Types Of Data Flashcards
(19 cards)
What type of data is expressed in words?
Qualitative data
may take the form of a written description of thoughts, feelings, or opinions.
What are Yes/No questions classified as?
Qualitative data
even though they lack detail.
What is the main focus of qualitative methods?
Interpretation of language
What type of data is expressed numerically?
Quantitative data
How is quantitative data usually gathered?
In the form of individual scores
What is a key advantage of quantitative data?
Can be analysed statistically
easily converted into graphs/charts
What are the strengths of qualitative data?
- Richness of detail
- Broader in scope
- Gives participants chance to fully report thoughts, feelings and opinions
- Greater external validity
- More meaningful insight into participants world
What are limitations of qualitative data?
- Difficult to analyse
- Cannot be summarised statistically
- Patterns and comparisons within and between data is hard to identify
- Conclusions rely on subjective interpretation of researcher
What are strengths of quantitative data?
- Simple to analyse
- Comparisons can easily be drawn
- Numerical data more objective
- Less open to bias
What are limitations of quantitative data?
- Narrower in meaning
- Less detailed than qualitative data
- May fail to represent real life
What is primary data?
1st hand, original data collected from participants specifically for the purpose of the investigation
EG: from questionnaires, interviews or observations
What is secondary data?
Data collected by someone other than the person conducting the research
May include data from journal articles, books etc
Often subjected to statistical testing already making significance known
What are strengths of primary data?
- Authentic data gathered from participants themselves
- Questionnaires and interviews can be designed to specifically target info that the researcher wants
List strengths of secondary data.
- Inexpensive
- Easily accessed
- Requires minimal effort
- May find desired info already exists
What are limitations of secondary data?
- Variety in quality and accuracy
- May be incomplete and/or outdated
- Content might not quite match researcher needs
- Can challenge conclusions validity
What is meta-analysis?
A number of studies and their results (include same aim/hypothesis) that are pooled together to produce a joint conclusion
How does meta analyses work in experimental research?
IVs measured the same way enables a statistical analysis to calculate effect size
= overall statistical measure of difference/relationships between variables thruout studies
List strengths of meta-analysis.
- Allows a larger, more varied sample
- Results can be generalised across populations
- Increases validity
What is a limitations of meta-analysis?
Prone to publication bias. Researcher may not select all relevant studies, leaving out studies with negative or non significant results
Conclusions may be biased
