RESEARCH METHODS: types of data

Question 1

what is qualitative data?

Answer 1

data which is expressed in words and non-numerical.
Qualitative data can be converted to quantitative

Question 2

what is quantitative data?

Answer 2

data that is numerical and can be counted

Question 3

evaluate qualitative data?

Answer 3

+ greater richness of data which leads to greater external validity

• difficult to analyse and often relies on subjective interpretations.

Question 4

evaluate quantitative data?

Answer 4

+ simple to analyse- comparisons between groups can be easily drawn.More objective and less open to bias

• lower richness of data

Question 5

what is primary data?

Answer 5

Information that has been collected first hand by the researcher for the purposes of a research project.

Primary data includes data collected as part of an experiment, questionnaire, interview or observation.

Question 6

what is secondary data?

Answer 6

Information that has already been collected by someone else and was produced prior to the current research investigation.

secondary data can be obtained from websites,journal articles and books.

Question 7

Evaluate primary data?

Answer 7

+ authentic data can be obtained to fit the purpose of a particular investigation

• requires time and effort from the researcher

Question 8

evaluate secondary data?

Answer 8

+ inexpensive and requires minimal effort

• variation in accuracy and quality of secondary data
• the data may not match the researchers objectives, challenging the validity or conclusions drawn

Question 9

what is meta- analysis?

Answer 9

Involves combining the findings from several studies relating to the same topic/behaviour that involve similar research methods, to produce an overall conclusion.
A statistical analysis can be conducted which produces an overall effect size.
Several studies are compared and discussed.

Question 10

Evaluation of meta - analysis?

Answer 10

+ allows us to create a larger, more varied sample and results can then be generalised across much larger populations, increasing validity.

• prone to publication bias - the researcher may not select all relevant studies. The researcher may choose to leave out studies which are negative or non-significant. Therefore the conclusions from the meta-analysis will be biased because they represent some of the relevant data.