18 Feb 2023

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Survey Research: Definition, Methods & Types

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The data collection method that would be applied for this scenario is survey research. Survey research is an approach of data collection that involves collection of information from a population sample by gathering their responses on specific questions. When describing the perceptions of police officers on the effectiveness of wearing body cameras, it would be impossible to ask every officer and get their response to the questions. For this reason, a few officers will be selected randomly and their perceptions investigated. Survey research makes use of different strategies to ask questions. The questions could be asked through a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods study. Quantitative research involves having questionnaires that have numerical-rated items, qualitative research involves asking non-numeric questions that explain phenomena and a mixed method involves both numeric and non-numeric questions (Nardi, 2018). Open-ended questions would be mostly applicable for the given scenario because the researcher is interesting in getting the points of view of the different participants. The questions could be given through different modes of surveys such as face to face questioning, online surveys, telephone call surveys. The information could then go th rough a statistical analysis to critically analyze the perceptions of the police officers on body cameras. The analysis would be done in order to draw conclusions from the entire police officer population regarding their perceptions of body cameras. The suitable approach to conduct the research is secondary analysis from existing data. Secondary data analysis involves using existing data that have been carried out by a previous study in order to pursue the research based on the given works. This will apply for the given scenario which involves an analysis of 911 calls for domestic violence as this information should have already been compiled and already archived. Conducting a primary data analysis for the given scenario would be impossible as this would involve going through all the phone calls before they have been compiled and grouped based on the specific information. It would thus involve a significant amount of time to go through all the police records. Having secondary data to perform the analysis would also be suitable as the volume of data that has been compiled would be low compared to the existing police records. Secondary data would also be advantageous for the given scenario as one would not have to consider the ethical considerations undertaken when conducting a primary data research (Johnstone, 2017). For the given scenario, archives of police records will be analyzed based on the categories and classification of data. Additionally, the analysis will involve searching for specific keywords that are related to the topic of domestic violence. Making observations when conducting a field research would be the most applicable data collection approach for this procedure. For the given scenario, one is tasked with describing the prevalence of stalking within a small Midwest city. The chosen research approach involves conducting an observation of the participants within a given setting. The approach is suitable to observe ongoing behaviors that take place within their natural setting (Jorgensen, 2015). The people that are being observed, for the given scenario stalkers, will be observed in their natural environment of the city. Stalking is also an activity which requires observation in its natural setting for the research to be effective. Stalking is also crime and the perpetrators usually prefer to retain their privacy and have the identity concealed. The privacy of stalking also means that it requires research that is unobtrusive in nature. No one can also be easily recruited as a participant for the study. An effective study of the stalkers would require having a distance between the participants and researchers. Any interference from the researchers could obstruct with the accuracy of the results as it will impact the behavior of the participants. Field research would also be applicable because the geographical extent of the study is small. For the given scenario, the study will involve an analysis of a small Midwest City. The size of the city is small and the research can carry out an observation on the specific sections of the city. The given scenario will involve a combination of methods research also referred to as triangulation research. The combination of methods research requires one to make use of more than one research method for the analysis of one phenomenon. The topic of the study requires that one investigates the nature of prostitution (gathering of qualitative data) and the scope of prostitution (gathering of quantitative data). The two different types of data will be required to provide a description of prostitution within truck stops at I-95. The study involves gathering data from different perspectives and a combination of methods research would be effective in achieving this. This will allow one to describe the phenomenon more accurately as different methods and techniques allow approaching a given study from multiple points of view (Turner, 2017). It is expected that the description of the nature and scope of prostitution will be accurate. Combined methods research is also advantageous as it reduces the weaknesses of specific research methods. For instance, prostitution is a sensitive topic and collecting data by asking participant questions could be biased on their responses. The study would also require additional observation of the participants in order to reduce bias in the responses. 

References 

Jorgensen, D. L. (2015). Participant observation.  Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource , 1-15. 

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Johnston, M. P. (2017). Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has come.  Qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries 3 (3), 619-626. 

Nardi, P. M. (2018).  Doing survey research: A guide to quantitative methods . Routledge. 

Turner, S. F., Cardinal, L. B., & Burton, R. M. (2017). Research design for mixed methods: A triangulation-based framework and roadmap.  Organizational Research Methods 20 (2), 243-267. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 14). Survey Research: Definition, Methods & Types.
https://studybounty.com/survey-research-definition-methods-and-types-essay

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