Secondary Data

Question 1

What are the advantages of secondary data?

Answer 1

• Can overcome practical or ethical issues when accessing certain hard-to-reach groups.
• Allows access to far more data than primary data does.
• Saves time and money
• Allows comparison with different time periods (records).

Question 2

What are some examples of secondary data sources?

Answer 2

Diaries, Newspaper reports, Official statistics, School/Organisation records, Social media posts, Blogs, Other sociologists’ data.

Question 3

What is literature research?

Answer 3

~ Internet
~ Libraries (harder to access & more time consuming)
~ Journal databases (voluntary)

Question 4

What is meta-analysis?

Answer 4

~ Request data from as many authors as possible.
~ Put all secondary data into own collection.
~ Analyse it yourself.
+ Reliable, large amounts of data.
+ Quick/Easy collection (P)
+ Very inclusive data sets (E)

Question 5

What is census data?

Answer 5

~ Gathered every 10 years by the government.
~ Sent to all UK postcodes.
- Excludes homeless & children (E)

Question 6

Official Statistics

Answer 6

• Liked by positivists
• Disliked by interactionists
• Radical views: systematically distorted by the powerful –> biased & exaggerate less important topics.