Topic 7- Secondary Sources

Question 1

what are the two main sources of secondary data?

Answer 1

official statistics
documents

Question 2

who collects official statistics?

Answer 2

the government

Question 3

what are the 2 ways of collecting official statistics?

Answer 3

registration
official surveys

Question 4

what is an example of registration?

Answer 4

by law you should register deaths and births

Question 5

what is an example of official surveys?

Answer 5

Census or General Household Survey

Question 6

what is a disadvantage of using secondary data?

Answer 6

they are collected by other people for their own sources so as a sociologist you won’t have the exact same focus or purpose of research

Question 7

give 3 practical advantages of official statistics

Answer 7

1. they are a free source of data
2. statistics allow comparisons between groups
3. collected at regular intervals so show trends over time

Question 8

give 3 practical disadvantages of using official statistics

Answer 8

1. the government collects the data for its own purpose and not to benefit sociologists
2. the definitions used by those collecting statistics nay be different to a sociologist using it as a source
3. definitions change overtime so comparisons can be difficult

Question 9

referring to representativeness what is an advantage of official statistics?

Answer 9

they provide a better basis for making generalisations and testing hypotheses

they provide a more representative sample as they often include the whole population

Question 10

give 2 examples of statistics that are highly representative

Answer 10

birth rates
death rates
number of pupils who attend school

Question 11

give 2 examples of statistics that are less representative

Answer 11

British Crime Survey
General Household Survey

Question 12

how can official statistics be unreliable?

Answer 12

when using questionnaires to retain information some might have filled information in wrong/misread the question

census coders might omit information

Question 13

give 3 examples of ‘hard’ official statistics

Answer 13

number of:
births
marriages
deaths
divorces

Question 14

give an example of ‘soft’ official statistics

Answer 14

number of crimes committed

Question 15

what do ‘soft’ statistics typically do

Answer 15

offer a less valid and reliable picture as it is impossible to gather every piece of information

Question 16

which positivist sees statistics as valuable?

Answer 16

emile durkheim

Question 17

explain why positivists find statistics valuable

Answer 17

1. see sociology as a science and official statistics are social facts
2. they use statistics to test their hypotheses
3. often use the comparative method to prove their hypotheses right/wrong

Question 18

how did durkheim use official statistics to prove his hypothesis?

Answer 18

he was researching suicide rates and social integration
used suicide statistics and proved his hypothesis that protestants had a higher suicide rate than catholics

Question 19

what do interpretivists argue about official statistics?

Answer 19

lacks validity as statistics are socially constructed

Question 20

which interpretivist argued that official statistics lacked validity?

Answer 20

Maxwell Atkinson

Question 21

why do interpretivists think statistics don’t represent the ‘real rate’ of things?

Answer 21

they just show the decision someone has made to label them into a category

Question 22

what does John Irvine see official statistics as?

Answer 22

they serve the interests of capitalism

Question 23

what do Marxists believe the state produces with statistics?

Answer 23

ruling-class ideology