2. ‘Primary research is any type of research that you go out and
collect yourself. Examples include surveys, interviews,
observations, and ethnographic research.’
Advantages: You can get detailed results suited to what you
specifically want to find out; you can focus on what you want
to ; you have control of how much/little results you get
Disadvantages: You need to have lots of resources such as
questionnaire; research becomes out of date; could be biased
if your range of people asked is low.
PRIMARY
3. ‘Secondary research involves the summary, collation and/or
synthesis of existing research rather than primary research,
where data is collected from, for example, research subjects
or experiments’
Advantages: Ease of access; helps to clarify primary research;
you get a clear idea and good examples of what to do
Disadvantages: the quality of this research may not be so
good and it may not be reliable; not specific to researcher’s
needs, some of the information could be incomplete; might be
old data.
SECONDARY
4. ‘Quantitative research is about asking people for their
opinions in a structured way so that you can produce hard
facts and statistics to guide you’
Advantages: Generalises research; you can easily draw a
conclusion from your research; quick to do; provides precise
data; useful for studying large groups.
Disadvantages: the data might be too abstract for direct
application to specific research
QUANTITATIVE
5. ‘Qualitative research is about finding out not just what people
think but why they think it. It’s about getting people to talk
about their opinions so you can understand their motivations
and feelings.’
Advantages: provides in depth detail; creates openness; builds
a detailed picture; avoids pre-judgements.
Disadvantages: usually fewer people studied; less easy to
generalise; difficult to make systematic comparisons;
dependent on skills of the researcher.
QUALITATIVE
