Research Methods - Secondary Sources of Data Flashcards
What are official statistics ?
quantitative data collected by the government
what are hard stats?
stats that are accurate such as marriages , divorces birth and deaths
what are soft stats?
not always accurate bc of the way they are gathered
2 ways gov collects os data?
registration - – people are required to register events as births, deaths and marriages.
Official surveys – such as the 10-yearly Census.
what are practical strengths of OS?
-free source of huge amounts of data
-produced from large samples
- useful for making comparisons
- useful for researching social change ( data collected at regular intervals)
- data is quantative - easier to analyse
what are practical limitations of OS?
gov collects data for its own purpose so wouldnt apply to sociologist
gov may use different defintions then sociologists
what are ethical strengths of OS?
-Refers to groups of ppl so no need for informed consent
- issues of anonymity have already been dealt with by original researcher
-os is presented in graphs and is impossible to identify participants
theoretical strengths of OS
positivists - say reliable as they can be replicated
sample is large and respresentative of population
positivits say it is valid as it is social facts and are true measure of things like crime
what are theoretical limitations of OS ?
interpretivists say that it lacks validity as it is a social construct as its created by police doctors
what do marxists argue ?
Irvine argues that OS are a part of ruling class ideology, designed to
serve capitalism, e.g. OS underestimate the number of unemployed
people to make capitalism look good. The OS are gathered by the
gov and the gov ensures the OS protect capitalism.
what are documents?
written texts, but also paintings, photos, radio and TV
broadcasts, Internet output, personal diaries, etc.
what are public documents ?
produced by organisations such as the gov , school welfare agencies business and charities
what are personal documents ?
produced by private individuals and include letters , diaries , photographs
historical documents
can be both public or private documents created in the past
practical strengths of documents
may be the only source of info
- free source of lots of info
- save time as already gathered
practical limitations of documents
not always possible to access them
-only create documents for their own use not sociologist so may not meet sociologists needs
ethical strengths of documents
historical personal documents - fewer ethical issues esp if they’ve passed away
public documents - issue of consent has already been addressed by previous researcher
ethical limitations of documents
personal documents from living person consent has to be obtained and possibly of anyone mentioned in thr documents
too
theoretical strengths to docs
interpretvists - personal docs are not written w researcher in mind so are valid
- qualitative so provide validity and insight into human behaviour
theoretical limitations to docs
unreliable
- unrepresentive
- may be invalid if forged so lacks authenticity
-lacks credibility - might be insincere
an example of docs
thomas and Znaniecki studied people’s experience of emigration from europe to US . put adverts ih the polish newspaper’s in chicago
provided them with 764 letters which revealed true meaning of what emigration was like
content analysis
RM used for analysis of content of documents especially ones that are produced by mass media ( TV and newspapers
practical strengths of content analysis
cheap and quick
accessible as it analyses newspapers and tv shows which are accessible
theoretical strengths of content analysis
objective
reliable as can be replicated
theoretical limitations
invalid - tells us how much of something happened but not why
strengths of using official stats to research edu
data easier to obtain
stats are gathered and published annually so can be used to study changes in social trends overtime
representative
reliable
limitations of using official stats to research education
gov use it for their own purposes may not be what the sociologist needs
may not be valid as data may show low number of pupils on fsm but it’s not always the case as school could be M/C majority
some children may not claim FSM bc of peer pressure and bullying
public docs about education include
school website
ofsted reports
textbooks
exam board specifications
private documents relating to education are
Pupils work
SIMS
text messages between students
letters to and from parents
notes passed between students in lesson
documents to research education - strengths
P- freely available often schools website . Gillborn researched racism at a school he used school policy documents , local authority statements on racism and thr minute of staff meetings . this gave him a good idea on the school stance on racism
E- public documents are available for anyone to see so no need for informed consent
T- representative as sone public documents have to be completed and held by schools on the same way eg racist incident reports
