methods used for this specific paper? For example, if the questionnaire included questions asking the participants why they used interactive media, would we then have an explanation?
I would say that it all depends on the focus of a study and on the way the quantitative methods are designed; on the questions that are asked and on how the data are analyzed and interpreted by the researchers. The results of a paper also depend on the context and on the participants of the survey. As you noted for the “Physical Activity, stress, and self-reported Upper respiratory tract infection” paper, results might be different if we did the same survey in a different time or place.