Secondary Sources

Question 1

main sources of secondary data

Answer 1

• official statistics

- documents

Question 2

what are official statistics

Answer 2

• quantitative data gathered by the government or other official bodies
• E.G: statistics on birth, deaths, marriages, ten yearly Census of the UK population

Question 3

why do government collect official statistics

Answer 3

• use in policy making
• E.G: statistics on births help government plan the number of schools places
• E.G: Ofsted use exam results to monitor effectiveness of schools

Question 4

2 way of collecting official statistics

Answer 4

• registration; for e.g the law requires parents to register births
• official surveys; for e.g the Census/ General Household Survey

Question 5

advantages of official statistics

Answer 5

• free source of data
• allow comparisons between groups e.g comparisons on educational achievement
• collected at regular intervals which shows trends and patterns over time; allows sociologists to do ‘before and after’ studies to show cause and effect relationships

Question 6

advantages of official statistics

Answer 6

• representative; large sample

- reliable; recorded by trained staff in a standardised way by following procedures

Question 7

disadvantages of official statistics

Answer 7

• government collect official statistics for its own purpose not for the benefit of sociologist so there might be none available for their research
• E.G: Durkheim study on suicide; no statistics on religion of suicide victims
• definitions change over time so it makes comparisons difficult

Question 8

official statistics: hard and soft statistics

Answer 8

• hard statistics; some are valid
• E.G: statistics on number of births, deaths, marriages etc
• soft statistics give less valid picture
• E.G: police statistics don’t record all crimes

Question 9

Positivists favour official statistics

Answer 9

• reliable data; standardised categories and collection can be replicated
• collected at regular intervals so they show trends over time
• provide quantitative data which enables us to measure behaviour patterns and make cause and effect relationships
• representative; large sample

Question 10

interpretivists reject official statistics

Answer 10

• reject it specially ‘soft’ ones

- it fails to achieve validity

Question 11

documents

Answer 11

• any written text

- E.G: personal diaries, government reports, newspapers, paintings, photographs

Question 12

public documents

Answer 12

• they are produced by organisations e.g government departments, schools etc
• some are available for sociologists to use like Ofsted reports of school
• Black Report into inequalities in health

Question 13

personal documents

Answer 13

• E.G: letters, diaries, autobiographies
• these are first person accounts of social events and personal experiences which includes the writer’s feelings and thoughts

Question 14

historical documents

Answer 14

• personal or public document created in the past

- when studying the past, historical documents are the only sources of information

Question 15

historical documents examples; study of families and households

Answer 15

• LASLETT: used parish records in study of family structure in pre industrial England
• ARIES: used childbearing manuals and paintings of children in study of the rise of modern childhood

Question 16

JOHN SCOTT’s 4 criteria for assessing documents: authenticity

Answer 16

-authenticity; is it what it claims to be?

Question 17

JOHN SCOTT’s 4 criteria for assessing documents: credibility

Answer 17

• credibility; is it believable?

Question 18

JOHN SCOTT’s 4 criteria for assessing documents: representative

Answer 18

• representative; are the surviving documents typical of ones that get destroyed or lost?
• not all surviving documents are available; 30 year rule prevents access to some documents and if classified as official secrets/private
• certain groups may be unrepresented; the illiterate

Question 19

JOHN SCOTT’s 4 criteria for assessing documents: meaning

Answer 19

• meaning; need special skills to understand a document

- may need to be translated from a foreign language and words may change their meanings over time

Question 20

advantages of documents

Answer 20

• personal documents like diaries enable researchers to get close to the social actor’s reality which gives insight through qualitative data (INTERPRETIVIST)
• documents are only source of information e.g studying the past
• provide cheap another source of data