types of data AO1

Question 1

what are the 4 different types of data?

Answer 1

• quantitative data
• qualitative data
• primary data
• secondary data

Question 2

explain what qualitative data is

Answer 2

• is expressed in words rather than numbers or statistics
• may take the form of a written description of the thoughts, feelings and opinions of participants (or a written account of what the researcher saw in the case of an observation)
• e.g. a transcript from an interview, an extract from a diary, notes recorded within a counselling session
• yes/no answers are also classed as qualitative data though they lack the detail that is usually provided by qualitative data.
• qualitative methods of data collection are those that are concerned with the interpretation of language form, for example, an interview or an unstructured observation

Question 3

what is meant by quantitative data

Answer 3

• is expressed numerically
• quantitative data collection techniques usually gather numerical data in the form of individual scores from participants such as the number of words a person was able to recall in a memory experiment
• data is open to being analysed statistically and can be easily converted into graphs, charts etc.

Question 4

which is better out of quantitative or qualitative data?

Answer 4

• neither really
• it depends on the purpose and aims of the research
• there is a significant overlap of the two; researchers often use both in an experiment.
• they can be converted between the two- non numerical data can be converted into numerical data in some of the scenarios.

Question 5

explain what primary data is

Answer 5

• sometimes referred to as field research
• refers to original data that has been collected specifically for the purpose of the investigation by the researcher
• it is data that arrives first hand from the participants themselves
• data which is gathered by conducting an experiment, questionnaire, interview ore observation

Question 6

explain what secondary data refers to

Answer 6

• refers to data that has been collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research
• this data already exists before the psychologist begins their research or investigation
• sometimes referred to as ‘desk research’
• it is often the case that secondary research has already been subjected to statistical testing and therefore the significance is known
• includes data that is located in journal articles, books or websites. Statistical information held by the government (such as that obtained in the census), population records or employee absence records within an organisation are all examples of secondary data.

Question 7

explain what a meta-analysis is

Answer 7

• the process of combining the findings from a number of studies on a particular topic.
• the aim is to produce an overall statistical conclusion (the effect size) based on a range of studies
• a meta-analysis should not be confused with a review where a number of studies are compared and discussed
• it is a form of research method that uses secondary data
• the process in which a number of studies are identified which have the same aims/hypothesis
• a joint conclusion is then 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 and calculate the effect size (the dependent variable variable of a meta-analysis) which gives an overall statistical measure of difference or relationship between variables across a number of studies