Types of data evaluation of data and research

Qualitative data

descriptive data concerned with the ‘qualities’ or characteristics of what is being studied. NOT NUMERICAL.

Quantitive data

Numerical - quantity of what is being studied.

Primary Data

Information collected directly from the researching for their own specific purpose

Secondary data

information collected by someone other then the original user who did so for their own purpose

Descriptive statistics

Used for organising, summarising and describing results - like changing into % or graph. A way for people to understand

• Cannot support or go against hypothesis

Participant-related variables

Characteristics of a studys participants that may affect the results (IQ, age, gender, mood) 

Order effects

Tendency for the order in which participants complete experimental conditions to have an effect on their behaviour

Placebo effect

When participants respond to an inactive substance or treatment as a result of their expectations or beliefs

Experiment effect

when the expectations of the researcher affect the results of the experiment

Accuracy

How closer a measurement is to the true value of the quantity being measure

True value

The value, or range of values, that would be found if the quantity could be measured perfectly

Precision 

How closely a set of measurement values agree with each other 

Systematic errors

Errors in data that differ form the true value by a consistent amount

Random errors

Errors in data that occur randomly

Repeatability

The extent which successive measurements or studies produce the same results when carried our under identical conditions within a short period of time (eg. same participants, procedure) - so SAME results

Reproducibility

The extent to which successive measurements or studies produce the same results when reported under different conditions (eg. different participants) - same results under different conditions

Validity 

whether the experiment has actually effectively tested what it was designed to test (if there are issues may not be able to include how the IV affected the DV) 

External validity 

the extent to which the results of an investigation can be applied to other populations, setting or time.