data Flashcards
qualitative data
a ppts own words in sentences. It contains detailed information about a ppts thoughts feelings and opinions. it may be recorded using an audio recording
quantitative data
expressed numerically and it can be counted easily and converted into a graph.
methods that produce quantative data
experiment, questionaire
methods that produce qualitative data
interviews
strengths of using qualitative data
detailed information
insights into thoughts and behaviour
answers not being restricted by closed questions
limitations of qualitative data
more difficult to analyse and draw conclusions
strengths of quantitative data
easy to analyse
conclusions are easily drawn
statistical tests
limitations of quantitative data
may oversimplify reality
people may tick answers that dont really represent their feelings (closed questions)
what is primary data
origional data that has been collected specifically for the purpose of the investigation by the researcher. it is data that arrives first hand from the ppts themselves
what is secondary data
data that has been collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research. Data already exists before the psychologist begins their investigation. It may be collected from journals, books or websites.
what is meta-analysis
a research method that makes use of secondary data. This is a process in which data from a large number of studies which involved the same aim and methods of data collection are combined. the combined results may be statistically analysed
strengths of using primary data
has control over the data
designed to fit the aims of the study
strengths of secondary data
simpler and cheaper to access someone elses data
what is the median
middle value
put the data in number order and find the middle
what is the mode
the most common
what is the range
biggest minus the smallest
what is standard deviation
the measure of the spread of scored around the mean (tells us how far the scores are scattered). Takes all scores into account
advantages of using mode
doesnt include anomolys
disadvantages of using mode
not useful when values are evenly spread
advantage of using mean
takes into account all values
disadvantages of using mean
effected by anomalies
disadvantages of using median
value of data is lost
advantages of using median
takes into account all values
anomolies do not have any great influence
what are correlations
investigate strength and direction of relationship between 2 variable.
strength of the corrolation is expressed by the correlation coefficient.
it is always between +1 or -1
strong- 0.7, 0.8, 0.9
moderate- 0.4, 0.5, 0.6
weak- 0.1, 0.2, 0.3
advantages of correlational analysis
time and cost effective
easy to do
visually presented
can make predictions
disadvantages of correlational analysis
cant account for anomoly
cant show causation
what is the mean
average
add up all numbers and divide by number of hoe many there are
limitations of secondary data
may not fit the needs of the study
limitations of primary data
lengthy and expensive
