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Types of data
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Psychologists describe data in two ways: where it comes from (primary or secondary) and what form it takes (quantitative or qualitative).
Primary and secondary data
Primary data is collected first-hand by the researcher for their own study, for example by an experiment, observation or questionnaire. Strength: it fits the aims exactly and the researcher knows how it was collected. Weakness: it takes time and money to collect.
Secondary data was collected by someone else, often for another purpose, for example government statistics, school records or results from published studies. Strength: quick and cheap. Weakness: it may not fit the aims exactly, and the researcher cannot check how accurate it is.
Secondary data was collected by someone else, often for another purpose, for example government statistics, school records or results from published studies. Strength: quick and cheap. Weakness: it may not fit the aims exactly, and the researcher cannot check how accurate it is.
Quantitative and qualitative data
Quantitative data is numerical: scores, counts, times, ratings. Strengths: easy to analyse with statistics and compare; objective. Weakness: lacks detail and may not explain why people behave as they do.
Qualitative data is descriptive: words, pictures or meanings, for example answers to open questions or notes from an unstructured interview. Strengths: rich and detailed; shows people's own views. Weakness: hard to analyse and compare; interpretation can be subjective.
Qualitative data is descriptive: words, pictures or meanings, for example answers to open questions or notes from an unstructured interview. Strengths: rich and detailed; shows people's own views. Weakness: hard to analyse and compare; interpretation can be subjective.
Classifying data
Every piece of data can be described in both ways at once.
A researcher uses national reoffending figures published by the government to compare two types of sentence. What type of data is this?
- The figures were collected by someone else (the government): secondary data.
- They are numbers: quantitative data.
Answer: Secondary, quantitative data.
Primary data is collected first-hand for the study; secondary data was collected by someone else. Quantitative data is numerical and easy to analyse; qualitative data is descriptive and rich in detail but harder to analyse.
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