Secondary sources-Official statistics Flashcards

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1
Q

What are official statistics

A

Official statistics are quantitative data gathered by the government

E.g statistics on birth,death,marriages & divorce ,exam results

The ten yearly cencus of whole population is major source of officail statistics

The governement collects official statistics to use in policy making

e.g statitsics on birth help government plan number of schools for future

Ofsted use statistics on exam results to monitor effectiveness of school

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2
Q

Two ways of collecting official statistics

A
  • Registration-e.g law requires parents to register births
  • Official surveys- census

Organisations & groups -trade unions ,charities ,businesses also produce statistcisx
e.g The national grammar schools association produces statistics on comparative performance of grammar & non grammar schools

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3
Q

Quantitative secondary sources

A
  • Official statistics
  • Non-official statistcis
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4
Q

Qualitative secondary sources

A
  • Public documents
  • Personal documents
  • Historical documents
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5
Q

Advantages of Official statistics(quanitative secondary soruce)

A
  • Free source of large amount of data-(only state can gather large scale surveys like cencus) thus can make use of data & saves time & money
    .
  • Statistics allow comparisons between groups e.g can compare statistics on educational achievement ,crime rates,or life expectancy between classes,gender,ethnicity
    .
  • official statistics are collected at regular intervals-show trends & patterns over time-sociologists can use them for before & after studies establishing cause & effect relationships
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6
Q

Disadvantages of official statistics

A
  • Practical disadvantages-goverment collects statistics for own purpose & not for benefit of sociologists- may be no offcial statistics for ontopics interested in(durkheims study of suicide found that no statistics specifically on religion of suicide victims-because state had no use for them
  • Definitions the state uses in collecting data may be different from from sociologists who would use it e.g mayb define poverty or truancy differenly
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7
Q

Explain how official statistics are representative

A

Offcial statistcis usaully cover large numbers due to standardised samplig procedures-provide a representative sample than surveys
Provide a better basis for generalisations & testing hypothesis
Disadvantages:
statistics produced by official surveys e.g british crime survey may be less representative because based on sample of relevant population

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8
Q

Explain Official statitsics as reliable secondary source of secondary data collection

A

Official statistics seen as reliable source of data -conducted in standardised way & trained -following set procedures
e.g government statistics on death rates for different social classes follow standardised procedure

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9
Q

Explain how official statistics are not valid

Do they meaure what they claim to measure?

A

Hard statistics-offcial statistics e.g statistics on birth rates,marriages,divorces give accurate picture
Soft statistics-give less valid picture.e.g police statistics do not record all crimes
educational statistcis do not record all racist incidents at school

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10
Q

Methodological perspectives on Official statistics

Positivisits

A

Positivists favour official statistics as seen as abjective social facts that achieve main goal of repsresntativemnes,genralisabilty& reliabilitty
* They provide reliable data -standardised categories easily replicated
* Collected at regular intervals-show trends in behaviour over time
* Provide quantitative data -allowing us to identify & measure behqaviour patterns & establish cause & effect relationships
* Usually large scale-representative

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11
Q

Interpetivists view on offical statistics

A

Reject offcial statistics particularly soft statistics such as crime staticts tey see them as social constructs & not social facts
fail to achive their main goal of validity

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12
Q

Durkheim-(positivist) offcial statistics

A

See statistics as valuable source of data collection
postivts see offcia statitsics as social facts they are true & objective measure of real crime,suicide rates
see sociology as a science -they develop hypothesis to discover cause of behaviour & establish cause & effect relationships

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13
Q

Atkinson(Interpretivist) official statistics

A

Regard official statistics as lacking validity
Argue statistics do not represent real thins or social factsthat exist in real wolrd
argue statistcs are socially constructed -they merely represnt the labels some peoplle give to behaviour of thers

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14
Q

Marxists view on Offical statistics

A

See official statistics as serving the interest of capitalism
see statistics that state produces are part of rulling class ideology
e.g unemployement statistics

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15
Q
A
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