Primary and Secondary data

Question 1

What is primary data?

Answer 1

• Information collected directly from participants by researchers for their own research aim
• Will obtain 1st hand knowledge of behaviour to test a specific hypothesis

Question 2

What are possible sources of primary data?

Answer 2

1. Interviews
2. Test in an experiment
3. Observation

Question 3

What are the strengths of primary data?

Answer 3

1. Investigator has full control over the study
2. Researcher can pick the sample

Question 4

What are the weaknesses of primary data?

Answer 4

1. Takes a lot longer to do
2. No comparisons can be made to other research

Question 5

What is secondary data?

Answer 5

• Collected or created by someone else for their own purposes
• Not directly gathered from participants

Question 6

What are the possible sources of secondary data?

Answer 6

1. Crime statistics
2. Government census data
3. Meta analysis

Question 7

What is a meta analysis?

Answer 7

Researchers examine the results of several previous studies by combining and analysing results from a number of studies on a particular topic to provide an overall conclusion

Question 8

What are the strengths of secondary data?

Answer 8

1. Relatively quick to do
2. Comparisons can be made to other research

Question 9

What are the weaknesses of secondary data?

Answer 9

1. Investigator doesn’t have full control over the study
2. Researcher can’t pick the sample