Types of data

• What is the definition of primary data?


  Data that has been collected firsthand by the psychologist for the purpose of their own research
• What is the definition of secondary data?


  Psychologist uses previous research collected by someone else
• What are strengths of using primary data?


  Reliable as researcher has full control over how it's collected

  More relevant to the experiment
• What are limitations of using primary data?


  Researcher bias

  Expensive

  Time - consuming to collect data
• What are strengths of using secondary data?


  Cheaper, convenient as it's quicker to collect, easy to access
• What are limitations of the secondary data?


  Lack of control over how data was previously collected

  Could be out-dated
• What is a meta-analysis?


  Researcher calculates an overall finding of multiple previous studies of similar experiments
• What is a strength of using meta-analysis?


  Lots of data gathered

  Can see general conclusions

  Increases validity of conclusions due to large sample size which means generalisations can be made
• What are limitations of meta-analysis?


  Lack of control over how the data was produced

  Publication bias - researcher may not select all relevant studies, only positive ones
• What does qualitative data mean?


  Data expressed in words, created by open-ended questionsData expressed in words, created by open-ended questions

  Case studies, interviews
• What does quantitative data mean?


  Data expressed in numbers created by closed questions

  Statistics, age, test scores

  Surveys, questionaiires
• What are advantages of qualitative data?


  Rich and detailed
• What are disadvantages of qualitative data?


  It's subjective

  Not generalisable

  Social desirability bias

  Difficult to analyse
• What are advantages of quantitative data?


  Easy to analyse and draw conclusions from (Graphs, averages, comparisons)
• What are disadvantages of quantitative data?


  Lacks detail

  Ignores participants as a whole by focusing on numbers
• What does nominal data mean?


  Data that fits into categories
• What does ordinal data mean?


  Data that can be ordered

  Scale of 1-10
• What does interval data mean?


  Each value has equal intervals