Primary and Secondary Data

Question 1

What is Primary data?

Answer 1

Information that was not present before the research began

Question 2

What is secondary data?

Answer 2

Data that already exists made for other research purposes

Question 3

Examples of primary data

Answer 3

Questionnaires, observations, interviews

Question 4

Examples of secondary data

Answer 4

newspapers, novels, films, diaries, official statistics

Question 5

Advantages of quantitative secondary data

Answer 5

Readily available
Cheap method
Target/ large samples
Law ensures completion (high response)
Published regularly- track changes
Track trends and correlations

Question 6

Disadvantages of quantitative secondary data

Answer 6

Lack of control by the researcher
Political bias

Question 7

What are the four types of secondary qualitative data?

Answer 7

Personal
Public documents
Historical documents
Mass media

Question 8

Advantages of qualitative secondary data

Answer 8

Personal documents get close to social actors reality
Offer an extra check on the results obtained by primary methods
May be the only source of information

Question 9

Disadvantages of qualitative secondary data

Answer 9

Credibility- is author sincere? is it accurate? written straight after or few years later?

Authenticity- Could be missing pages, is the copy free from errors, who wrote the document?

Representatives- certain groups may be unrepresentatived