Internet-Based Research Methods

The term Internet-based research methods refers to research methods that use the Internet to collect data. Most commonly the web has been used as the means for conducting the study, but email has been used as well. The use of email to collect data dates back to the 1980s, whereas the first uses of the web to collect data started in the mid-1990s. While email is principally limited to survey and questionnaire methodology, the web, with its ability to use media, can do full experiments and implement a wide variety of research methods. The use of the Internet offers new opportunities for access to participants allowing for larger and more diverse samples. In addition, as the nature of the web and social media evolve, so do the ways that online studies can be conducted.

One of the most recent areas of exploration is the use of mobile devices such as cell phones to conduct completely new types of studies. However, this new access to participants comes at the cost of a great deal of loss of control of the research environment. While this loss of control can be problematic in correlational designs, it can be devastating in experimental designs where environmental control is necessary for internal validity, which allows for causal conclusions. What makes this method intriguing is that valid results have been obtained in many studies using this methodology.

While the use of email is an interesting research method, it is little used at this time. This is probably because email offers few if any advantages over the web as a research environment, and email cannot carry out any data collection methods not possible with the web. As a result, the remainder of this entry focuses on the use of the web to collect psychological data while also looking toward new methods driven by the use of mobile devices.