Primary and secondary data including meta-analysis.

Question 1

Primary data

Answer 1

first-hand data collected for the purpose of the investigation.

Question 2

primary data strengths

Answer 2

The great strength of generating primary data is the control the researcher has over the data. The data collection can be designed so it fits the aims and hypothesis of the study.

Question 3

primary data limitations

Answer 3

It is a very lengthy and therefore expensive process. Simply designing a study takes a lot of time and then time is spent recruiting participants, conducting the study and analysing the data.

Question 4

secondary data

Answer 4

Information that has been collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research e.g. taken from journals, books or articles.

Question 5

secondary data strengths

Answer 5

*It is simpler and cheaper to just access someone else’s data because significantly less time and equipment is needed
* Such data may have been subjected to statistical testing and thus it is known whether it is significant.

Question 6

secondary data limitations

Answer 6

The data may not exactly fit the needs of the study.

Question 7

meta analysis

Answer 7

Researcher looks at the findings from a number of different studies and produces a statistic to represent the overall effect

Produces an effect size as the dependent variable in order to assess overall trends

Question 8

meta analysis strengths

Answer 8

• increase the validity of the conclusions drawn bc they are based on a wider sample of participants
  -often a group of studies on a similar topic produce contradictory results. a meta analysis allows us to reach an overall conclusion by having a statistic to represent the findings of different studies

Question 9

meta analysis limitations

Answer 9

• the research designs in the different studies sampled may also vary considerably which means that the studies are not truly comparable. putting them together to calculate the effect size may not be appropriate and thus the conclusions are not always valid

Question 10

Systematic review

Answer 10

A review of research involves identifying an aim and then searching for research studies that have adresses similar aims/hypotheses
- done by looking through various databases which holds the details of research published in academic journals
- decision made ab search criteria (what kind of study will be included or excluded)