tyes of data Flashcards
qualitative data
expressed in words rather than numbers or stats
may take form in a written description of thoughts feeling and opinions of partipcants
a transcript form an interview an extract of a diary to notes recorded within a counselling session would all be classed as qualitative data
qualitative mehtods of data collection are those that are concerned with the interpretation of language
strenght
offers researcher much more richness of detail than quantitative
much broader in scope and gives the respondent the opportunity to more fully report their thoughts feeling sends options on a given subject
tends to have greater external validity
provides the researcher with a more meaningful insight into the partipants worldview
limitation
more difficult to analyse
tends to not lend itself to being summarised statistically so that patterns and compass irons within and between the data may be hard to identify
as a consequence conclusions often rely on the subjective interpretations of the researcher and these may be subject to bias particular if the researcher has preconceptions about what he or she is expecting to find
quantitative data
expressed numerically
data collection techniques usually gather numerical data in the form of individual scores from participants
open to being analysed statistically band can be easily converted into graphs and charts
strengths
relatively suspect to analyse
comparisons between groups can be easily drawn
more objectively form of data so its less open to bias
limitations
much narrower in meaning an detail t
can dial to represent real life
primary data
refers to original data that has been collected specifically for the purpose of the investigation by the researcher
it is data that arrives first jame form the paritcipants themselves
data which is gathered conducting an experiment
strength
authentic data obtained from the participants themselves for the purpose of particular investigation
limitation
requires time and effort
secondary data
data that has been collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research
data that already exists before the psycho gloss begins their research or investigation
strength
may be inexpensive and easily accessed requiring minimal effort
may find that desired information already exists and so ther is no need to conduct primary data collected
limitation
substational variation in the quality and accuracy of secondary data
information might first appear to be valuable and promising but on further investigation may be outdated or incomplete
content of the data may not quite match the researchers needs or objectives
challenge the validity of conclusions
meta-analysis
a form of research that uses secondary data
refers to a process in which a number of studies are identified which have investigated the same aims/hypothesis
results of these studied can be pooled together and a joint conclusion can be produced
in the case of experimental research where the independent variable has been measured in the same way it is possible to perform a statistical analysis anf claculate an effect sizes - basically the dependent variable of the meta analysis which gives an overall statistical measure of difference or relationship between variables across a number of studies
meta- analysis allows us to create a larger more varied sample and results can then be generalised across mic larger populations increasing validity
may be prone to publication bias - the researcher may not select all elegant studied choosing to leave out those studied with negative or non-significant results
conclusions form the metal-analysis will be biased because they only represent some of the relevant data
