*Secondary Sources

Question 1

What are official statistics?

Answer 1

Numerical information collected and used by the government and its agencies to make decisions about society and the economy.

Question 2

What is a distinct advantage of official statistics compared to privately collected data?

Answer 2

They are more likely to be shared with the public because they’re paid for by taxes.

Question 3

What is the cost implication of collecting official statistics?

Answer 3

Far from cheap to collect; for example, the 2011 census cost hundreds of millions of pounds to produce.

Question 4

What is a primary purpose of collecting official statistics?

Answer 4

Official statistics are collected for administrative purposes rather than for research purposes.

Question 5

True or False: Official statistics are always suitable for specific research purposes.

Answer 5

False.

Question 6

What ethical concern is associated with the collection of official statistics?

Answer 6

The collection of statistics might really be about surveillance and control.

Question 7

How can the collection of school performance statistics affect education?

Answer 7

It can lead to more teaching to the test, a decline in creativity, and increased stress in education.

Question 8

What is a key theoretical limitation concerning crime statistics?

Answer 8

Certain crimes are notorious for being underreported to the police, such as rape and domestic violence.

Question 9

What do structural sociologists believe about official statistics?

Answer 9

They serve the interests of elite groups, with data only collected on things that don’t harm those in power.

Question 10

What do positivists believe regarding the use of official statistics?

Answer 10

It provides a detached and generalizable understanding of the world.

Question 11

What are Scott’s four criteria for assessing the quality of documents?

Answer 11

• Selection bias of search engines
• Effectiveness of keywords
• The transient nature of websites
• Rapid development of new approaches

Question 12

What is a strength of using documents in research?

Answer 12

They provide access to a wealth of different types of secondary qualitative information.

Question 13

What is a limitation concerning the authenticity of historical documents?

Answer 13

Parts of the document might be missing due to age, and authors may not be verifiable.

Question 14

Define secondary qualitative data.

Answer 14

Information that already exists in written or audio-visual format.

Question 15

What types of documents can be considered secondary qualitative data?

Answer 15

• Government reports
• Newspapers
• Novels
• Letters
• Diaries
• Pictures
• TV and radio output

Question 16

What is content analysis?

Answer 16

A systematic reanalysis of data to identify examples of specific codes or themes.

Question 17

What was the conclusion of Boepple and Thompson’s study on healthy living blogs?

Answer 17

The blogs spread messages that are ‘potentially problematic’ for behavior change.

Question 18

What is the goal of thematic analysis?

Answer 18

To convert qualitative data into quantitative data by identifying trends in language.

Question 19

According to Braun and Clarke, what should a theme capture?

Answer 19

Something important about the data in relation to research questions, representing patterned meaning.

Question 20

What distinguishes official documents from personal documents?

Answer 20

Official documents are produced by organizations, while personal documents are first-hand accounts of social events.

Question 21

Give examples of personal documents.

Answer 21

• Letters
• Diaries
• Photo albums
• Autobiographies

Question 22

What is a significant concern regarding the representativeness of historical documents?

Answer 22

Documents may not be representative of the wider population, especially older documents.