Methods- primary and secondary data Flashcards
What is primary data?
data collected by the researcher themsleves
What are some strengths of primary data?
-Reliable- researcher can replicate the procedure to check the results as they know how the data was collected and analysed
-Directly taken from the population in general
-Most up-to-date data
What are some limitations of primary data?
-Can be expensive
-Time consuming
-Unethical if you do not have informed consent from the participants
-Researchers own values may bias the process
-The group you are interested in may not be accessible
What is secondary data?
-Data that is already available to sociologists
What are some of the advantages of secondary data?
-Easy to access (such as Office for national statistics
-Do not need to seek informed consent
-Your values will not influence the data as it was collected by someone else
What are some of the disadvantages of secondary data?
-Data may be unreliable, unable to be generalised or invalid
so may have to search for alternative resources
-Documents may not be authentic or credible
-Official stats may be biased
-The data you need may not be available in the format required
What are personal documents?
-Private documents for a person’s own use which record parts of their personal life
Give some examples of personal documents
-Private diaries
-Personal letters
-Personal videos/photographs
-School reports
-Medical files
What are public documents?
-Produced for public knowledge and include a vast range of material such as reports and statistics from businesses and organisations
Give some examples of public documents
-Ofsted reports
-Reports from the department of health
-News reports
What are historical documents?
-Documents from the past
Give some examples of historical documents
-Birth, marriage and death certificates
-Census
-Letters and diaries
