Types of data Flashcards
What is qualitative data?
Data in the form of words, which is rich and detailed. Often this is produced from case studies, and unstructured interviews and observations.
What are the strengths of qualitative data?
Offers much more richness of details.
Gives the participants the opportunity to go more in depth.
Greater internal validity - provides researcher more meaningful insight into participants worldview.
What are the limitations of qualitative data?
Difficult to analyse.
Hard to analyse for trends and patterns.
Researcher bias - often rely on subjective interpretations.
What is quantitative data?
Data in the form of numbers, which is often produced from lab experiments or closed questions.
What are the strengths of quantitative data?
Simple to analyse, therefore comparisons between groups can be easily drawn.
Less open to bias and subjective opinion than qualitative data.
What are the limitations of quantitative data?
Is much narrower in meaning and detail than qualitative data therefore may fail to represent ‘real life’.
What is primary data?
Data that has been collected by the researcher for the purposes of the study (e.g., conducting interviews, running a lab experiment).
What are the strengths of primary data?
Fits the study, as it has been designed for this specific purpose, and the researcher has control over it.
What are the limitations of primary data?
Requires more time and effort for the researcher. Conducting an experiment requires considerable planning, preparation and resources.
What is secondary data?
Data collected by someone other than the researcher (data that already exists). The researcher makes use of this as part of their study, but the information was not collected for the purpose of that study.
Give an example of secondary data in usage.
Meta-analysis, which is where a researcher looks at the results of a number of studies on a particular topic in order to establish general trends and conclusions.
What are the strengths of secondary data?
Less time-consuming and expensive.
What are the limitations of secondary data?
The quality of it cannot be controlled by the researcher and it may not perfectly match the needs/aims of the study.
