Research Methods- Secondary Data

Question 1

What does Secondary Data refer to?

Answer 1

Any data that the sociologist has used that they didn’t collect themselves.

Question 2

What are the two types of Secondary Data?

Answer 2

• un/official statistics
• media products (radio, TV, websites…)

Question 3

What are official statistics?

Answer 3

Numerical data collected by the government.

Question 4

How are official statistics usually gathered?

Answer 4

Through surveys carried by state agencies like the Office of National Statistics. Most commonly available through census.

Question 5

What are unofficial statistics?

Answer 5

Quantitative data collected by non government sources.

Question 6

Name three strengths of statistics.

Answer 6

• Easy and cheap to access.
• Up to date, good picture of patterns and trends.
• Positivists see statistics as hard reliable facts- objective.
• Gathered using large representative samples.

Question 7

Name three weaknesses of statistics.

Answer 7

• Tells little about stories behind answers
• May not represent wider sociological problem. Definitions used by that agency may be different to sociologists.
• Official statistics can be open to public abuse, can be manipulated by governments for a political advantage.

Question 8

What is ‘content analysis’?

Answer 8

Sociologists will often use media extracts to examine and analyse their values/priorities/concerns of a society at one point in time. Media products can say something about the society we live in.

Question 9

Name 3 positives of content analysis.

Answer 9

• cheap & easy to access
• comparative method, allows sociologists to compare media reports/content over a long period of time.
• Quantitative analysis is regarded as reliable due to other sociologists being able to repeat and check results.

Question 10

Name 3 negatives of content analysis.

Answer 10

• time consuming, media may need to be checked over a long period.
• Subjective method, categories used by content analysis largely depends on what researcher interprets as important. Can be accused of analysing texts out of context.
• Newspapers can be very biased and only tell beliefs/views of those producing them.
• cannot be assumed the media has an effect on their audience.