Learning Aim B Flashcards
What is primary data?
Data that is collected by the researcher
What is secondary data?
Data that has been gathered by someone other than the researcher
What is empirical data?
Data obtained by observations, measurements or from experiences
What are the 4 methods of primary data?
- interviews
- questionnaires
- observations
- experiments
What is a strength of primary data?
- data is up to date as it would have been recently collected
What are the 3 limitations of primary data?
- time consuming
- validity and reliability can be undermined because of flaws in research
- costly
What are the 5 methods of secondary data?
- Statistics produced by the government
- Journals
- Letters
- Personal diaries
- Newspapers
What is a strength of secondary data?
- Quick and cheap to get as it already exists
What are the 2 limitation of secondary data?
- May contain bias
- May lack validity for current research needs
What is quantitative data?
Data that is numerical (numbers)
What is qualitative data?
Data made up of words e.g. sentences, paragraphs or descriptions which helps to understand human behaviour
What are the methods of quantitative data?
- graphs
- pie charts
- tables
- questionnaires
- interviews
- observations
- surveys
What are two strengths of quantitative data?
- Reliable
- Easy to analyse
What are 2 limitations of quantitative data?
- Impossible for researchers to explain the reasons for people’s behaviours as it lacks depth
- Lacks validity as it only shows “how much” not “why”
What are the methods of qualitative data?
- unstructured interviews
- observations
- secondary sources e.g. diaries and case studies
What are the 2 strengths of qualitative data?
- in depth
- more meaningful and can explain human behaviour
What is the limitation of qualitative data?
Lacks objectivity
What does it mean when something is reliable?
When another researcher is able to repeat your study the exact way you did and get the same results
What does it mean when something is valid?
When your results show the “true picture” of the group you’ve studied
What is an objective?
When you make sure that your personal opinion and beliefs do not influence the results of your study and you must be unbiased
What is a pilot study?
A small scale trial run of the first draft of the questionnaire which allows the readers her to spot any mistakes and correct them before carrying out the main survey
What is an open question?
A question that can’t be answered with just “yes” or “no” so a more detailed response is required
What is closed question?
This is a question that can be answered with just “yes” or “no” so a more straightforward answer.
What is a respondent?
An individual from the selected sample who submit a completed questionnaire to the researcher
What is a response frame?
A menu of answer options provided for a closed questions
What 5 factors need to be considered when constructing a questionnaire?
- Whether to use open or closed questions or both
- Questions need to be short and free from, any ambiguous meaning
- Question on sensitive issues need to be asked indirectly
- Response frames need to be carefully constructed so there is an answer
What is a questionnaire?
A list of written questions
What are the 3 different ways questionnaires can be?
- Postal
- Self-completion
- Interview
What are postal questionnaires and what are the 2 limitations that come with this?
These are posted to respondents or emails
1. Lost in post
2. Low response rate
What are self-completion questionnaires?
These are given out to respondents who fill in the answered themselves then returned e.g. tick boxes
What are interview questionnaires?
Where the researcher reads out the questions to the respondent and notes down the answer e.g. over the phone of face-to-face
Give me 3 advantages of questionnaires?
- They are a quick and cheap way of gathering data from a large number of respondents
- They allow comparisons to be made between e.g. different societies
- This data is easy to quantify and analyse especially if closed ended questions are used
Give me 3 disadvantages of questionnaires
- Data tends to be limited as questionnaires cannot include too much questions to prevent the respondent being put off
- Data may lack validity if respondents lie or do not understand the question
- May have low response rates which can affect the validity e.g. postal questionnaires
What is simple random sampling?
This is randomly picking people from the sampling frame and every one on the sampling frame has an equal chance of being selected
What is stratified random sampling?
This is dividing the population into groups
What is systematic sampling?
This is choosing every 5th or 10th person from the sampling frame
What is quota sampling?
When the researcher is sent out with instructions to find people with certain characteristics e.g. woman over the age of 30
What is opportunity sampling?
Where researchers hand out questionnaires to individuals who happen to be passing by at that time