secondary data

What are examples of secondary data

• documents

• Statistics

• Letters

• Diaries

What are the 3 types of documents

• public

• Personal

• Historical

What is a public document

Produced by organisations such as the government, schools or businesses

What is a public document

Produced by organisations such as the government, schools or businesses

What are historical documents

Either a personal or public document that was created in the past

Give an example of a public document

OFSTED reports

What did Scott say

He proposed 4 criteria that he focuses on when assessing documents as a method of research

What are the 4 criteria that Scott came up with

• authenticity

• Credibility

• Representativeness

• Meaning

What does authenticity mean - Scott

Is the document what it claims to be, is it free from errors and who wrote it

What does credibility mean - Scott

Is it believable, is the author sincere e.g. politicians lie about things they say to better their appearance

Representativeness- Scott

Is it representative of the society at the time

Meaning - Scott

• different sociologists interpret things differently

• It may be difficult to understand de.g. Due to the handwriting if it’s from the past

• It may be difficult to get the whole picture because some parts of the document may have been redacted

What does redacted mean

Hidden

What is a practical strength and limitation of documents

• strength - easy to access as they are mostly online, cheap to use as they just need to be printed off

• Limitation - personal documents may be more difficult to gain access to, researcher may need skills to interpret them

What is an ethical strength and limitation of documents

• strength - if it’s a public document then you don’t need to gain consent, they can also ensure confidentiality

• Limitation - documents that contain information about children will need consent

What is a theoretical strength and limitation of documents

• strength - it may give an in depth and accurate insight into a specific event or time period, high in Verstehen

• Limitation - if they are personal they can be hard to replicate, it can be hard to check if they are valid

Would positivists like documents

No because

• aren’t scientific

• Qualitative data

• May be bias

Would Interpretivists like documents

Yes because

• High in Verstehen

• May be subjective

• Qualitative data

Who came up with the updated version of Scott’s theory

Stein

What did stein say

There are 6 criteria that need to be considered when using the internet as a secondary source

What is the 6 criteria that stein came up with

• authorship

• Authority of author

• Authority if material

• Authority of site or organisation

• Currency

• Objectivity

Authorship - stein

It means whether the authorship is clear and whether the author is different to the company or person that compiled the page

Authority of the author - stein

How credible are they in terms of qualifications and previous publications

Authority of material - stein

If it has references at the end then it is seen to have more authority

Authority of the site - stein

E.g. a website for a university would have more authority than a website such as Wikipedia

Currency - stein

Whether it’s up to date and accurate

Objectivity - stein

Is it biased or not

What is a practical strength and limitation of using the internet as a secondary source

• strength - you have access to most documents

• Limitation - it can take time to find the correct document

What is an ethical strength and limitation of using the internet as a secondary source

• strength - you gained consent by the person pressing post

• limitation - if it’s about children then you need to gain consent

What is a theoretical strength and limitation of using the internet as a secondary source

• strength - high in Verstehen as people often give in depth opinions

• Limitation - some things may not be valid

What is content analysis

• you choose a topic you want to study e.g. topics in the news

• Choose categories

• Tally each time you find one of those categories

• And then it produces quantitative date