Research methods 9.1.1 - types of data

Question 1

what is qualitative data?

Answer 1

data providing detail and descriptions (non-numerical)

Question 2

what is quantitative data?

Answer 2

numerical data

Question 3

what are the strengths of qualitative data?

Answer 3

allows deeper or novel insight into people’s ideas/opinions - in-depth analysis

Question 4

what are the weaknesses of qualitative data?

Answer 4

data is subjective so people can interpret it differently - risk of researcher bias
may be harder to analyse and compare data

Question 5

what are the strengths of quantitative data?

Answer 5

objective so less chance of researcher bias
easier to analyse (can calculate mean, median, mode and range) and compare people or groups
can be converted into graphs or tables allowing people who weren’t involved in research to understand it

Question 6

what are the weaknesses of quantitative data?

Answer 6

doesn’t provide deep or novel insight and may be superficial