Theme 4

Research paper:

Internet Technology and Social Capital:How the Internet Affects Seniors’ Social Capital and Wellbeing (Sum, S., Mathews, Mark. R., Pourghasem, M. and Hughes, I. (2008)

Published in: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (19 NOV 2009)

The research paper is about  the relationships between Internet use and older people’s social capital and wellbeing. According to the researchers internet can both help and harm seniors. Using the Internet can be helpful for older adults if they are aware how they use it.

The data was collected through an online survey. 222 Australian Internet users aged 55 years or older responded to the survey. Participants were recruited through search engines, through advertisements, and through online community interest groups. By using a quantitative method on the internet the researchers could reach the target group in their study by using the medium they wanted to investigate.

Benefits to this method are that handling of the data becomes easier, extending access to participants, anonymity, timesaving  and increased accuracy through the removal of researcher’s transcription and interference. Limitations are that the people answered the questionnaire are not representative of the general population. Its also inappropriate for studies where a large proportion of the target population may not have access to the Internet technology. In this case, just to find the survey you’ll had to have rather good understanding about using the internet. The target group were also quite large, spanning from 55 years or older. So their life and use of internet might be very different since some of the people in the survey probably still work and use computers and internet in their daily work. While others have been retired for a long time.

The survey used  data about general demographic, age, gender, marital status, education, and population density of the place of residence. Control variables were questions on personality and self-perception of health.

Physical activity, stress, and self-reported upper respiratory tract infection. Benefits, limitations of quantitative vs. qualitative methods.

This paper is about if there is any connection between upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) and physical activity and perceived stress.  They conducted a survey on 1509 persons between the age of 20 and 60 during 4 month. The data was collected using a questionnaire that were sent out in emails each week.The results where that physical activity leads to a lower risk of respiratory tract infection and that highly stressed people would benefit more from physical activity than people with lower stress levels.

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

When using quantitative methods its possible to test a hypothesis with statistic data.

That way researchers have a tool to prove a theory. Quantitative methods can at the same show that the hypothesis don't really correspond with the data collected.  

The results from quantitative methods depends on how the researchers decides how to collect and use the data. If its not done correctly the results may not be representative for the group examined. Its also important to remember that everything cannot be quantified.

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

Qualitative methods can give researchers a deeper understanding of a issue thats not possible to obtain with quantitative methods. Limitations is for example that the analyse of the data is time consuming. Its also hard to generalize the results due to the few participants.