7. Secondary sources

What are some examples of qualitative sources

Existing qualitative sociological research

Public documents

Personal documents

Historical documents

What are some examples of quantitative sources

Official statistics

Non-official statistics

Existing quantitive sociological research

What are practical pros and cons of secondary sources?

Pros - free source of huge amounts of data which only the state can afford so it saves researchers time a d money

- useful for historical research or research between groups because they are collected in regular intervals so sociologists can do before and after studies to show cause and effect

Cons - data may be outdated for not fit the research purpose eg: Durkheim with his suicide study found there were less stats for the religion of suicide victims

What are ethical pros and cons of secondary sources

Pros - no need for consent if data is already public and anonymised

Cons - private documents such as letters or journals may raise privacy or consent concerns

What are reliability pros and cons of secondary sources?

Pros - official stats often follow standardised methods so they are replicable

Cons - some documents might be subjective or unstructured so you can't reproduce the same data elsewhere

- mistakes can be made on public stats however it is unlikely

What are validity pros and cons of secondary sources

Pros - hard statistics such as births, deaths give an accurate image of things

Cons - soft statistics such as police statistics aren't always very accurate because the police don't record every single crime and also educational statistics won't always report all the racist incidents in schools

- may lack insight into meanings or motives and people don't always fit into a census category

- the census now has a box for prefer not to say box or type your answer so if lots of people put that the picture may not be as representative: eg when people put jedi as their religion

What are representative pros and cons of secondary sources?

Pros - census data compiles of the whole of the UK or population so it is very representative

Cons - some statistics are more representative than others

- the census now has a box for prefer not to say box or type your answer so if lots of people put that the picture may not be as representative: eg when people put jedi as their religion

What are the 3 types of document?

Public, personal and historical

What is a public document?

Produced by organisations such as the government or schools for example ofsted reports. They are readily available

What is a personal document?

First personal accounts of social events and personal experiences which usually include the writers feelings

What is a historical document?

A personal or public document created in the past

What is some examples of some personal documents?

Diary of Anne Frank

I am Malala autobiography

What are some examples of public documents?

Ofsted reports

Black report on inequalities in health

Census