METHODS - types of data

Question 1

quantitative data (pos and neg)

Answer 1

numerical data

pos - easier to analyse, draw graphs and calculate averages and can see patterns at a glance

neg - oversimplifies behaviour, e.g using rating scale to express feelings, individual meanings are lost

Question 2

qualitative data (pos and neg)

Answer 2

non-numerical data expressed in words

pos - respresents complexities, more dteail included and can also include info that is unexpected

neg - harder to analyse, large amount of detail is hard to summarise so difficult to draw conclusions

Question 3

primary data (pos and neg)

Answer 3

‘first hand’ data collected for the purpose of the investigation

pos - fits the job, study designed to extract the data needed so info is directly relevant to research aims

neg - requires time and effort, may invlove planning and preparation whereas secondary data can be accessed in minutes

Question 4

secondary data (pos and neg)

Answer 4

collected by someone other than the person conducting the research e.g taken from journals

pos - inexpensive, desired info may already exist and requires minial effort to access so inexpensive

neg - quality may be poor, info may be outdated or incomplete thus challenging he validity of the conclusions

Question 5

meta-analysis (pos and neg)

Answer 5

a type of secondary data that invloves combining data from a large number of studies
calculation of effect size

pos - increases validity of conclusions, eventual sample size is much larger than individual samples increasing the extett to which generalisations can be made

neg - publication bias, researchers may not select all relevant studies as they leave out negative or non-significant results, data may be biased because it only represents some of the data and incorrect conclusions are drawn

Question 6

mean (pos and neg)

Answer 6

arithmetic average

pos - sensitive, includes all the scores in the data set within the calculation so more of an overall impression of the average

neg - unrepresentative, one very large or small no. may it distorted

Question 7

median (pos and neg)

Answer 7

middle value

pos - unaffected by extreme scores as only focused on the middle value, more represntative of the data set as a whole

neg - less sensitive, not all scores are included in the calculation of the median, extreme values may be important

Question 8

mode (pos and neg)

Answer 8

most frequent value
used with categorical/nominal data

pos - relevant to categorical data, sometimes the mode is the only appropriate measure

neg - overly simple measure, may be many modes in a data set and in this case not a useful way of describing data

Question 9

range (pos and neg)

Answer 9

difference between the highest and lowest values (+1)

pos - easy to calculate, easier formula than standard deviation

neg - doesn’t account for the distribution of the scores, range doesn’t indicate whether most numbers are closely grouped around the mean or spread out evenly

Question 10

standard deviation (pos and neg)

Answer 10

measure of the average spread around the mean
larger the s.d the more spread out the data are

pos - more precise than range, includes all values within the calculation so it’s a more accurate picture of the overall distribution of the data set

neg - may be misleading, may ‘hide’ soe of the characteristics of the data set, extreme values may not be revealed unlike with the range