primary and secondary data

Question 1

What is primary data?

Answer 1

Original data collected specifically for the research being carried out

Question 2

What are the advantages of primary data?

Answer 2

• ensure that all data collected is relevant
• has designed their own method so is aware of any potential issues in terms of validity

Question 3

What are the disadvantages of primary data?

Answer 3

• more time consuming and expensive
• sample used is likely to be a lot smaller so results may not be as representative

Question 4

What is secondary data?

Answer 4

Data collected by someone else

Question 5

What are the advantages of secondary data?

Answer 5

• quicker ad cheaper
• more representative sample

Question 6

What are the disadvantages of secondary data?

Answer 6

• not collected with the researchers aims in mind so have to trawl through irrelevant data
• researcher wasn’t present at the time of data collection so isn’t aware of any issues with validity

Question 7

What is a meta-analysis?

Answer 7

A type of secondary data analysis looking at several studies with the same aim. Draws a general conclusion which are sometimes known as the effect size

Question 8

What are the advantages of a meta-analysis?

Answer 8

• more generalisable data
• conclusions may be more trustworthy

Question 9

What are the disadvantages of a meta-analysis?

Answer 9

• prone to publication bias
• research designs of studies may vary so aren’t appropriate to compare