Meta-Analysis

Question 1

What is a meta-analysis?

Answer 1

Statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies - doing statistics on data that already exists.

Question 2

Is a meta-analysis primary or secondary data?

Answer 2

Secondary data

Question 3

How is a meta-analysis carried out?

Answer 3

Collect a sample of existing research in a set topic

Analyse the data from all studies together to get a larger overview of statistical significance of the results

Question 4

What is a strength of a meta-analysis in terms of generalisability?

Answer 4

Uses secondary data so a large sample can be gathered = more representative of the wider population

Question 5

What is a strength of a meta-analysis in terms of validity?

Answer 5

Allows for further analysis to be conducted so more valid conclusions can be drawn from the data

Question 6

What is a practical strength of a meta-analysis?

Answer 6

Quicker to conduct as it involves secondary data

Less expensive as you do not have to conduct the study yourself

Question 7

What is a weakness of a meta-analysis in terms of validity?

Answer 7

Data may have been collected a while ago so no longer relevant to today

Researcher bias when choosing studies to include in the sample

Publication bias - non-significant findings are not published so findings from the meta-analysis may be skewed

Question 8

How is a meta-analysis different to a review of studies?

Answer 8

Meta-analysis requires the researcher to statistically analyse the results from the existing data, review of studies does not