secondary sources Flashcards
what are official statistics?
quantitative data gathered by the government e.g birth, deaths, marriages, divorce wtc.
why do the government invest a lot into statistics?
- so the government know accurately what is happening in society
- policy-making : stats on birth e.g. if crime rates are high, put a law into place to try and reduce it.
- Ofsted uses exam results stats to monitor effectiveness of schools and colleges
- view trends and patterns. See improvements in issues.
- make the government look good. E.g. Unemployment statistics may be going down, so it makes the government look good (and also may earn them votes in future elections).
why might a sociologist question the validity of statistics generated by the government?
- some statistics may not be reported e.g soft stats
- the government may tell ‘half the truth’ on some data, to make themselves look better
practical advantages of statistics?
- free source of huge amount of data
- allow comparison between groups e.g. on educational achievement, crime rates, life expectancy between classes, genders, ethnic groups
- collected at a regular intervals = show trends and patterns over time. Sociologists can use “before-after” studies to show cause and effect
ethical advantages of statistics?
informed consent : when sociologist uses gov stats, they don’t need consent as it was already given by the participant
theoretical advantages of statistics?
- representative : cover large numbers
- reliability : compiled in standardised way by trained staff, following procedures
practical disadvantages of statistics?
- the government collect data for their own purpose not for sociologists = there may be none available on the topic they are interested in e.g Durkheim in his study of suicide found no stats specifically
on religion of suicide victims - If definitions change over time it may make comparison difficult
e.g the def of the word unemployment changed over 30 times during the 1980s and early 1990s : so unemployment stats are not comparing like to like
ethical disadvantages of statistics?
informed consent was given to the government NOT the researcher
theoretical disadvantages of statistics?
- some stats are less representative than others e.g stats collected by compulsory registrations (birth, death, pupils in school) cover all cases = highly representative compared to e.g The British Crime Survey based on sample of relevant population = maybe less representative
- validity : do they really measure the things they claim they measure?
what are hard statistics?
stats. registered when they occur by law, so these statistics are entirely objective e.g births, deaths, marriages
what are soft statistics?
stats. that may not all be recorded less accurate e.g police stats do not record all crimes, education stats do not record all racist incidents occurring in schools
who favourite statistics?
positivists
what are documents?
- any written text, painting, drawing, photograph, maps, etc.
- sounds, images from films, tv, radio, other media output
what are the three types of documents?
- public
- personal
- historical
public documents
e.g schools, businesses, charities, welfare agencies
e.g minutes of council meetings, published company accounts and record of parliamentary debates
public documents also include the official reports of public enquiries such as the BLACK REPORT (1980) into inequalities in health, which has become a major source of information to sociologists
personal documents
e.g letters, diaries, photo albums and autobiographies
Thomas and Znanieki’s (1919) The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, a study of migration and social change, as interactionists, they were interested in people’s experiences of these events. they revealed the meanings and interpretations that individuals gave to their experience of migration, with 764 letters bought after an advertisement in a polish newspaper in Chicago, as well as several autobiographies, with these documents they were able to explore the experience of social change
historical documents
- personal or public document created in the past
- only source of data/info if we want to study the past
e.g Peter Laslett used parish records in his study of family structure in pre-industrial England
e.g Michael Anderson used parliamentary reports on child labour, as well as statistical material from 1851 census to study changes in the family structure in 19th century
explain Scott’s criteria?
John Scott (1990) put forward 4 criteria ‘CRAM’ for evaluating docs
what is Scott’s criteria?
- credibility : believable
- representativeness : typical
- authenticity : is it real or fake
- meaning : any skills needed to understand the meaning
what is credibility?
- is the document believable?
- was the author sincere?
e.g politicians may write diaries intended for publication that inflate their own importance. - Thomas and Znaniecki’s Polish immigrants may have lied in their letters home about how good life was in the USA, to justify their decision to emigrate
- is the doc accurate : was the account of a riot written soon after the event, or years later?
what is representativeness?
- is the evidence in the doc typical? if we cannot answer this question, we cannot know whether it is safe to generalise from it
- not all documents survive : are the surviving docs typical of the ones that got destroyed or lost? not all surviving docs are available for researchers?
what is authenticity?
- is the doc what it claims to be?
- are there any missing pages? Is it a copy?
- is there any errors?
- who wrote the doc?
E.g. the so called “Hitler Diaries” were later on proven to be fake
what is meaning?
the researcher may need special skills to understand a doc:
- in a foreign language
- meaning of word may have changed overtime
- we also have to interpret what the document actually means to the writer and the intended audience
- different sociologist may understand the doc differently
who favourite documents?
interpretivists
