I have previously
studied several courses where we have learnt about qualitative and quantitative
methods. Due to this I felt that I had a good foundation of understanding when
it came to this week’s topic. For this reason I also felt that this theme was
easier for me than previous themes have been. For this week’s theme I chose the
paper “FoodLog: Multimedia Tool for Healthcare
Applications” from the
journal MultiMedia, IEEE. The paper studies the multimedia food recording tool
FoodLog and looked into how users experienced the app through a questionnaire that
gave an indication of e.g. how they used the app, how often they used it and
how fun they thought the app was.
During the seminar we
talked a lot about the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods
but there were two aspects we discussed that I found particularly interesting.
The first aspect was in which cases both qualitative methods and quantitative
methods where useful or even needed. Here we came to the conclusion that it is
useful when studying perceived use versus actual use.
The second aspect that
I found interesting was a discussion between objectivity and subjectivity and
how data from qualitative and quantitative methods do not differ in their
objectivity/subjectivity. Researchers always influence the study with their
preconceptions and social constructions and the same goes for the participants
in the study. A common phenomenon is that participants answer according to what
they think the “right” answer is, or according to what they think the researcher
wants to hear. Therefore it is not possible to say that one method has is objective
while the other is subjective. A phrase the lecturer said that I found summed
up our discussion of objectivity in an eloquent way was “objectivity is elusive”.
Hi Denise,
ReplyDeleteI think you wrote a good summary of this week's topic. As I also have some pre-knowledge about methods in empirical research, I thought it was easier to discuss in the seminar this time. I like your distinction between objective vs. subjective and agree that it's not possible to be completely objective, but there are some ways to reduce subjectiveness in research in qualitative research, which is considered to be "less" objective somehow.
All in all, good job!
Your reflection gives a good summary of what we did in last weeks theme. I think most of us already knew a lot about research methods but the part where we discussed how sometimes both quantitative and qualitative methods are needed to design a good study was new to most of us. When we discussed objectivity and subjectivity in those methods we also came up with the phenomena called social desirability which in my opinion is a big problem in many questionnaires. People behave like they think they have to and do not answer the questions honestly. I think this will always be a problem because we cannot see what is going on in other peoples head and most of the people would not admit that they behaved this way. I like how you explain why quantitative and qualitative methods do not differ in their objectivity/subjectivity, because many people might get that wrong and therefore use some methods out of different (or even wrong) reasons.
ReplyDeleteHi! You did great summary of the seminar and the lecture. I like that you brought up the question of objectivity/subjectivity in qualitative and quantitative methods. When we described limitation and benefits of qualitative and quantitative methods at our seminar, the first possible limitation of qualitative methods that came to my mind was possible subjectivity of research. But I agree with your point that it's wrong to assume that quantitative methods allow to get more objective results than qualitative. I think that objectivity is relative term as well as the truth.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for sharing you thoughts! Since I did not have any course regarding qualitative and quantitative Research methods, I found your input in the seminar and the summary in this blog post really helpful. One of the most interesting parts of the lecture to me was the part about the body ownership illusions.According to my approach in the first blog post, full body ownership illusions can lead to substantial behavioural changes in the context of musical performativity, depending on the appearance of the body. What do you think about it? Well done!
ReplyDeleteAs always I enjoyed reading your blog posts since you sincerely recap on what you have learnt throughout the week and structure your thoughts in an easy and clear manner. We probably all have gone through qualitative and quantitative methods throughout our school or university life, still, you highlighted two important aspects I haven't thought about anymore. In our seminar we started to discuss our bachelor theses, which also shows how different bachelor programs produce diverse methods in approach. Reading through your pre theme post, it is obvious that you analyzed the research paper on FoodLog in-depth, in order to detect its strengths and weaknesses. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteOnce again a well executed blog posts with many interesting angles and perspectives. As you mention do you have a good foundation to stand on when discussing the qualitative research from their previous studies at Bachelor level. I think your discussion about objectivity and subjectivity is interesting, and that there is not difference in objectivity/subjectivity in the data you get from a quantitative research or qualitative research, do you think that is true?
/Paul
Hi,
ReplyDeleteAnother enjoyable experience to read your blog. Your summary is very good and organized, in particular for the two aspects you highlighted. Since we share similar situation for this course, I also find it interesting to discuss the mixed use of the two methods. Additionally, your reflections on subjectivity and objectivity are very impressive. You make a good point and I can't agree with you more. Thanks for sharing your valuable thoughts!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI find the discussions from your seminar very interesting. Especially in what types of studies it is relevant to use both a qualitative and a quantitative research method. I believe it all depends on what kind of answer you are looking for. If you want a model that considers both forms of data then use both. I got curious to how you came up with the conclusion that both methods are useful when studying perceived use versus actual use.
Hi, nice reflection. I saw you have very well organized text, and it's nice to see you wrote about your reading research paper, and we also talked about the kernel topic as you did in the seminar group talk on differences between quantitative and qualitative methods, your conclusion is very Insightful. And I saw you also talked about an interesting topic objectivity and subjectivity, which we didn't do it. And nice to see that you summed up your discussion of objectivity in an eloquent way was “objectivity is elusive”. Great job!
ReplyDelete