4. Secondary sources

Question 1

What are secondary sources

Answer 1

Secondary sources is the name given to any research used by a study that was not created for the study and came from other researchers

The original author creates primary data but the people who use the same information use secondary sources and created original author

Question 2

Why use secondary sources

Answer 2

1. It makes researchers aware of what information already exists. They will use a literature review that indicates what sorts of questions that have already been asked or aspects that are controversial or influential
2. Time and money is saved if the information already exists, and there may be more info than what the sociologist needs
3. If a study is concerned with social change and comparing past and present, existing sources need to be explored.

Question 3

What are the problems with secondary sources

Answer 3

There is issues of validity, reliability and representativeness

Question 4

What are official statistics

Answer 4

They are numerical information collected by government to make decisions about society and economy.
They are the most widely used secondary source and are more likely to be used by positivists. EG: census

Question 5

Advantages of official statistics

Answer 5

1. Availability: The office for national statistics publishes vast amounts of freely available data about the population in society.
2. Identification of trends and patterns. As official statistics have been collected over years its easy to identify trends
3. The capacity to make international comparisons. As Governments make data widely available its easy to compare across nations.
4. Collected for national interest so little bias

Question 6

Disadvantages of official statistics

Answer 6

1. The data hasn’t been collected with sociological research in mind.
2. The methods used to collect data changes overtime ]
3. They might not be reliable or valid
4. They dont tell us why somethings happened, no qualitative data

Question 7

What are personal documents

Answer 7

Personal documents such as diaries are analysed by sociologists to try and understand the meanings and motives of people.

Its very detailed and shows how events and changes in society were perceived by those experiencing them

Question 8

Advantages of personal documents

Answer 8

1. There is availability of material especially in past events
2. Some people might not remember past feelings when asked but diaries offer more valid information

Question 9

Disadvantages of personal documents

Answer 9

1. They are unrepresentative of the population as not everyone keeps personal documents
2. What is being wrote can also be affected by the intended audience.