Big data presents unprecedented opportunities to understand human behavior on a large scale. It has been increasingly used in social and psychological research to reveal individual differences and group dynamics. There are a few theoretical and methodological challenges in big data research that require attention. In this paper, we highlight four issues, namely data-driven versus theory-driven approaches, measurement validity, multi-level longitudinal analysis, and data integration. They represent common problems that social scientists often face in using big data. We present examples of these problems and propose possible solutions.
CITATION STYLE
Qiu, L., Chan, S. H. M., & Chan, D. (2018). Big data in social and psychological science: theoretical and methodological issues. Journal of Computational Social Science, 1(1), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42001-017-0013-6
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