Page 117 - DLIS401_METHODOLOGY_OF_RESEARCH_AND_STATISTICAL_TECHNIQUES

Methodology of Research and Statistical Techniques

Notes

Notes The achievement scores of students, though presented in discrete form may be
considered to constitute continuous data, since a score of 24 represents any point
between 23.5 and 24.5. Actually achievement is a continuous attribute or variable.

All peasurements of continuous attributes are approximate in character and as such do not
prodide a basis for distinguishing between continuous and discrete data. The distinction is
made on the basis of variable being measured. ‘Height’ is a continuous variable but number
of children would give discrete data.
Primary and Secondary Data
The data collected by or on behalf of the person or people who are going to make use of the
data refers to primary data. For example, the attendance of children, the result of examinations
conducted by you are primary data. If you contact the parents of the children and ask about
their educational qualifications to relate them to the performance of the children, this also
gives primary data. Actually, when an individual personally collects data or information
pertaining to an event, a definite plan or design, it refers to primary data.

Sometimes an investigator may use the data already collected by you, such as the school
attendance of children, or performance of students in various subjects. etc, for his/her study,
then the data are secondary data. The data used by a person or people other than the people
by whom or for whom the data were collected refers to secondary data. For many reasons we
may have to use secondary data, which should be used carefully, since the data could have
beeb collected with a purpose different from that of the investigator and may lose some detail
or may not be fully relevant. For using secondary data, it is always useful to know :
(a) how the data have been collected and processed;
(b) the accuracy of data;
(c) how far the data have been summarised;
(d) how comparable the data are with other tabulations; and
(e) how to interpret the data, especially when figures collected for one purpose are used for
another purpose.
Secondary data
In research, Secondary data is collecting and possibly processing data by people other than the
researcher in question. Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses,
large surveys, and organizational records. In sociology primary data is data you have collected
yourself and secondary data is data you have gathered from primary sources to create new
research. In terms of historical research, these two terms have different meanings. A primary
source is a book or set of archival records. A secondary source is a summary of a book or set
of records.
Advantages to the secondary data collection method are - 1) it saves time that would otherwise
be spent collecting data, 2) provides a larger database (usually) than what would be possible
to collect on ones own However there are disadvantages to the fact that the researcher cannot
personally check the data so it’s reliability may be questioned.
Secondary data analysis
There are two different types of sources that need to be established in order to conduct a good
analysis. The first type is a primary source which is the initial material that is collected during

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