Content Analysis Flashcards
What is the difference between measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion?
Central tendency - tells us about the central/‘average’ values for a set of data
Dispersion - tells us how spread out the data items are and how much variation there is in data
What levels of data can be used for the mean?
Ratio and interval data (why?)
What levels of measurement can be used to find the median?
Ratio, interval and ordinal data (data values must be in order)
How is the mode used with different levels of data?
Nominal: category with highest frequency count
Interval and ordinal: data item that occurs most frequently
How can a range help discover trends?
It can differentiate data sets that have the same mean for example
What is standard deviation?
Average distance between each data item above and below the mean
How is frequency data plotted?
y-axis: frequency
x-axis: item of interest
Can help us find a distribution
What are the defining features of a normal distribution?
. Mean, median and mode are all in the exact mid-point
. Distribution is symmetrical around the midpoint
. Dispersion of measurements either side of the midpoint should be consistent and can be expressed as standard deviations
Where do the difference measures of data lie in positively and negatively skewed distributions?
Positive: median in middle, mode to the left (higher) and mean to the right (lower)
Negative: median in middle, mode to the right (higher) and mean to the left (lower)
What is quantitative data?
Information that represents how much or how long, meaning quantities. Can be represented as a number that can be counted and quantified
What is qualitative data?
Information in words that cannot be counted or quantified but can be turned to quantitative data by placing the information into categories and counting frequency (creating nominal data)
What is primary data?
Information observed or collected directly from first-hand experience, such as data taken directly from a researcher through self-report or interviews etc.
- the data collected would be specifically related to an aim of hypothesis of a study
What is secondary data?
Information used in a research study that wasn’t taken directly from the researcher but by someone else for an original purpose other than the current research taking place e.g published data
- review studies such as a meta-analysis will always use secondary data
- correlation studies often use secondary data to draw conclusions
What is content analysis?
A method of quantifying qualitative content via coding/categorisation
What are the 6 aspects of a scientific report?
. Abstract
. Introduction
. Method
. Results
. Discussion
. References
Why do we write scientific reports?
. To publish results to a wider community and get people to know about your research
- scientific reports ensures that all details of what was done and how it was done is included, so that the research can be replicated exactly by someone else
What is an abstract in a scientific report?
Concise summary of the report, around 150 words telling the reader about the major elements of the report: aim, hypotheses, method, results and conclusion
Why is an abstract important in a scientific report?
So that researchers don’t have to read hundreds of reports when conducting new research. They use these to find the most relevant reports to read in full
What is the introduction in a scientific report?
Literature review and overview of the current research field
- written using the funnel technique, so that broad themes are covered first, and these are narrowed in closer and closer to the current piece of research
- ends with the aim and hypothesis of the current research
What is the method section of a scientific report?
Detailed enough section for someone else to pick up the report and replicate the research consistently, should include:
. Research design and method
. Sample and participants
. Apparatus/equipment
. Procedure
. Ethics
What should be in the results section of a scientific report?
. Key findings in relation to the hypothesis
. Descriptive statistics such as tables, graphs, measures of central tendency and dispersion
. Inferential statistics that refer to the choice of statistical test, level of significance
How is the results section of a scientific report different for qualitative research?
The results will more likely include analysis of themes and categories
What is in the discussion section of a scientific report?
. Verbal summary of results at the start, including relating the results to the aim and hypothesis from intro
. Compares results to previous research outlined in introduction
. Limitations of research discussed, and possible suggestions of addressing these in future research
. Implications of the research for real life are acknowledged
What is the referencing section of a scientific report?
All the sources the researcher used to gather/support their initial information and apparatus for their investigation e.g books, articles, websites
