Immediate activty Give 2 advantages and disadvantages of the following methods: Group interviews Questionnaires Lab experiments Participant observation Push yourself: Comparative methods

Secondary Data – Official statistics Objectives: To define what secondary data is and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of its use. Be able to list the Advantages and Disadvantages of secondary sources

Example of Official Statistics:

Official Statistics - What are they??

Example of Official Statistics:

Validity: The validity of such data is very much in question especially the hard data for example the incidents of recorded crime bears absolutely no resemblance to the actual occurrence of crime Soft data also has all the problems of sampling and honesty to deal with. We should never look at official statistics without being aware of the original purpose the data was collected for

Advantages: Cost- hugely expensive for an individual to collect data on the scale that the official statistics can. Using data already collected is relatively cheap Large samples Unique samples the government has access to people no-one else has access to completion of the census for example is compulsory Cover a wide area Can show changes over time Can show national patterns Easily available Methodology is in the public domain Can give us ideas for new research

Disadvantages: They may not be accurate for many reasons and if you didn’t do the research you don’t know all the inaccuracies’ or design faults It may not be valid to use data collected for one purpose in another way Often governments have a vested interest in mind when they commission the study and so the data may well be deliberately biased Soft data has many problems with regard to the validity of answers people give, and any design faults in the original methodology used to collect it Hard is recorded data and while it may be accurate in the context it was collected it is likely that that is only a very tiny part of what the sociologist is really interested in They may be out of date

Examine the usefulness of secondary sources of data (16 marks) Essay Question: Examine the usefulness of secondary sources of data (16 marks) In your answer you should include: What are Secondary Sources (inc. types Quan/Qual = OS/Docs) How are they useful? Give examples How are they less useful? Give examples Conclusion - What might be another alternative i.e primary sources?