Primary and secondary data, and qualitative and quantitative data

Question 1

Primary data definition

Answer 1

those which are collected by sociologists themselves - they only exist because the sociologists have collected them

Question 2

Ways to obtain primary data

Answer 2

observation, social surveys, questionnaires, interviews

Question 3

Secondary data definition

Answer 3

those which the sociologist carrying out the research has not gathered themselves, but which already existed

Question 4

Secondary data can be 2 types of documents

Answer 4

• Public documents - produced for public knowledge (OFSTED reports, census data, media reports, most official statistics)
• Personal documents - private documents for personal use (diaries, letters, personal photos, school and medical reports)

Question 5

Sources of secondary data

Answer 5

• Official statistics (census, suicide statistics, health statistics, crime statistics, unemployment statistics, education statistics)
• Other research (by journalists, by sociologists, by government departments)
• Media (newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, films, the internet)
• Other sources (diaries, letters, historical documents, photographs)

Question 6

Examples of qualitative secondary sources

Answer 6

• newspaper, radio and TV reports
• websites
• novels, literature and art
• letters and diaries
• parish registers and historical documents
• previous sociological studies
• school records, social work files, police reports, some government reports
• minutes of meetings

Question 7

Advantages of using qualitative secondary sources

Answer 7

• may provide valuable, or the only, sources of information in a specific area, eg parts of history
• useful for interpretivists who want insight into ideologies of those producing them
• may help assess peoples thoughts (letters, advice columns, complaint letters etc) and what was concerning them

Question 8

Disadvantages of using qualitative secondary sources
Scott (1990) suggests 4 criteria for judging secondary data, but they’re particularly applicable to secondary qualitative data

Answer 8

• Authenticity (could be a forgery)
• Credibility (believable, sincere and honest - producers of material could have lied or selective specific information to support their view)
• Representativeness (is it typical of society as a whole eg in the past only a minority could read or write)
• Meaning (do they have the same meaning now as when they were produced)

Question 9

Content analysis (a way of producing primary quantitative data from secondary qualitative sources) example

Answer 9

Glasgow Media Group analysed the content of TV news bulletins to show biases towards managers and against workers

Question 10

Advantages of content analysis

Answer 10

• cheap
• no involvement with people who could distort results
• reliable
• enables the discovery of things which aren’t obvious (eg gender bias)

Question 11

Disadvantages of content analysis

Answer 11

• depends on the researcher and their interpretation of what they see
• mainly concerned with describing what is being studied rather than explaining it
• interpretations may differ depending on researcher

Question 12

Examples of quantitative secondary sources

Answer 12

• statistical data produced by companies, charities and pressure groups
• official statistics collected by the government

Question 13

Advantages of using official statistics

Answer 13

• they impact social policy
• they may be the only available data for a specific area
• readily available and cheap to use
• often use large samples or the whole population
• cover a long time span
• allow intergroup or international comparisons (eg between ethnicities)
• can provide background material when researchers are deciding what should be studied and can help in identifying a hypothesis
• avoid ethical issues as they’re publicly available and anonymous

Question 14

Hypothesis definition

Answer 14

an idea which a researcher guesses might be true, but which has not yet been tested against evidence

Question 15

Limitations of using official statistics

Answer 15

• collected for administrative purposes rather than for sociological research so may be unsuitable
• produced by the state - may not give a fully accurate picture (validity)
• interpretivists argue that statistics are not objective facts but social constructions

Question 16

Limitations of using suicide statistics

Answer 16

• Atkinson (1978) - they’re social constructions
• they reflect the ideas of coroners, doctors, relatives etc rather than the intentions of the dead

Question 17

Limitations of using health statistics

Answer 17

• depend on doctors’ decision-making
• doctors may diagnose illnesses or the cause of death inaccurately (eg recording AIDS deaths as pneumonia)
• not all sick people go to the doctor and not all people who go to the doctor are ill (malingerers or hypochondriacs)
• private medicine operates to make a profit so may be more likely to diagnose

Question 18

Limitations of using crime statistics

Answer 18

• only 1/4 of crimes are reported to the police so there is a ‘dark number’ of undiscovered, unreported and unrecorded crimes
• only 1 in 4 of crimes reported to police is ‘cleared up’ with an offender identified and action taken against them
• people may view crimes as too trivial to report or be too embarrassed or fear reprisals of doing so