Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Archival Materials
Archival research has several distinct advantages over other research methods. Not least
among its advantages is the fact that the data are already collected. This may represent a
substantial savings of time, effort, and money. The fact that the data are already collected also
means that, in general, archival research involves minimal concerns about institutional review.
Almost all archival research is exempt from review; the participants generally gave permission
for their data to be used in research when the archive was created. In some cases, the materials
are in the public domain, and in some cases the participants are dead.
In addition to these pragmatic advantages, archival research has empirical advantages as
well, because it allows the investigation of questions that would be difficult or impossible to
study in any other way. Comparative studies of how people or societies have changed over
periods of historical time are not possible without archival research. Even studies of life span
development are often limited without archival data. The Nun Study, for example, while it is ongoing with respect to current measures of brain function and cognitive capacity, uses writing
samples from the nuns teenage and early adult years, when they were novitiates, to look for
warning signs of Alzheimer’s. Similarly, the study by Hart of the developmental trajectory of
self-development in men would not have been possible without the archived materials in the
Murray Center, unless Hart had been willing to wait 25 years (the time span covered in the
archived material) to complete his investigation.
The advantages of archival research must be balanced against its disadvantages, which
include the following:
The data may not be in a format that is easy to use to answer the research question. In the
study by Peterson, Vaillant and Seligman, for example, the archival data were essays that
students wrote at the age of 25. Peterson et al. were interested in the role of explanatory style on
health, but this was not directly measured in the essays. Consequently, they had to develop a
coding scheme with which to assign explanatory style to the statements in the essays, then read
and code every essay. This effort was a laborious and time-consuming process. In contrast, to
conduct a contemporary study of the effects of optimism on health, one can simply ask people to
fill out a questionnaire, perhaps even using a computer that automatically calculates a score when
the questionnaire is finished.
The data may not include information about the variables of interest. For example, the
Census Bureau has for many years archived data on certain kinds of demographic information
about the residents of the US. Data on ethnicity, family size, income level, and home ownership
among its advantages is the fact that the data are already collected. This may represent a
substantial savings of time, effort, and money. The fact that the data are already collected also
means that, in general, archival research involves minimal concerns about institutional review.
Almost all archival research is exempt from review; the participants generally gave permission
for their data to be used in research when the archive was created. In some cases, the materials
are in the public domain, and in some cases the participants are dead.
In addition to these pragmatic advantages, archival research has empirical advantages as
well, because it allows the investigation of questions that would be difficult or impossible to
study in any other way. Comparative studies of how people or societies have changed over
periods of historical time are not possible without archival research. Even studies of life span
development are often limited without archival data. The Nun Study, for example, while it is ongoing with respect to current measures of brain function and cognitive capacity, uses writing
samples from the nuns teenage and early adult years, when they were novitiates, to look for
warning signs of Alzheimer’s. Similarly, the study by Hart of the developmental trajectory of
self-development in men would not have been possible without the archived materials in the
Murray Center, unless Hart had been willing to wait 25 years (the time span covered in the
archived material) to complete his investigation.
The advantages of archival research must be balanced against its disadvantages, which
include the following:
The data may not be in a format that is easy to use to answer the research question. In the
study by Peterson, Vaillant and Seligman, for example, the archival data were essays that
students wrote at the age of 25. Peterson et al. were interested in the role of explanatory style on
health, but this was not directly measured in the essays. Consequently, they had to develop a
coding scheme with which to assign explanatory style to the statements in the essays, then read
and code every essay. This effort was a laborious and time-consuming process. In contrast, to
conduct a contemporary study of the effects of optimism on health, one can simply ask people to
fill out a questionnaire, perhaps even using a computer that automatically calculates a score when
the questionnaire is finished.
The data may not include information about the variables of interest. For example, the
Census Bureau has for many years archived data on certain kinds of demographic information
about the residents of the US. Data on ethnicity, family size, income level, and home ownership