RM: Official statistics

Question 1

what is official statistics?

Answer 1

qualitative data generated by the government , social insinuations (schools, churches),trade unitions, charities and businesses.
Normally collected at regular intervals or is a legal requirement. They are often used by government to inform social policy decisions.

Question 2

what is ‘hard’ statistics

Answer 2

statistics that are collected from everyone by law (e.g. birth, death and marriage records).
These are ‘hard’ as they are collated the same way every time and have no space for interpretation.

Question 3

what is ‘soft’ statistics?

Answer 3

statistics where the method of collection and categorisation may change and doubts remain about their accuracy( crime statistics, unemployment statistics

Question 4

what are the practical strengths of using official statistics ?

Answer 4

cost: cheap or free to obtain

funding : is likely to be funded by the government/universities

Question 5

what are the practical limitations of using official statistics ?

Answer 5

Full -access: some statistics are only available in their analysed form( may not be able to access for years)

personal skills: to use statistics effectively you may need some statistical skills.

Question 6

what are the ethical strengths of using official statistics?

Answer 6

few ethical issues: no ethical issues
no need to inform consent
no deception
no invention of privacy(anonymous, confidential)
no debriefing required

Question 7

what are the ethical limitations of suing official statistics ?

Answer 7

not appropriate for sensitive topics: cold, clinical , could be inappropriate for focusing on a sensitive issues. (Durkheim’s suicide study.)

Question 8

what are the theoretical strengths of using official statistics?

Answer 8

• high reliability: collected every year by law (census)
  not change overtime(birth)- easy to repeat
• high representativeness: whole population required to do (law) -> large sample size

Question 9

what are the theoretical limitations of suing official statistics?

Answer 9

superficiality: so not tell us about why someone does something
no in-depth info people’s behaviour
=> low validity

low reliability: ‘ soft’ statistics (e.g. crime record)
change overtime
hard to make a comparison.

Question 10

what is positivist’s theoretical views on using official statistics?

Answer 10

believe statistics are reliable , objective and representative.
=> accurate reflection to social world=> can be used to test hypotheses, cause and effect relationship-> generalised causal laws( e.g. Durkheim’s Suicide study)

Question 11

what is interpretivist’s theoretical views on using official statistics?

Answer 11

do not use official statistics -believe they are not valid as they are social constructs

Question 12

what is Marxists’ theoretical views on using official statistics?

Answer 12

low representative of bourgeoisie(ruling class) ideology-> Bourgeoisie run the state so, it’s done by their interest.

Question 13

what is Feminist’s theoretical views on using official statistics?

Answer 13

official statistics are representation of patriarchy
collected by men(male interest)
lots of statistics are employment but not on child-care
often collected by questionnaires, some feminists feel they are too patriarchal and do not reflect the true experiences of women.

Question 14

what are the tree type of official statistics? Define three.

Answer 14

1. official statistics
2. ‘hard’ statistics
3. ‘soft’ statistics

Question 15

what is the key (classic) research studies using official statistics?
what is about?

Answer 15

Durkheim-
‘Suicide’ research

• He did a research about suicide rate comparing between different European countries by looking at official statistics of death records, and compared groups within each society.

Question 16

what is the key (classic) “Examples” of official statistics?
what is about?

Answer 16

• Marriage, Birth & Death records
  (Hard Statistics)
• the government legally required to collect and publish data on the number of Births , marriages , deaths and divorces. This is publicity available data on Office for National statistics websites.

Question 17

what was the conclusion and findings in Durkheim’s ‘Suicide’ research ?

Answer 17

• suicide appeared to related to social factors ( rising in economic recession)
• higher suicide rates for people who are unmarried or childless.
• He argued that society need the right amount of : integration in a strongly integrated society, individuals shearing norms and values and have high duties and obligations towards each other.
• Durkheim believed that too little integration and regulations were weakening across Europe with suicide rates.

Question 18

Key PET strengths for Durkheim’s Suicide research.

Answer 18

P: low cost
- relevance

E: Confidentiality

T: Objectivity
- validity
- reliability
-representativeness

Question 19

Key PET Limitations for Durkheim’s Suicide research.

Answer 19

P: Access may be difficult on such a large scale

E: Cold, inhuman way of researching sensitive topic

T: Durkheim; subjective values imposed on hypothesis from his analysis of the statistics , no verstehen.

Question 20

what is the key PET strengths for ‘Marriage, Birth & death records’

Answer 20

P: Easy to access
- free
- relevant (up to date)

E: informed consent,
- no deception,
- confidentiality

T: Objective
- valid
- reliable
- high representativeness and generalisability

Question 21

what is the key PET limitations for ‘Marriage, Birth & death records’

Answer 21

P: lose relevance very quickly( change overtime )

E: No ethical issues

T: Lack of depth , no verstehen

Question 22

what is the key (contemporary) “Examples” of official statistics?
what is about?

Answer 22

Census Data( 2021)

-> census statistics are published after through analysis of the census survey ( conducted every 10 years in England and Wales)
-> divided in to various categories:
-demography,
-education,
-ethnic groups,
-health,
-housing,
-the labour market
-sexual orientation
-gender identity

Question 23

what are the PET strengths of using Census data 2021?

Answer 23

P: Easy and free to access,
- easy to analyse and draw comparisons

E: confidentiality( guaranteed for 100 years)
- no deception

T: objective,
- valid
- representativeness
- reliability

Question 24

what are the PET limitations of using Census data 2021?

Answer 24

P: time-consuming to analyse data
- may lose relevance after a few years

E: compulsory for all citizens in England and Wales-> lack of informed consent

T: No verstehen
- little depth

Question 25

what are some other studies examples of official statistics? name two !

Answer 25

1. Crime statistics
2. Immigration Data