Data analysis: types of data

What is qualitative data?

data expressed in words rather than numbers or statistics, it might take the form of a description of thoughts/feelings/opinions

What are the strengths of qualitative data?

• offers the researcher much more richness of detail than quantitative data - tends to have a greater external validity as it provides the researcher with more meaningful insight into ppts view

• allows the ppt more freedom to develop their thoughts/feelings/opinions on a subject

What are the weaknesses of qualitative data?

• often difficult to analyse as it can’t be summarised statistically so patterns and comparisons within and between data may be hard to identify

• conclusions often rely on subject interpretations of the researcher meaning they are subject to bias if the researcher already has an idea of what they want to find

What is quantitative data?

data expressed numerically. These techniques usually gather numerical data in the form of scores from ppts. This can be converted into graphs, charts etc

What are the strengths of quantitative data?

• it is simple to analyse therefore comparisons between groups can be easily drawn and shown

• data in numerical form tends to be more objective and less open to bias

What are the weaknesses of quantitative data?

• it is much narrower in scope and has less meaning than qualitative data

• it may fail to represent ‘real-life’

What is primary data?

data that has been collected specifically for the purpose of the investigation by the researcher. It exists because the researcher collected it

What are the strengths of primary data?

• it fits the job as it is authentic data obtained from the ppts themselves for an investigation

• the data collection is designed in a way that specifically targets the information the researcher requires

What are the weaknesses of primary data?

• the researcher must put in a lot of time and effort to produce it

• conducting an experiment requires considerable planning, preparation and resources whereas secondary data can be accessed in minutes

What is secondary data?

data that has been collected by someone other than the person conducting the research. This could be from other journal articles, information from the government etc.

What are the strengths of secondary data?

• it is inexpensive and easily accessed, requiring minimal effort

• when examining this data, the researcher might find that the desired information already exists and so there is no need to conduct primary data collection

What are the weaknesses of secondary data?

• it might not match the researcher’s aim entirely

• you can’t always be certain that existing research has been carried out with validity in mind

What is a meta-analysis?

data from a large number of studies including the same research question and method of research are combined to give an overall view of conclusions

What are the strengths of meta-analysis?

they allows us to create a larger, more varied sample and the results have a better chance of being generalised across much larger populations

What are the weaknesses of meta-analysis?

they are prone to publication bias. The researcher might only select studies with significant results, ignoring those that have research suggesting the opposite, therefore they can still be biased