Types of Data

• whats qualitative data

  data expressed in words or written about thoughts,feelings & opinions
• examples of qualitative data


  transcripts from an interview, extract from a diary, notes recored from a conversation
• where do you gain qualitative data


  from interviews or unstructured obersvations
• whats a strength of qualitative data

  increased validity as its more detailed as Ps can fully report thoughts,feelings & opinions on given subject
• whats a weakness of qualitative data


  subjective interpretations of researcher (researcher bias) making its difficult to analyse and compare data, as it can't show statistics (trends/patterns)
• what is quantitative data

  data expressed numerically scores from research
• whats an example of quantitative data

  scores from memory test research
• whats a strength of quantitative data


  data can be converted into statistics used in graphs, & charts
• which data is better to use

  both - researchers collecting quantitative data may also interview Ps to gain more qualitative insight into their experiences. qualitative information can also be converted into numerical data e.g. questionnaires
• what is primary data also referred to as

  field research
• what is primary data

  original data collected specifically for the purpose of the investigation by the researcher
• examples of primary data

  experiments, questionnaires, interview or observations
• whats a strength of primary data

  its specific & authentic data obtained from the Ps themselves e.g. questionnaire/interview can target specific information researcher requires
• whats a weakness of primary data

  it takes time & effort - it requires considerable planning, preparation & resources unlike secondary data which can be obtained within minutes
• what is secondary data also referred to as

  desk research
• whats secondary data

  data collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research, it already exists before psychologist began their research - may already be subject to statistical testing therefore significance is known
• examples of secondary data

  journal articles, books or websites
• what statistics do the gov. hold

  data obtained by the census = population records, employee absences
• what is a strength of secondary data

  its inexpensive & easily obtained requiring little effort - as desired information may already exist so no need to conduct primary research
• whats 2 weaknesses of secondary data

  - substantial variation in quality/accuracy of secondary data - it may appear valuable but with further investigation may be outdated or incomplete

  - the data may not quite match the researchers needs or objective, challenging the validity of conclusions
• whats meta-analysis

  number of studies which have the same aims/hypothesis are pooled together and created a conclusion - uses secondary data
• whats a strength of meta-analysis

  increased validity as it creates larger sample size w/ more varied Ps & results which can then be generalised across larger populations
• whats a weakness of meta-analysis

  prone to publication bias (file drawer problem) - researcher may not select all relevant studies, leaving out those with negative or non-significant results
• whats a problem with publication bias

  the meta-analysis will be biased as they only present some of the relevant data