Primary and Secondary data

Primary data

First hand data collected by the researcher specifically towards the researchers aim of the study

Primary data - strength

Primary data has high internal validity as it is collected by the researcher, ensuring the results will accurately reflect what the study intended to measure. Therefore a cause and effect can be easily established.

Primary data - weakness

Primary data is time consuming to perform, high effort for planning, conducting and analysing. This reduces the practicality of primary data for large scale research as it is inefficient to get quick results. Therefore is a weakness of applying to real- world scenarios as it cannot be applied to large scale contexts.

Meta analysis

Type of secondary analysis that collects information from multiple different studies to make one overall conclusion.

Secondary data

Data that has originally been collected for another researchers aims and has already been produced

Secondary data - strength

Secondary data is ethical since researchers are analysing data that has already been published for the public to see, participant protection from harm. Since the research has already been conducted and published, issues of consent and deception are minimised.

Secondary data - weakness

Secondary data has low internal validity, this is because the data is collected for a different researcher's aim, therefore results may not accurately reflect what the new researcher intends for it to measure. Similarly, the data may be outdated or incomplete, therefore cause and effect cannot be easily established.