Types Of Data

Question 1

Qualitative and quantitative data

Answer 1

Qualitative:
- expressed in words, written description of thoughts, feelings and opinions of pts
- e.g. from an unstructured observation or an interview

Quantitative:
- expressed numerically, individual scores from pts
- data is open to being analysed statistically

Question 2

Primary and secondary data

Answer 2

Primary:
- original data that has been collected for the purpose of the investigation by the researcher
- arrives first hand from the pts themselves
E.g. observation

Secondary:
- data that has been collected by someone other than the person conducting the research
- secondary data that has already been subject to stats testing and the significance is known
E.g. in journal articles, books or websites, info held by the government

Question 3

Evaluate quantitive and qualitative data

Answer 3

Qualitative:
-> more detail than quantitative
-> pts can fully report all their feelings = greater external validity
-> difficult to analyse and compare - not stats
-> conclusions often reply on subjective opinions of the researcher - open to bias

Quantitative:
-> simple to analyse
-> more objective and less open to bias
-> less detail and meaning - fails to represent ‘real life’

Question 4

Evaluate primary and secondary data

Answer 4

Primary:
-> authentic data obtained from the pts themselves for the purpose of the investigation
-> requires time and effort

Secondary:
-> inexpensive and minimal effort - data already exists
-> variation in quality of the data…. Not what the experimenter needs = lower validity

Question 5

Meta analysis

Answer 5

A number of studies are identified which have investigated the same hypothesis
Results are pooled together and a joint conclusion is produced

+ larger more varied sample and results can be generalised to a wider population = validity
- publication bias; researcher may choose to leave out studies with negative or non-significant results