Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Energy
There are four main types of research: qualitative; quantitative; pragmatic approach/mixed methods and participatory approach.
Qualitative research is not based on numerical data or statistics but based on opinions, motivations, behaviors and reasoning of people. When using this type of research, I would use things like case studies, and open-ended questioning in interviews, which allows people to give their opinions, focus groups and observations. This research explores trends in a specific area. For example, for my research project, I will be looking at Active Support and how PWS lives are enhanced by implementing active support. The qualitative research in this area will look at the staff and the PWS opinions, the way they behave, the reasons why they do the things they do.
Quantitative research is based on numbers and statistics, using charts, graphs, tables to look at the impact of implementing active support. Participation summaries are line graphs produced directly from the number of times a PWS has participated in specific tasks in a week. Each week is plotted, then over a month any progression of a PWS can be seen by using solely the numerical data given.
The pragmatic approach is a mix of methods used to best suit the research, hence a mix of the two aforementioned research methods, quantitative that looks at how many times someone has participated in something over the course of a week/month and then qualitative how people behaved or reacted when they are observed participating in active support.
The participatory approach focuses on bringing positive changes to the lives of the people they are researching, who may be from marginalised or vulnerable groups. This research looks at giving people a voice. The findings of this type of research may be more personal as the researchers will tend to live in the same group of the people being researched.
The advantages of using qualitative research are it provides detailed and deeper information as it looks at feelings, behaviours and attitudes. It encourages people to build on their responses which can in turn open up other ideas not previously thought about. This research examines why people act in a certain way as it is more open than quantitative and not as strict as just numerical data alone.
Qualitative research has its disadvantages though as the research is generally completed on fewer people as to ask large numbers of people their feelings or attitudes towards something takes a long time and can be expensive. Using fewer people in research may not give a general picture about something. Peoples’ responses will vary widely and be very different which, in itself can be difficult to equate or analyse. If the researcher is biased, this can influence focus groups, observations or interviews. For example a researcher is very passionate and animated about the research topic, this will be apparent during interviews and alike.
Quantitative research is based on numerical data which assesses and measures in an objective way. The methods used in this type of research are closed questions or questions which have a rating, i.e. 1 for poor/strongly do not agree to 5 for strongly agree/excellent. One would use this type of research for larger groups of people, a broader study that can be more accurate and objective in the results. Using this type of research one can examine huge sources of information which can be compared over time. It uses graphs, charts and so on to show information that has been gathered. The researcher will be looking at larger groups to research, therefore is less likely to personally meet the subjects and hence they cannot influence the results of the research.
The disadvantages of quantitative data are the results are data alone and do not look at how people feel or how people see things. As the answers can be pre-set, they cannot reflect how a person actually feels about a subject as a person will go for the closest match answer which may not reflect their real feelings. Standard questions set by the researcher can lead to false representation where the data reflects the opinion of the researcher and not the subjects of research.
When researching a subject using a combination of the two types of research would be most effective as one would have the numerical data as well as the more human element of how people think and feel about a subject. This would depend on the data required. If someone is looking at purely numerical data and they are not concerned about feelings or attitudes, then quantitative research is the only research that’s required.
Qualitative research helps one gather detailed information on the given subject, which in turn will help to develop hypotheses. Then quantitative data works by gathering facts/numerical data which will validate or back up the qualitative research. If one requires a general response to a research topic, then quantitative research will do this. It is easier to conduct a questionnaire with multiple-choice than to conduct numerous focus groups or interviews. When one wants to drill down this general response, they would use qualitative research to get the human element to the research.
