Description of Archival research..

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH:

Suppose that, like the psychologists Latané and Darley (1970), you were interested in finding out more about emergency situations in which bystanders did not provide help. One of the first places you might turn to would be historical accounts. By searching newspaper records, for example, you might find support for the notion that a decrease in helping behavior historically has accompanied an increase in the number of bystanders. 

Using newspaper articles is an example of archival research. In archival research existing data, such as census documents, college records, online databases, and newspaper,clippings, are examined to test a hypothesis. For example, college transcripts may be used to determine if gender differences exist in academic performance (Sullivan, Riccio, & Reynolds, 2008; Fisher & Barnes-Farrell, 2013).

Archival research is a relatively inexpensive means of testing a hypothesis because someone else has already collected the basic data. Of course, the use of existing data has several drawbacks. For one thing, the data may not be in a form that allows the researcher to test a hypothesis fully. The information could be incomplete, or it could have been collected haphazardly (Simonton, 2000; Riniolo et al., 2003; Vega, 2006). Most attempts at archival research are hampered by the simple fact that records with the necessary information often do not exist. In these instances, researchers often turn to another research method: naturalistic observation...