Official Statistics - Practical Advantages and Disadvantages Flashcards
What are OS free sources of?
Huge amounts of quantitative data
What problem is reduced by gaining data from OS?
The problem of non-response which methods such as questionnaires have
Why is the problem of non-response reduced by OS?
Because the state has power to compel (force) individuals to supply certain data
Refusal rate of last census
5%
What do OS allow sociologists to make between groups or variables?
Comparisons
What individuals are OS mostly collected at?
Regular intervals
As OS are mostly collected at regular individuals, what do they show?
Tends and patterns over time
Why can ‘before and after’ studies be carried out as a result of OS?
Because they can let sociologists make correlations and establish cause-and-effect relationships
The government creates OS for its own purposes. Why is this a practical disadvantage?
Because they aren’t made for the benefits of sociologists which could result in no OS being published in interest of sociologists
What may definitions of information in OS be different to?
Definitions used by sociologists which results in sociologists not being able to find the information they desire
What may states do to their definitions used in OS?
They may change them
Result of changing definitions used in OS for sociologists
Results in them not being able to make comparisons of factors over time
Interval of some collection of OS
Infrequent intervals
Example of OS collected infrequently
Ten-yearly census
Disadvantage of some OS being collected infrequently
Means they don’t give sociologists up-to-date picture of social trends
