Primary and secondary data

Question 1

Description points for primary data

Answer 1

• Information collected at first hand by the researchers
• The material from an interview or questionnaire you conduct yourself is primary data
• Presents original thinking and new information
• Can be qualitative data and quantitative data, depending on the method.
• Might be gathered from clinical interviews with mentally ill patients regarding their symptoms and experiences

Question 2

Strengths of primary data

Answer 2

• Likely to be relevant to the study, following careful operationalisation of variables and using carefully chosen procedures. Study is designed and carried out for the main purpose of the research which is less likely to adjust and the data as in secondary data.
• Reliable as researchers known how it was collected and therefore, can replicate to verify accuracy of data
• Collecting primary data means that researchers are in contact with participants and can be sensitive to issues that arise
• Likely to be gathered at the time of studies so conclusions will be drawn them.
• Primary data might be considered more trustworthy in that it has greater validity than secondary.
• Collected objectively with careful planning, sampling and controls so more credible.

Question 3

Weaknesses of primary data

Answer 3

• Data sets are often quite small so may be harder to draw conclusions compared to meta analysis of secondary sources.
• Danger of personal bias on the part of the researcher which could affect the data collection, risking the validity of the data.
• More likely to exploit potential participants than secondary data, therefore contain more ethical issues such as consent and deception.
• Expensive to obtain because each researcher has to start from the beginning of a study and follow the whole study through finding participants, organising materials and running the study.
• If data is gathered for one purpose and then used fir another, it may lack credibility.

Question 4

What is an example of primary data?

Answer 4

Rosenhan

Question 5

A01 description of secondary data

Answer 5

• Data that has already been collected by someone else. This could be information in the form of a census or an organisation records.
• Primary data from other researchers that is reused for a different purpose.
• Evidence/ data taken from publications/ media such as newspaper articles or TV programmes can be used as secondary data.
• A meta-analysis in which researchers pool data on a particular data, uses secondary data because the data studied is not first hand
• Relies on evidence gathered from other researchers. For example, assessing other peer-reviewed articles of public access statistics such as hospital records

Question 6

Strengths of secondary data

Answer 6

• Cost and time effective as researchers don’t need to incur the expenses of data collection for themselves.
• Less likely to be ethical issues such as informed consent as the data is not collected from people directly and information is already in the public domain

Question 7

Weaknesses of secondary data

Answer 7

• Might have been gathered some time ago. Conclusions drawn might not be valid as cultures, for example, change over time.
• May be problems with the use of and interpretation of data as the data were initially collected to ask a different question, this may reduce validity and credibility.
• Reliability/ validity of the data are unknown so the analysis may be flawed because of some original errors.