richer and has depth of detail. Qualitative data provides a more meaningful insight into the participants’ views.
limitation of qualitative data
difficult to analyse and difficult to make comparisons with other data.
quantitative data
information that can be measured and recorded with numbers
strength of quantitative data
can be analysed statistically and converted into graphs or charts. This makes it easy to make comparisons with other data.
limitation of quantitative data
lacks depth in detail and does not provide meaningful insight into participants’ views.
primary data
information obtained first hand by the researcher
strength of primary data
it targets the exact information which the researcher needs, so the data fits their aims and objectives.
limitation of primary data
it requires time and effort and may be expensive.
secondary data
information that someone else has collected
strength of secondary data
the data requires minimal effort to collect therefore is not time consuming.
limitation of secondary data
it may be likely data is outdated or incomplete
meta-analysis
a technique where researchers examine the results of several previously conducted studies of the same nature
strength of meta-analysis
the data is more generalisable as a larger amount of data is studied meaning the researcher is able to view the evidence with more confidence as there is a lot of it.
limitation of meta-analysis
the researcher may choose to not publish all the data from relevant studies and leave out negative results. This will give a false representation of what the researcher was investigating
