AO3 - Primary and Secondary Data

• One strength of primary data is that it is collected first hand from the participant specifically for the aim of the research which allows researchers to specifically target the information that they require and organise and experiment in a way that suits them and their aim (AO2). This increases the overall internal validity of the data. Whereas secondary data might not meet the direct needs of the researcher suggesting it may be less useful.
• A weakness of primary data is that it is conducted by the researcher themselves which involves time and effort to obtain the data as well as analyse the findings (AO2). Whereas secondary data is easily accessed and requires minimal effort to obtain reducing the time and cost taken to complete the research.
• A strength of secondary data is that it is easily accessed and requires minimal effort to obtain. The researcher might find that information that they want to collect already exists (AO2) therefore is no need to collect primary data. Whereas primary data is conducted by the researcher themselves which requires effort and time to obtain the data as well as analyse the findings.
• A weakness of secondary data is that it may be poor quality or have inaccuracies. It may appear to be valuable at first but could be out-dated or incomplete and might not meet the direct needs of the researcher (AO2). Whereas primary data is collected first hand from participants and specifically for the aim of the research which increases the overall internal validity of the research.
• A strength of a meta-analysis as a form of secondary data is that they gather data from a number of studies which allows us to view data with much more confidence and increases the generalisability of the findings across much larger populations.
• A weakness of a meta-analysis as a form of secondary data is that they may be prone to publication bias as the researcher may not select all relevant studies, choosing to leave out those studies with negative or non-significant results. Therefore the data from the meta-analysis will be biased because it only represents some of the relevant data and incorrect conclusions are drawn