research instruments

research instruments

1. Questionnaires

   • A questionnaire is a research tool that consists of a series of questions and other indications with the purpose of obtaining information from those consulted. Although they are often designed to allow statistical analysis of responses, this is not always the case.
   • Questionnaires that fall into the first category are commonly part of surveys, while questionnaires that fall into the last category are part of tests. Questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables, for example, might include questions about: preferences (for example: political party) behaviors (for example: eating meals) facts (ex: gender) Questionnaires with questions that are added to build a scale or index, for example, could include questions such as the following: latent traits (for example: personality traits such as extraversion) attitudes (for example: towards immigration) an index (for example: socioeconomic status)
   • Usually, a questionnaire consists of a number of questions that the respondent has to answer in a specific format. A distinction is made between open questions and closed questions. An open question asks the respondent to formulate their own answer, while a closed question prompts the respondent to select an answer from a specified set of options. The options for a closed question should be comprehensive and mutually exclusive. Four scales are distinguished for closed questions, and they are the following: Dichotomous, where the respondent has two options. Open where you can put your own answers Nominal-polytomous, where the person consulted has more than two disordered options. Ordinal-polytomous, where the consulted has more than two ordered options. Continuous (limited), where the consulted person is presented with a continuous scale.

2. Interviews

   • The research interview is one of the informative data collection methods. This method allows collecting and analyzing various elements: opinion, attitude, feelings, representations of the person interviewed.
   • What are the types of interviews that exist? There are different types of interviews, the degree of freedom of the researcher varies from one type of interview to another. Among the types of interviews are: The structured interview Unstructured interview Semi structured interview
   • Here are some of the ways you can conduct the different types of interviews: Personal interviews One of the most used types of interview is one where the questions are asked personally, they are made directly to the respondent. For this you could have a f2f survey as a guide to take note of the answers. You can design your survey in such a way that you are the one who takes note of the comments or points of view that stand out the most from the interviewee. Advantages of personal interviews: Higher response rate. As the interviewee and the interviewer are face to face, there is a way to adapt the questions if it is not understood. More complete answers can be obtained if there are doubts on both sides or a particular information that is remarkable is detected. Another advantage of these types of interviews is that you have the opportunity to detect and analyze the body language of the interviewee when asking the questions and taking notes about it.

3. Content analysis

   • The content analysis technique, its concept, definition and methodology, advantages and limitations, is presented. Content analysis is a very useful tool based on the analysis and interpretation of documentary sources and on identifying the codes used by the issuer of the discourse, its manifest content, the context in which the message arises and develops, to discover and show its latent contents. The objective is to know not only what is transmitted literally, but everything that can influence or condition the message implicitly.
   • Content analysis (in English, content analysis) is a methodology of the social disciplines and bibliometrics that focuses on the study of the contents of communication. Earl Babbie defines it as "the study of materialized human communications such as books, websites, paintings, and laws." Content analysis starts from the principle that by examining texts it is possible to know not only their meaning, but also information about their mode of production. That is to say, it treats texts not only as signs endowed with a meaning known to their issuer, but as clues that tell about the same issuer, or generalizing, clues about the mode of production of a text. Content analysis is not a theory, just a set of techniques, so it is essential that the specific technique uses a theory that gives meaning to the mode of analysis and the results.

4. Focus groups

   • A focus group or focus group is, in a very specific way, a group of people with diverse profiles and backgrounds who are summoned to solve a problem and suggest an amalgam of resolving ideas. In marketing, advertising or social communication issues, in the private and public sector, these focus groups are used to test the effectiveness, or not, of products and services.

5. Observations

   • Observation is the active acquisition of information about a phenomenon or primary source. Living beings detect and assimilate the features of an element using their senses as their main instruments. In humans, this includes not only sight and all the other senses, but also the use of tools, techniques, and measuring instruments. The term can also refer to any data collected during this activity.