Content Analysis

Question 1

What is the difference between measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion?

Answer 1

Central tendency - tells us about the central/‘average’ values for a set of data
Dispersion - tells us how spread out the data items are and how much variation there is in data

Question 2

What levels of data can be used for the mean?

Answer 2

Ratio and interval data (why?)

Question 3

What levels of measurement can be used to find the median?

Answer 3

Ratio, interval and ordinal data (data values must be in order)

Question 4

How is the mode used with different levels of data?

Answer 4

Nominal: category with highest frequency count
Interval and ordinal: data item that occurs most frequently

Question 5

How can a range help discover trends?

Answer 5

It can differentiate data sets that have the same mean for example

Question 6

What is standard deviation?

Answer 6

Average distance between each data item above and below the mean

Question 7

How is frequency data plotted?

Answer 7

y-axis: frequency
x-axis: item of interest

Can help us find a distribution

Question 8

What are the defining features of a normal distribution?

Answer 8

. Mean, median and mode are all in the exact mid-point
. Distribution is symmetrical around the midpoint
. Dispersion of measurements either side of the midpoint should be consistent and can be expressed as standard deviations

Question 9

Where do the difference measures of data lie in positively and negatively skewed distributions?

Answer 9

Positive: median in middle, mode to the left (higher) and mean to the right (lower)
Negative: median in middle, mode to the right (higher) and mean to the left (lower)

Question 10

What is quantitative data?

Answer 10

Information that represents how much or how long, meaning quantities. Can be represented as a number that can be counted and quantified

Question 11

What is qualitative data?

Answer 11

Information in words that cannot be counted or quantified but can be turned to quantitative data by placing the information into categories and counting frequency (creating nominal data)

Question 12

What is primary data?

Answer 12

Information observed or collected directly from first-hand experience, such as data taken directly from a researcher through self-report or interviews etc.
- the data collected would be specifically related to an aim of hypothesis of a study

Question 13

What is secondary data?

Answer 13

Information used in a research study that wasn’t taken directly from the researcher but by someone else for an original purpose other than the current research taking place e.g published data
- review studies such as a meta-analysis will always use secondary data
- correlation studies often use secondary data to draw conclusions