topic 2: secondary data Flashcards

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1
Q

advantages of secondary data

A

helps identify gaps in existing research

saves time and money

often bigger data sets than primary research

allows comparisons across time to be made

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2
Q

disadvantages of secondary data

A

validity is uncertain

may be out of date

may be difficult to find the specific research you need

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3
Q

define official statistics

A

quantitative numerical data collected by the government usually via ONS

  • census (1851)
  • General Household Survey
  • Family Expenditure Survey
  • Labour Force Survey
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4
Q

advantages of official statistics

A
  • provide large scale, expensive, time consuming data that would otherwise be unavailable
  • reliable
  • representative
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5
Q

disadvantages of official statistics

A
  • different governments define terms differently (trends might be result of changing definitions)
  • interpretivists: lacking validity
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6
Q

define unofficial statistics

A

quantitative data collected by independent non governmental organisations (employers, trade unions, political parties, think tanks)

  • University of Sussex: Mass Observation archive
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7
Q

advantages of unofficial statistics

A

usually representative

positivists: reliable bc they’re collected in a systematic, standardised, scientific way

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8
Q

disadvantages of unofficial statistics

A

not as reliable as official stats bc less strict checks?

interpretivists: lack validity, no depth or detail

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9
Q

define personal documents

A

sources of qualitative info like letters, diaries, photos, novels, newspapers

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10
Q

advantages of personal documents

A
  • interpretivists: highly valid
  • more detail, broad insight into specific area of research
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11
Q

disadvantages of personal documents

A

low reliability: difficult to make clear comparisons

low representativeness (/validity potentially)

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12
Q

define content analysis

A

systematically studying the content of documents or the media (TV, films, letters, radio etc) producing both qualitative and quantitative data

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13
Q

advantages of content analysis

A

practical and cheap

representative, can be very large scale

allows comparison over long periods of time, can be longitudinal

reliable (results can be repeated and cross-checked)

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14
Q

disadvantages of content analysis

A

CAN be time consuming

risk of subjectivity, bias, value imposition

only shows views of those who create the media (not representative?)

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15
Q

define longitudinal study

A

studies conducted over a long period of time with the sample being visited more than once

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16
Q

name the two types of longitudinal study

A

panel

cohort

17
Q

define panel study

A

often randomly selected national sample

generalised generic aims to monitor long term changes of a population

18
Q

define cohort study

A

More specific, less generic aims

studying a specific cohort of people (e.g. people with a certain disease or of a certain age) rather than randomised general populations

19
Q

advantages of longitudinal study

A

practical and cheap when used as secondary data

high in validity

representative in terms of time

20
Q

disadvantages of longitudinal studies

A

time consuming and expensive

small samples that may change overtime — lack of representativeness and consistency?