research methods: qualitative data - thematic analysis

Question 1

why are the measures of central tendency?

Answer 1

• mean
• median
• mode

Question 2

what is the mean?

Answer 2

• calculated by adding up all the numbers and dividing by the number of numbers

Question 3

strengths: mean

Answer 3

• makes use of the values of all the data

Question 4

weaknesses: mean

Answer 4

• can be misrepresentative of the numbers if there are extreme values
• can only be used with interval or ratio data

Question 5

what is the median?

Answer 5

• the middle value in an ordered list

Question 6

strengths: median

Answer 6

• not affected by extreme scores
• can be used with ordinal data

Question 7

weaknesses: median

Answer 7

• not as sensitive as the mean because not all the values are reflected in the median

Question 8

what is the mode?

Answer 8

• the value that is most common

Question 9

strengths: mode

Answer 9

• useful when the data are in categories - nominal data e.g. number of people who like pink

Question 10

weaknesses: mode

Answer 10

• not a useful way of describing data when there are several modes

Question 11

how are frequency tables drawn?

Answer 11

• the first column has all the possible scores and the second column has the number of times in a set of data that each score occurs

Question 12

what are the measures of dispersion?

Answer 12

• range
• standard deviation

Question 13

what is the range?

Answer 13

• the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a set of values

Question 14

what is standard deviation?

Answer 14

• average amount all scores deviate from the mean