Evaluating and reflecting upon Theme 4

So this week was mostly about quantitative methodology and discussion about its pros and cons. In preparation for the discussions we were instructed to choose one article of our own and read one that was already selected for us. This is an approach that I have previously stated that I believe is good for learning. Generally I willingly spend more time with articles and subjects that I can choose myself, since they consist of topics that I find interesting and rewarding. In my opinion you therefore more easily anchor the concepts you read about in the articles that you have not chosen yourself, and which topics may not interest you as much.

My article happened to consist of a methodology analysis based on quantitative surveys and statistical data that the authors mapped against each other in order to see how reliable the method of "self-report" can be in specific cases. Very interesting to read about in my opinion since I have thought about using some sort of self-report method in my upcoming master thesis. Sadly the study showed that self-report, at least in this particular case, is not very reliable - so maybe I will have to rethink my upcoming research a bit.

Other than this, we had some general discussions about research methodology and especially surveys. A lot of aspects regarding the importance of making a survey understandable and usable were presented and discussed. Most insights that we shared with one another, I would say that I pretty much already had thought about before. However, to remember to test if a questionnaire is possible to access through all the well known web browsers is typically something that I do not do. I will probably check this in future projects! Other than that, the feedback that we received during the seminar with Olle Bälter was mostly about not making the questions ambiguous or "leading". We also talked about the importance of using correct allusions. Per example not to use the word "not" in the formulations.

I week that was fairly straight forward compared to the previous ones. I did however enjoy to get some reminders on how to think about these methodologies.