AMBER'S TASK

Q u a l i t a t i v e research gathers information that is not numerical or figures. It is in-depth and usually very descriptive, making it harder to analyse as it's usually about the way a particular person is feeling/thinking, it is subjective. Examples of qualitative data include diaries, participant observation, unstructured interviews and open-ended questionnaires. If something is unstructured or open-ended then the participant is able to expand on their answers and explain them in a more descriptive manner. Qualitative methods are usually valid but not reliable.

Q u a n t i t a t i v e research or data comes in numerical form, which can be used to construct graphs and so on. Data like this could be gathered using closed questions in a questionnaire (for example, yes/no answers), through experiments. These methods are seen as reliable and objective, but they don't tend to give valid results. 

P r i m a r y research is research that is carried out by yourself. It is data that you go out and collect, for example, a survey questionnaires, obervation or an interview. 

S e c o n d a r y research is research that has already been completed by someone else, it is produced by other agencies. This would include the mass media, the government, such as official statistics, historical documents or diaries etc.