Lesson 12 Types Of Data

Question 1

Different types of data

Answer 1

Nominal (Discrete) Data
Ordinal Data (Continuous Data)
Interval Data (Continuous Data)

Question 2

Nominal (Discrete) Data

Answer 2

Data are in separate categories, such as grouping people according to their favourite television show, or eye colour. The data is placed in categories and a person can only be placed in one category and not another, e.g. green eyes or brown eyes.

Question 3

Ordinal Data (Continuous Data)

Answer 3

Data are ordered in some way, for example asking people to make a list of music genres in order of liking. Or data could be ordered and placed in rank order, e.g. who scored the highest to the lowest in an IQ test.

Question 4

Interval Data (Continuous Data)

Answer 4

Data is measured using units of equal intervals, such as miles or centimeters. Many psychological studies use their own interval scales (e.g. how stressed are you on a scale of 1-10) where the intervals are arbitrarily determined and we cannot therefore know for certain that there are equal intervals between the numbers.

Question 5

Quantitative Data

Answer 5

Data that represents how much, how long or how many etc. there are of something. Data is measured in numbers of quantities. This type of data is easy to analyse but may oversimply matters.

Quantitative data includes:

• Closed questions in questionnaires collect quantitative data.
• A tally of how many times a behavioural category is seen in an observation is quantitative.

Question 6

Advantages of Quantitative data

Answer 6

1) Easier to analyse than qualitative data, so that comparisons, trends and patterns between groups can be easily drawn

2) Data is more objective and less open to bias than qualitative data

Question 7

Disadvantages of Quantitative Data

Answer 7

1) It lacks validity and means we might not be measuring the key variables identified in the aim

2) Lacks meaning and just consists of numbers or yes/no answers. It does not tell us the “why” in terms of what causes behavior

Question 8

Qualitative Data

Answer 8

Data that cannot be counted or quantified.
This is data in the form of information which is lengthy and has lots of detail. Interviews, observations and open ended questions can all generate qualitative data. In addition qualitative data can also be found in: books, pictures, diaries, reports and newspapers etc.
Qualitative data is normally collected on the basis on how people think or feel. For example: how do you feel about not having home study anymore?

Qualitative data includes;

• Open questions in questionnaires collect qualitative data.
• Researchers describing what they see in an observational study.

Question 9

Advantages of qualitative data

Answer 9

1) Can gain lots of detailed data which will help you to appreciate the complexity of human behaviour

2) The data is high in validity and usually measures the concepts and ideas stated in the aim (and whether the IV is really having an effect on the DV)

Question 10

Disadvantages of qualitative data

Answer 10

1) Data is usually unreliable, so if the study was to be repeated in the future, it would be unlikely that the same results would be gained.

2) You may be quite subjective when you analyse the detail and of course it may be difficult to generalise and make conclusions.

Question 11

Primary data

Answer 11

Primary data is information observed or collected directly from first-hand experience. In the case of psychological research it is data collected by the researcher for the study currently being undertaken. Primary data provides the exact type of data the researcher is looking for, but takes a lot of time and effort to collect.

Question 12

Secondary data

Answer 12

Secondary data is information that was collected for another purpose. The researcher could use data collected by another psychologist/researcher but for a different study. A researcher might make use of government statistics, such as mental health statistics collected by the NHS. When the desired research already exists there is no need to conduct more research, a psychologist can just use the data that has been pre collected. However, there is substantial variation in the quality and accuracy of secondary data and it can be hard for researchers to know how reliable secondary data is.

Question 13

Meta Analysis

Answer 13

This refers to the process of combining results from a number of studies on a particular topic to provide an overall view. Researchers collect and collate a wide range of previously conducted research on a specific area. Collated research is reviewed together as a collective.
For example, The Strange Situation has been conducted many times over the years and some researchers have taken the data from all these studies, put it together and analysed it. Meta-analysis allows us to view data with much more confidence and results can be generalised across much larger populations. However, meta-analysis may be prone to publication bias; the researcher may choose to leave out studies with negative or non-significant results.