meta-analysis

• meta-analysis


  A statistical technique used to gather data from lots of studies on the same topic, and combine them to see the overall effect.
• strengths of meta-analysis 


  • Large number of participants overall, so more likely to have high population validity
  • Using Meta-analysis is also a cheaper way to conduct your research as you do not have to pay expenses for carrying out an experiment. 
  • The results can provide strong evidence for the hypothesis and also become more generalisable. 
  • It can also gain data from different types of studies such as analogue and clinical studies so that they can be compared.
• weaknesses of meta-analysis 


  • more susceptible to researcher bias than other research methods. The researcher collecting the data may pick specific studies that only provide the outcome that the researcher is looking for. 
  • not all details of a study that is used may be given as the the researcher collecting the data who was not actively involved in the study at the time it was done - some data may be missing affects the overall result of that study and reduces its reliability. 
  • Poor designs are also mixed with good ones which can skew the statistical result.