Online Research

Online Research Methods

The feasibility of the internet has overshadowed traditional pen-and-paper research methods - the initial use of the web to collect data traces back to the mid-1990s.

Online research methods are often used when researchers need to collect data quickly or need data from a large sample. Various types of research methods can be used. However, online research can't always be used.

Online Research Psychology

Online research is a research method that involves collecting data from the internet through techniques such as questionnaires. Online research is becoming more common due to how cost, resource and time efficiency and has led to a decrease in traditional research involving pen-and-paper techniques.

Types of Online Research: Qualitative Methods

Online research is now a crucial part of research methods for psychology.

One example of this is online focus groups that enable the person researching to host a dialogue between various respondents via a platform accessed with the internet. This kind of online verbal interaction aids the researcher in understanding the topic better and delves deeper into the specific attitudes of the individuals involved. It helps gather a broader insight into issues.

Another example is online interviews which may be conducted online via synchronous chat forums and software. They enable a more conversational style of collecting data and allow the respondent to expand on their experience or situation.

Interviews via the internet can also be programmed to be asynchronous; this means that qualitative data can be transferred to the research intermittently instead of instantly. Doing this may be beneficial as it enables information to be collected over time and could be helpful in certain studies which require longer time frames, i.e. longitudinal studies.

Online Research Examples: Quantitative Methods

Various online research tools, such as surveys, use interactive methods to collect data from people for psychological studies. Surveys can focus on collected factual information from people, or they can record opinions which can then be analysed statistically.

Online cross-sectional surveys are an example of surveys aiming to collect data from a specific population at a time. It is designed to highlight particular characterises of a small or large population.

• Between 2011 and 2015, Chekroud et al. (2018) conducted a cross-sectional survey to collect data over the internet from 1.2 million Americans to assess the association between exercise and mental health. The data was collected and published online. They found that those who exercised had 43.2% fewer days of poor mental health than those who did not exercise within the last month.

Social network analysis is a tool through which online patterns and behaviours between groups and systems can be tracked and examined. They point out the interdependency of structures and organisations online through utilising network and graph theory.

This kind of online study tool is helpful for psychologists studying online social communication, a topic that will be even more prevalent in the years to come as we spend more time online.

Figure 1 - The internet has led to a more interconnected world, making it easier for researchers to collect information from vast and diverse populations, freepik.com/pch.vector.

Advantages of online research

There are several advantages of conducting research online through media and the web.

The internet has made a positive impact on how psychological research is conducted. Not only is it more economical, but it also makes visible psychological phenomena that traditional research settings may be lacking.

There are economic benefits to using the internet to conduct psychological research; it saves an organisation the time and money they may have spent recruiting specific samples of participants for experiments and surveys.

The internet has provided an intangible platform for conducting and collecting psychological research for those with limited access to physical resources. It is a decentralised pool of data where individuals can access an infinite number of studies.

The internet can target more extensive and diverse demographics of people. It can also target specific individuals by using data-driven methods to target the kinds of individuals the study requires. This also makes observational research much easier to carry out.

Importance of Online Research

Online research is important because it caters to subjects that traditional research methods perhaps neglected. It suddenly provides a platform for groups of people who may have been underrepresented in psychological research.

One of the main goals of researchers is to collect data from a representative sample; this becomes easier with the use of the internet. Researchers can target their research to recruit people with specific characteristics or a broad target population that considers socioeconomic, age, gender and cultural differences. With this, the findings from the research are more likely to be generalisable.

Disadvantages of Online Research

Issues lie in all types of data collection, including when using online research.

Informed consent and participant identity are essential aspects to consider when collecting data online. Online research is susceptible to a lack of anonymity and an inability to give fully informed consent.

People may not answer honestly to appear better or under the fear of judgment when giving answers to these surveys, etc. These concepts are known as social desirability and affect the data's reliability and validity.