Primary & Secondary Data Flashcards
What is primary data?
Information collected at first hand by the researchers
What is an example of primary data?
The material from an interview, questionnaire, observation or experiment you conduct
yourself
How can researchers analyse the results of primary data in various ways?
Can be qualitative and quantitative data
Why is collecting primary data good?
Researchers are in contact with their participants and can
be sensitive to any issues that arise
e.g. distress of a participant
What can be taken into account with primary data unlike secondary data?
Nature of the participants
Secondary data may have
systematic bias of which researcher is unaware
Why might it be harder to draw conclusions from primary data?
Often quite small compared to
meta-analysis of secondary sources
How could the researcher affect the data collection in primary data?
Dangers of personal bias
What is primary data collection more likely to do than secondary data?
Exploit potential participants
What is secondary data?
Data which has been gathered by another researcher
What is an example of secondary data?
Previous interview transcripts
Published academic work
which you are doing further analysis on
Why is secondary data less time consuming?
Do not need to design and carry out own research as data already exists
How is secondary data less expensive?
Costs involved in producing a
questionnaire do not have to be incurred, the analysis can be done directly
Why might secondary data be less satisfactory?
Cannot be sure how the data was collected so it may not be appropriate
Why might secondary data lack temporal validity?
Collected some time ago so responses may not reflect society as it is constantly changing
Why might secondary data only be partially appropriate compared to primary data?
Primary data ensures the information that has been collected is specific to the research question being asked
