Exploring the Relationship Between Physical and Mental Health

This assignment provides an overview of different types of research methods, including primary and secondary research, qualitative and quantitative research. It highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each method, emphasizing that a combination of methods can be beneficial for gaining a deeper understanding of a topic. The example given is a research project on how physical health affects mental health, which requires both primary and secondary research, as well as qualitative and quantitative methods.

How does physical health have an impact on mental health
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Section 1: Differences between primary and secondary research..............................................3
Section 2: Define Qualitative and Quantitative method of research..........................................5
Section 3: Advantages and Disadvantages of the type and method of research........................6
Section 4:....................................................................................................................................8
Section 6: Conclusion................................................................................................................9
Reference List..........................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Research methodology is considered to be the systematic plan, which helps in conducting the
research. The researchers use this methodology for the purpose of collecting the data, which
is required in successful completion of the research. In this section of research methodology,
a detailed description is provided on both primary and secondary researches and enumerating
their differences. The usefulness of both the research is being explained. Then both
qualitative and quantitative research is being discussed along with the examples. Then the
advantages of primary and the secondary research are being discussed along with the
qualitative and quantitative methods of research. At last the sampling technique that will be
appropriate for the research is being discussed.
Section 1: Differences between primary and secondary research
Primary research is being conducted by the researcher himself. It incorporates the researcher
in directly visiting to the source. The sources are usually the customers within the target
market. They are being asked questions and information is being gathered in the form of
response that is being received. It also incorporates the fresh data collection as the data is
being collected for the first time as the respondents are new for every research with the new
set of questionnaires (Gravetter and Forzano, 2018). When the primary research is being
conducted data are collected in two ways:
Exploratory: In this type the research is generally as well as open-ended. It incorporates
interview with the individuals as well as with small groups
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Specific: This research is considered to be more specific as well as it is utilise in solving the
problem that is being identified within the exploratory research. It incorporates structured as
well as formal interviews.
Examples of the primary research are as follows:
 Interview through telephone and face-to-face
 Online survey
 Questionnaires provided to the respondents
 Focus groups
Secondary research is the method of research that incorporates the utilisation of data that is
already been collected in the primary research (Johnston, 2017). In this research, data had
already been compiled, organised, collected as well as published in other reports and
research.
Examples of the secondary research are the data that are published in the pamphlets,
newsletter, newspaper, magazines, reports, encyclopaedia and journal.
Therefore the significant differences in between the primary research and secondary research
are as follows:
 Researches that are conducted in collecting the information at first hand and for the
current issue are called primary research. Secondary research incorporates the
utilisation of data that was been obtained already in the primary research (Johnston,
2017).
 Primary research is dependent on raw data but secondary research is dependent on
analysed as well as interpreted information (Gravetter and Forzano, 2018).
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 While conducting the primary research researchers collect the data by him, where as
in secondary research the process of collection of data is done by some other person
(Johnston, 2017).
 The process of primary research is expensive as high cost is required for data
exploration from different sources (Gravetter and Forzano, 2018). Secondary research
is considered to be the economical process as the data is already being gathered by
other people.
 Time taken for conducting the primary research is high as it is being conducted from
scratch (Gravetter and Forzano, 2018), where as the data is already being collected in
secondary research and time taken is very small.
Use of primary and secondary research
Primary research is used when the data required is new and fresh. It is especially required for
determining how and what they must make for their research (Gravetter and Forzano, 2018).
Secondary research is done when the time and the budget required for conducting the project
is too low. It provides instant data at a cheap rate and at a prompt basis (Johnston, 2017).
Section 2: Define Qualitative and Quantitative method of research
Qualitative research is considered to be the exploratory research. It helps in providing the
insight as well as the power of comprehending the issues. It is generally unstructured and as it
is a exploratory method of research, therefore, it studies the complex phenomenon, which are
impossible for elucidating quantitative research. However, it is useful as it generates the ideas
as well as hypothesis for the quantitative research. It is being utilised for gaining the in-depth
comprehending power of the behaviour of human, intentions, experiences, motivations as
well as attitudes. It is done based on the observation as well as interpretation for finding out
the people way of thinking and feeling (Ormston et al., 2014). In this type of research,
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researchers provide more value to the participant’s viewpoints. Examples of qualitative
method of research are the focus groups, participation and observations and individual
interview.
Quantitative research is dependent on the natural sciences methods that help in producing the
numerical data as well as hard facts. It also aims to establish the relationship of cause and
effects in between the variables by utilising the statistical as well as mathematical methods.
This research is also termed as Empirical research as it can be measured as well as evaluated
accurately as well as precisely (Brannen, 2017). The example of Quantitative research is
figuring out he graphs as well as tables from the raw data that is being constructed with
assistance of this research. This research helps the researcher to analyse results more easily.
Section 3: Advantages and Disadvantages of the type and method of
research
Advantages of Primary research:
 Target issues are being addressed. It helps to control the research process and thus
the research is streamline with the objectives.
 Interpretation of data is done in a better way. Data that are being collected can be
examined as well as interpreted by marketers (Hair et al., 2015).
 Data that are collected are very much updated.
Disadvantages of Primary research:
 Conducting primary researches requires high capital investment
 Primary research is very much time consuming and instant data cannot be obtained
 In primary research inaccurate feedback can be obtained from the responders (Hair et
al., 2015).
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Advantages of Secondary Research:
 Secondary research is both time as well as cost effective as the data is free available in
the internet or in any other journal
 Data that are gathered by the Government as well as by different institutes is
extensive as it generally covers a wide spectrum of problems.
 Utilising the secondary research assist the researchers in clarifying the research
questions as secondary research is used before the primary research for clarifying the
focus of the research (Flick, 2015).
Disadvantages of Secondary research:
 Data that are collected in the primary research maybe outdated
 Data can be inaccurate
 It can confront the issues of time lag
Advantages of Qualitative research methods
 It helps in providing depth as well as detail of the research through recording of
attitudes, behaviours as well as feelings (Ormston et al., 2014)
 It helps encouraging the people in expanding their responses, which can open up
innovative area of topic
 It also attempts for avoiding the pre-judgements
Disadvantages of Qualitative methods
 It incorporates the study with few number of individuals
 It cannot be generalise easily
 Systematic comparison is very difficult to conduct
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Advantages of Quantitative Method
 It permits for the broader study, which incorporates greater subjects and the result can
thus be generalised
 It help to get greater objectivity as well as accurate results
 This method helps in summarisation of vast information and helps in facilitating
comparisons across the categories
Disadvantages of Quantitative Method
 Collected data are narrower as well as superficial
 The outcome is limited as it provides only the numerical description and not t he
detailed narration
 This method of research is carried in the artificial environment for exercising control
over the research (Brannen, 2017)
Section 4:
Both the primary and the secondary research is required for conducting the research on “How
physical health is having impact on mental health”. In the primary research method, the
respondents will be the healthcare staffs such as the nurses, who are treating the patients
having both physical and mental health problem. As the number of will be very less
therefore, it is required to conduct the secondary research as many of the information
regarding this topic will be available from the medical journals, articles and websites. In this
research, use of qualitative method will be done more as detailed narration is required in this
research (Hussein, 2015). However, as the topic is also concerned about the mental health,
that incorporates the human psychology therefore, quantitative research method is also
applied.
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Stratified Sampling technique is implemented in this research. At first, population
classification is done in form of nurses treating the physical illness of the patients only,
nurses treating the mental illness of the people and nurses treating both physical and mental
illness. This will help in identifying how mental health illness is being underestimated before
the physical illness (Robinson, 2014). It is already been observed that mental health problem
give rise to the physical health.
Section 6: Conclusion
Apparently it can be said that primary research and quantitative method of research is better
for utilisation, But if the thorough evaluation is done on the usefulness, advantages and
disadvantages of the research methods, then it can be deduced that all the research methods
are significant. Therefore, in a research project the utilisation of all the research method
should be done for gaining the advantages. Therefore in my research “How physical health is
having impact on mental health” I will utilise both the primary and the secondary research. In
order to analyse the collected data both qualitative and quantitative methods will be utilised.
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Reference List
Brannen, J. ed., 2017. Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. Sage.
Gravetter, F.J. & Forzano, L.A.B., 2018. Research methods for the behavioral sciences.
Cengage Learning.
Hair Jr, J.F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A.H., Samouel, P. & Page, M.J., 2015. Essentials of
business research methods. Routledge.
Hussein, A., 2015. The use of Triangulation in Social Sciences Research: Can qualitative and
quantitative methods be combined?. Journal of comparative social work, 4(1).
Johnston, M.P., 2017. Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has come.
Qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries, 3(3), 619-626.
Ormston, R., Spencer, L., Barnard, M. & Snape, D., 2014. The foundations of qualitative
research. Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and
researchers, 1-26.
Robinson, O.C., 2014. Sampling in interview-based qualitative research: A theoretical and
practical guide. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 11(1), 25-41.
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