official statistics

Question 1

Practical adv

Answer 1

1. OS are important for planning and evaluating social policy 2. Frequently the only available source of data 3. Readily available and cheap to use 4. Cover a long time span 5. Can be used for before and after studies 6. Allow inter group and international comparisons to be made

Question 2

Ethical adv

Answer 2

They avoid any ethical issues, unlikely to breach personal confidences or cause harm to individuals

Question 3

Theoretical adv

Answer 3

1. Comprehensive in coverage 2. Can provide useful background material when sociological 3. Extremely representative4. Seen as reliable, compiled in a standardised way by trained staff

Question 4

Practical disadv

Answer 4

1. OS are collected for administration purposes 2. There may be no OS for the subjects sociologists are interested in

Question 5

Theoretical disadv

Answer 5

1. OS are produced by the state meaning stats can be manipulated 2. Interpretivists argue that stats are not objective facts3. Some stats are ‘soft stats’ which give a less valid picture 4. Stats from the census are not totally reliable

Question 6

Ethical disadv

Answer 6

1. The collection of some stats can have harmful effects - eg in Education 2. The collection of stats might be about surveillance and control

Question 7

Soft statistics

Answer 7

Give a less valid picture of reality Often compiled from administrative records created by state agencies They represent the record of decisions made by those agencies rather than a picture of the word

Question 8

Hard statistics

Answer 8

Provide a more valid picture Include stats on births, deaths, marriages, divorces Little dispute as to how to define the categories used to collect the data They are often created from registration data

Question 9

Marxism and stats

Answer 9

• reject the positivists claim that official statistics are object up facts - do not see them as the outcome of the labels applied by the officials - regard OS as serving interests of capitalism - the stats the state creates are part of what Althusser terms the ideological state apparatus / a set of institutions that produce ruling class ideology, the function of OS is to conceal or distort reality and maintain the capitalist class in power

Question 10

Ideological functions

Answer 10

Politically sensitive data that would reveal the unequal, exploitative nature of capitalism may not be published eg since 1980s, data derived from analysis of census returns no longer includes class differences in death rates