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Types of data - Coggle Diagram
Types of data
Secondary data
official statistics strenghts: useful for comparisons, may be the only available source, less time-consuming, cheap and representative
official statistics limitations: don't provide much depth or detail, researcher doesn't know if it's valid, problems with
personal documents strengths: cheap and less time consuming, provide in-depth data, you can compare accounts so valid, can find hidden meaning
personal documents limitations: may be incomplete, inaccurate and unrepresentative, as well as biased
structured interview
strengths: ensure respondent understands the question, high response rate
limitations: interviewer effect when the respondent tries to "help" with pleasing answers, researcher effect either through aggressive interviews or status considerations
questionnaires
questionnaires strenghts: easy to quantify data, less time-consuming, highly reliable, anonymous responses allow more validity, no hawthorn effect
questionnaires limitations: low response rate, may not understand or ignore questions, don't know who answered, doesn't give deep information, leading questions can suggest a required answer
experiments
strenghts: can easily identify correlations and causations by studying experimental and control groups. In the case of laboratory can be repeated, in the case of field study more in-depth information
limitations: in the case of laboratory experiments may behaviour may not be natural and study not ethical. In the case of field experiments difficult to control all independent variables and Hawthorn effect
content analysis
strenghts: can indentify themes and patterns of behaviour that may not be apparent, use of standaridised framework means it can be checked and repeated
limitations: researches must take subjective judgements about what categories to use and what to put in each so no validity or reliability, no depth about why people accept or ignore these themes and patterns
unstructured interviews
strenghts: researcher limited imput means data reflects intress of the respondent, avoids prejudging what makes importnat and irrelevant data, researcher more likely to open up
limitations: takes a lot of skill to not influence, encouratge or interrupt speaker, little control over the direction of interview, more time-consuming, impossible to replicate, interviewer effect
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