Data is collected using various methods across the different disciplines but all research methods mainly use two types of data numerical (Quantitative) and alphabetical (qualitative)

Qualitative – Personal memories, letter to newspaper, observations of birthday parties, interviews with mothers, pregnancy and childcare magazines, manuals on childcare,Government reports, survey data, interviews of mothers as research project,Novels, autobiographies, Visual material, paintings, photographs, letters, poetry, religious and philosophical writing

Quantitative Data - Is always in the form of numbers, which aim to represent or count the number of times something happens (event, observation) or to show how much something (people, object) possess specific attributes

Quantitative data that has already been generated is often used by researchers that have usually been collected for another purpose (Government, organisations, and commercial companies)

All types of data will have been collected using a selection process of some kind. In addition the people collecting it such as Government officials, scientists or researchers may also choose to include or exclude certain figures for their own reasons (corruption, personal gain, and organisational aims)

Advantages of Qualitative data – Is that it can be analysed in terms of arithmetical figures so researchers can summarise and find patterns in large amounts of information

Qualitative data is often generated using words as opposed to numbers, but it can also take on a variety of different forms but the two main types of qualitative data could be described as those taken in the field from observation, audio and video recordings, and field notes

Anthropologists and ethnographers also use field notes as a form of qualitative data

Qualitative data will always need to be written up in a form the researcher can use to analyze therefore this is one key flaw