secondary research methods

Question 1

documents

Answer 1

secondary data created by individuals, groups or organisations
usually are qualitative data
can be statistical
favoured by interpretivists

Question 2

personal documents

Answer 2

these can be letters, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies

Question 3

personal documents strengths - theoretical

Answer 3

usually written for personal purposes usually high in validity - THEORETICAL

Question 4

personal documents weaknesses - theoretical

Answer 4

not all groups produce personal documents - THEORETICAL (not representative)

hindsight may change data - THEORETICAL (not valid - qualitative feelings may change)

if an audience is in mind this may change data - THEORETICAL

documents are entirely one sided - only getting one persons perspective - THEORETICAL

Question 5

public documents

Answer 5

these can be reports from governments, charities and businesses

Question 6

public documents strengths - theoretical

Answer 6

the government reports on all areas of policy - THEORETICAL

they are usually rich in detail - THEORETICAL

representative - cover lots of areas - THEORETICAL

Question 7

public documents weaknesses - theoretical

Answer 7

the author is aware the documents will be public so there may be bias in selection and presentation of data - THEORETICAL

only show data that supports the perspective and case - THEORETICAL

Question 8

how do you know if public documents are useful

Answer 8

JOHN SCOTT suggests 4 tests
authenticity - Is it genuine
credibility - can you believe the content
representativeness - does it reflect the views of a social group
meaning - can you interpret meanings correctly

Question 9

official statistics

Answer 9

quantitative
positivists :)
collected by government bodies

Question 10

official statistics strengths - practical

Answer 10

very easy to access

allow us to make comparisons between groups

usually free

Question 11

official statistics weakness - practical

Answer 11

the government collect statistics for their own benefit, so they may not cover exactly what you are looking to study

Question 12

oficial statistics strength - theoretical

Answer 12

representative

large scale and often cover an entire population

reliable - when producing statistics from data such as births - use a standard procedure

Question 13

official statistics weakness - theoretical

Answer 13

interpretivists - OS are social constructs that represent the labels attached to people

e.g total number of people the doctor has labelled a mentally ill

marxists see OS as part of the ideological state apparatus - to maintain the capitalist class power and distort reality

Question 14

soft statistics

Answer 14

less valid

compiled by records created by agencies

they represent the record of the decisions made by these agencies rather than the real work

dark figure of crime

Question 15

hard statistics

Answer 15

more valid
e.g births, deaths

often created from registration data

Question 16

personal documents strengths - practical

Answer 16

usually cheap and quick (if you can access them) - PRACTICAL

Question 17

personal documents weaknesses - practical

Answer 17

not all groups produce personal documents - PRACTICAL (can’t find data you want)

Question 18

public documents strengths - practical

Answer 18

usually quick and cheap to access - PRACTICAL

Question 19

official statistics strengths - theoretical

Answer 19

often over the entire country - THEORETICAL