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Online Surveys in Research Methods - Essay Example

Summary

The essay "Online Surveys in Research Methods" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues in the use of online surveys in research methods. Online surveys are methods on the internet by positing questionnaires on websites or sending the emails of the potential respondents…

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Subject: Psychology
Type: Essay
Level: Undergraduate
Pages: 1 (250 words)
Downloads: 2
Author: pschaden

Extract of sample "Online Surveys in Research Methods"

Online surveys benefit from this element of the internet as it ensures the sampling of large people from different parts of the world. The speed of data collection becomes easier when offering some form of incentive to the respondents.

It is also cheaper to select participants in online surveys. The researcher only needs to send emails to the prospective participants or post the questionnaires on the website. According to Bordens and Abbott (2014), online surveys have good validity and reliability. The difference between the results collected through online surveys, paper-and-pencil surveys, and mail surveys is usually negligible. It is due to the negligible difference that online survey enjoys good reliability and validity.

The disadvantage of an online survey as far as selecting respondents is concerned attributed to the possibility of finding fraudsters. Some people may only respond to get the incentive but not with a genuine desire to support the advancement of research. Online surveys also limit the ability of the researchers to reach the population without knowledge and connection to the internet (Bordens & Abbott, 2014).

Another disadvantage of online surveys relates to the difficulty of ensuring the informed consent of the participants. Since an online survey is usually virtual and lacks direct contact between the researcher and the participants, it becomes hard to ensure informed consent from the participants. Online surveys on sensitive issues such as sexual assaults require great care, which may be practically difficult (Bordens & Abbott, 2014). This difficulty makes online surveys inappropriate for ensuring good validity and reliability of data on sensitive issues.

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