title: Secondary Data Analysis: An Introduction for Psychologists
author: Kali H Trzesniewski
description: Kali H. Trzeniewski, Phd, is an assistant professor of developmental psychology at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Trzesniewski's research interests are at the intersections of developmental psychology, personality psychology, and social psychology. Her current research focuses on biological and social-cultural influence on the development of the self and self-related processes. To address her research questions, she uses secondary data sets, along with primary data.<br>M. Brent Donnellan, Phd, is an associate professor of social and personality psychology at Michigan State University. He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Research in Personality. Dr. Donellan's research interests are at the intersections of personality psychology, developmental psychology, and psychological assessment, and he has analyzed secondary data in several of his publications. His current efforts focus on personality development and the role of individual differences in interpersonal relationships.<br>Richard E. Lucas, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University. His research focuses on the factors that contribute to stability and change in subjective well-being. He has served as an associate editor for the Journal of Personality and Social psychology and is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Research in Personality. He is a coauthor of the book well-Being and Public Policy, which examines the role that well-being measures can play in informing public policy decisions.
zlib_text: SECONDARY 
  DATA SOURCES
  Lesson 2
  
  Overview
  1.
  DEFINITIONS
  2.
  SECONDARY DATA SOURCES
  3.
  ANALYSING SECONDARY DATA
  • RESOURCES
  • Veal A. J., Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism, Prentice Hall 4th ed., 2011.
   Chapters 7 and 14
  Lesson 2
  2
  
  Primary vs secondary data
  • Primary data 
   New data specifically collected in the current project
   Researcher is primary user
  • Secondary data
   Data already exists, collected for some other purpose
   Researcher is secondary user
  Lesson 2
  3
  
  Advantages/disadvantages of using secondary data
  • Advantages
   Timing – data may be instantly available
   Cost – cost of collecting new data avoided
   Experience – the 'trial and error' experience of those who collected
  the original data can be exploited
   Scale – possibly larger samples than would otherwise be possible
   Serendipity – inductive process of data analysis may yield serendipitous
  findings, which may not have arisen otherwise
  • Disadvantages
   Design – secondary data has been designed for another