Types of Research

There are four different of research these include Primary, Secondary, Quantitative and Qualitative.

Primary Research is research that you find out yourself from things such as Surveys, Observations, Focus groups, Interviews etc. There are problems that you may face when doing primary research such as you may upset the person you are interviewing which therefore makes your research unethical. Another problem is that people may lie when you ask them questions which therefore makes your research unreliable. Another problem you may face is people may not want to participate in your research which leads to the research becoming time consuming. An example of Primary Research is an Interview. This is when you sit someone down and ask them unstructured questions and they then have to answer. This type of research could face many problems. The first problem it may face is being unreliable as people may lie when answering questions. Another problem that could be faced is that it could be unethical as the person who’s asking the questions may ask a person question which upsets the person being interviewed which therefore leads it it being unethical. Another problem that could be faced is that people may not want to take part in the interview which could lead to the research being time consuming. However choosing a focus group for your research is very useful as i allows you to find a group that is only interested in what you’re studying so it makes the research easier to conduct and allows it to become more reliable. Primary research helps you to develop your ideas and work as it allows you to understand more about what you’re studying and to gain better knowledge for your work. This type of research can be used within a photographic projects as it allows you to gather information and find out what type of things people would like to see photographed in my work.

Secondary Research is research that has been done by somebody else. Types of secondary research are books, magazines, news, government research, blogs, the internet etc. Problems can be faced from this type of research such as the research being bias, unreliable or fake which means you have to find more than one source to gather your information to make sure it is true. This type of research can help you develop ideas as it allows you to gain a bigger understanding on what you’re trying to find out and it allows you to see what others also found out which helps widen your knowledge. This type of research can be very useful as it allows you get more than one persons views on a subject that you may be studying. This type of research is useful as it can also be more cost effective and potentially gives you more information to find. This type of research is useful in photographic projects because it allows to see what work has already been produced and gain ideas for my own work.

Quantitative research is research that include things such as surveys and questionnaires which helps produce statistics on the data with the use of bar charts, pie charts etc. Quantitative research creates numerological data. This type of research is useful because it creates statistical analysis which allows it to be easier read. This type of research can be useful in photographic projects because it allow me to obtain data on a certain subject to find out what area may be popular for me to then interpret it into my work.

Qualitative research is research that focuses on how people feel and how it impacts behaviour. This type of research is done through the use of focus groups, observations and action research. An advantage of this type of research is that its flexible and open ended which helps lead you to answers you may not have expected to received. This type of research can be useful in a photographic project can help me find out how people may feel about a certain topic and whether or not it would be considered unethical to showcase a certain event