documents Flashcards
what is a document?
any written text such as personal diaries, government reports, medical records, newspapers, letters e.c.t
what is a personal document?
a document written by an individual for own purposes e.g diaries
what is a public document?
a document that is accessible to the public e.g newspapers
what is a historical document?
a public or personal document that was produced in the past e.g Anne franks diary
what are the strengths of documents?
*practical
-can be used in conjunction with primary methods the check findings
-cheap and quick source of data as somebody has already gathered the information needed
historical- sometimes these can be the only source of information used for studying the past
*ethical-
-produced by somebody else so should be few ethical concerns in data collection e.g informed consent
*theoretical- interpretivists favour as they can gain validity and vehstehen, by gaining detailed and rich qualitative data, sociologists can gain a rich insight into the real world of their study
what are the weaknesses of documents?
*practical-
authenticity- is the document what it claims to be? e.g missing pages or errors
-may not be documents available for the topic that the sociologist wants to study
- problems of access due to documents containing sensitive or personal information
-some public documents can be held back for 30 years or not be available at all meaning research can have problems of access or be more time consuming
-analysis of large scale documents can be time consuming
*ethical-
unique challenges- e.g anne Franke is dead this means that she cannot give consent, is this still appropriate?
-impacts family and friends to use this for research
-important to gain informed consent for personal documents
*theoretical-
positivists dislike as it is unrepresentative as it is a small sample
-unstandardised and not reliable - based on subjective interpretation and cannot repeat consistently - difficult to draw generalisations
- language may be difficult to interpret and researchers may impose their own meanings
-hoax documents
-some groups underrepresented e.g then illiterate and those with limited leisure time are unlikely to keep diaries
biographies- can contain social desirability
what is the study for historical documents?
anne Frank’s diary-
about her experience as a jewish girl in the holocaust, it is a historical and personal document and began writing it at 13 until she died at age 15. it gave a deep insight into how the jews were treated in the nazi holocaust from her perspective
what is the study for public documents?
the McPherson report - about the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. it claimed that the police were institutionally racist and incompetent with dealing with non-white victims of crime and failed to give complete justice . it is available online
the lammy review - evidence of racial discrimination and bias within the criminal justice system.
what is the study for personal documents?
Gerwits et al - in their study of marketisation and education, studies class differences linked to parental choice in choosing schools
Aries- argues that childhood is socially constructed - medieval paintings that show that children are like small adults and that childhood was not understood as a separate stage of life.
