Theme 4: Quantitative research - before

Part 1

The quantitative article i chose to read was Measuring Mobile Phone Use: Self-Report Versus Log Data published by Jeffrey Boase and Rich Ling. The paper could be found in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication which has an impact factor of 2.019.

Two quantitative methods were used in this paper, self-report measures and logged data.

The aim of this paper was to investigate and compare self-report measures regarding voice calls and SMS (Short Message System) usage from cell phones, with logged data in order to find out their correlation. Hence, to be sure that the quantitative methods they were going to use were the most relevant for this survey the authors examined previous researches in the area and found out that investigating the frequency and duration of mobile phone use in the self-report measures were predominantly. Measuring a user's frequency is about finding out how often one is using their cell phone, how many calls or SMS that are received each day. The duration part is about estimating how much time a participant uses his/her cell phone a day.

The method used in this case was a survey including 1382 Norwegian citizens in late 2008 focusing on what i earlier mentioned, finding out their frequency and duration of cell phone use. The self-report done by the participants were later compared with logged data from telecommunication companies collected from the month which the survey took place. The method was divided into two separate parts. The first part was about asking the participants how many times they used their cell phone for outgoing calls and SMS “yesterday”. In the this case the respondent was free to report any number that they considered matching their usage. In the other part of the self-report measure the authors wanted to find out “how often” the participant used their cell phone in order to receive/send voice calls and SMS. Unlike the first part of the survey, this time the respondents had to select from a predefined set-list of responses-categories, for example “2-4 times a day” or “1-2 times a week” etc.

The benefit with this method is that the investigator easy can compare the self-report measures with the logged data and thereafter analyze and point out under- and overreporting with different demographic traits for example. There are some limits as well. The phone usage in Norway may differ from other countries and cultures, and the matter to under/overreport in this kind of survey could be different around the world. Another concern is that this survey does not measure phone activity for a specific day, but for a more general frequency like in this case “yesterday”. People with day-to-day activities may have a mobile phone usage that varies a lot. I also think the credibility of the logged data could be questioned since we’re not sure that family or friends of the participants didn’t borrow their cell phones.

There are some methodological problems in this paper as well. We should be aware of and question the self-measured data in three aspects which are cognitive burden, social desirability and conceptual validity. There may be some occasions when the participant does not recall their exact frequency or duration of time spent using their cell phone. Therefore, the accuracy of these respondents’ answers needs to be considered if a survey is made in order to collect exact numbers of something since it’s easy to over- and underreport an answer. Mainly overreports may also occur since the usage of mobile phones often is jointly with sociability, and the interest of high sociability among friends could give uncertain answers.

Finally, in this particular study I think it’s hard to improve the self-report measures since people find their phone usages as a part of their integrity and therefore are very aware of which information they share (further information than just numbers/short comments could be too intimate for certain people).

Part 2:

1. Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?

One benefit of using quantitative methods is that you often make a survey included a lot of participants which leads to plenty of data that you later on easily can analyze, finding patterns depending on demographic aspects etc. Quantitative methods are often cheap to implement and it is time efficient compared to qualitative methods. There are some limitations as well regarding quantitative methods. First of all, acquiring a good result depends on plenty of participants. It’s hard to obtain a result that’s reliable and where you can get an accurate analysis of the data when only a few participated. It’s also worth mentioning that misunderstood questions can lead to an arbitrary survey.

2. Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?

Qualitative methods differ a lot from quantitative ones. The benefits with qualitative methods is first of all that you can get a deeper understanding on an individual level and can analyze specific people’s thoughts. This also leads to a limitation. Since you collect data in a way that’s very comprehensive and different from participant to participant it takes a lot of time to analyze all of them. Therefore you have to do the survey on the less amount of participants compared to quantitative methods unless you have unlimited time.