Activity . A NALYSIS OF D ATA In the earlier section, we discussed different methods for collecting information. After data are collected, the next job of the researcher is to draw conclusions. This requires analysis of from a respondent on the basis of a question.
If you want to know how a mother feels about the loss of her child, you will need to hear her story to understand how her experience is organised and what meaning she has given to her suffering. Any attempt at its quantification will not enable you to get at the principles of organising such experiences. Psychologists have developed various qualitative methods to analyse such data. One of them is Narrative Analysis.
Also data are not always available in the form of scores. When the researcher uses the method of participant observation or unstructured interview, the data are generally in a descriptive form—in participants’ own words, field notes taken by the researchers, photographs, interview responses noted by the researcher or taped/video-recorded, informal talks, etc. These type of data cannot be converted into scores or subjected to statistical analysis. Rather, the researcher uses the technique of content analysis to find out thematic categories and build those categories taking examples from the data.
It is more descriptive in nature. It must be understood that quantitative and qualitative methods are not contradictory; rather, they are complementary to each other. In order to understand a phenomenon in its totality, a suitable combination of both methods is warranted. L IMITATIONS OF P SYCHOLOGICAL E NQUIRY The advantages and limitations of each method have been discussed earlier.
In this section, you will read some general problems faced by psychological measurement. . Lack of True Zero Point : In physical sciences measurements do start from zero. For example, if you want to measure the length of the table, you can measure it starting from zero and can say it is ' long.
Psychological measurements do not have a true zero point. For example, no person in this world has zero intelligence. All of us have some degree of intelligence. What psychologists