data analysis

Question 1

What is qualitative data

Answer 1

• language based data collected through interviews, open questions and content analysis
• gathered in wirtten form- words!

Question 2

What is quantitative data

Answer 2

• collected through analysing numerical data

- gathered in numerical form- numbers

Question 3

Strengths of quantitative data

Answer 3

• gives objective numerical data
• easy to compare findings and draw conclusions
• can predict trends and patterns

Question 4

Weaknesses of quantitative data

Answer 4

• no emotions/feelings to understand the experience
• no real detail or personal insight
• data collected in artificial settings

Question 5

Strengths of qualitative data

Answer 5

• allows researchers to develop insights into the nature of subjective experiences, opinions and feelings
• real feel for emotions

Question 6

Weaknesses of qualitative data

Answer 6

• time consuming to analyse

- not often replicable

Question 7

What is data

Answer 7

information gathered during the course of a study

Question 8

What is triangulation

Answer 8

• using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data

- usually using a qualitative method first and then quantitative

Question 9

What are the 4 stages of conducting an experiment

Answer 9

1) causal observations about a feature of the world
2) these observations will then form a theory
3) theories will produce a number of further explanations
4) experimenter sets out to support or challenge the hypothesis

Question 10

What is raw data

Answer 10

information gathered during research before any analysis has been done

Question 11

what is descriptive data

Answer 11

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Question 12

what is inferential statistic

Answer 12

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Question 13

what is nominal data

Answer 13

-data allocated to categories and frequencies counted under each named heading
-crudest type of data- most uninformative type of data.
doesn’t tell us HOW sunny/rainy it was for example

Question 14

what is ordinal data?

Answer 14

• involves ranking data into place order, with rating scales often being used to achieve this.
• tells us which are better than the others but doesn’t tell us about distances between athletes
• more informative than nominal but still lacks being fully informative
• distance between 1st and 2nd is likely to differ from 2nd to 3rd

Question 15

what is interval/ratio data?

Answer 15

• standardised measurement e.g. time, weight, temp, distance
• most sensitive, informative and accurate
• uses equal measurement intervals e.g. a second in time is the same length as any other second

Question 16

what are descriptive statistics?

Answer 16

refers to the ways data sets can be summarised, described and presented - its not useful for researcher to get raw data, they need a summary
e.g. table, graph, numerical averages, dispersion

Question 17

what are measures of central tendency?

Answer 17

any way in which a type of average is calculated showing the midpoint or finding a typical value from the middle of the data set e.g. mean, median, mode

Question 18

what is the mean

Answer 18

average found by adding all data together and dividing by the amount of values

Question 19

advantages of mean

Answer 19

more sensitive than the median - makes use of all values of data

Question 20

disadvantage of mean

Answer 20

can be misrepresentative if theres an extreme value (outlier)

Question 21

what is the median

Answer 21

middle value, when data is placed in order

Question 22

advantage of median

Answer 22

not affected by extreme scores, outliers, gives a representative value

Question 23

disadvantage of median

Answer 23

less sensitive than mean, doesn’t take into account all values

Question 24

what is the mode

Answer 24

the most frequent value

Question 25

advantage of mode

Answer 25

useful when data is in categories e.g. number of babies securely attached

Question 26

disadvantage of mode

Answer 26

not a useful way of describing data when there are several modes (bimodal or trimodal)

Question 27

what are measures of dispersion

Answer 27

shows how spread out the scores in a set are, tells us whether they are similar to one another or whether they vary hugely

Question 28

what is the range

Answer 28

difference between highest and lowest scores in a set of data

Question 29

advantage of range

Answer 29

quick and easy to calculate

Question 30

disadvantage of range

Answer 30

affected by extreme values (outliers), doesn’t take into account all values

Question 31

what is the standard deviation

Answer 31

average amount that each score differs from the mean

Question 32

advantage of SD

Answer 32

more precise measure of dispersion because all values are taken into account

Question 33

disadvantage of SD

Answer 33

much harder to calculate than range

Question 34

what is a normal distribution curve

Answer 34

bell shaped curve symmetrical which often forms a view of psychological data
mean is midpoint
median and mode either side

68% of normally distributed data is within 1 SD, 95% within 2, almost all (99%) within 3

Question 35

what is positive skew on normal distribution curve

Answer 35

most values are clustered around the left tail of the distribution
mean is greater than the median and mode
median is middle value

Question 36

what is a negative skew on a normal distribution

Answer 36

most values are clustered around the right tail of the distribution
mean is less than the median and mode
median is middle value