Secondary sources of data What types of secondary sources of data are available to Sociologists? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using secondary sources of data?

Starter Work on your own to complete as many of the sentences as you can.

Solution Interviews can be structured, unstructured and group A research method which involves taking part in the activities of the group you are studying is participant observation. Data in numerical form is quantitative. How many respondents get back to you through a questionnaire is known as the response rate. Questions in which the range of responses is fixed by the researcher are called closed ended questions. Data produced first hand by the researchers themselves is known as primary data. When the researcher tells the respondents that they are being observed, this is known as overt research. Postal, self-completed and hand-delivered are all types of questionnaires. In an interview, the list of questions read out by the researcher is called the interview schedule You carry out research to collect data or information. The observation which the researcher carries out in secret is known as covert. The types of questions that allow the respondent to answer in their own words are known as open ended questions. Data which already exists because someone else has gathered it is called secondary data.

Objectives All to be able to describe different type of qualitative and quantitative sources of secondary data. Most to be able to outline the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative sources of secondary data.

Home learning Revise for the exam. The mock exam is on Tuesday, 24. May 2011 – the 3rd lesson from today. It will be on all three topics – Families, Education and Studying Society. The real exam is in only 6 lesson’s time on Wednesday, 15. June 2011. Revision guides are still available. Pay £1 to Student services, get a receipt and collect the revision guide from Mrs Magner or Mrs Ludlow.

Secondary sources of data Secondary data is information that already exists because someone else has gathered it, but Sociologists can use it in their research. Secondary sources of data can be Quantitative Qualitative gathered by the government and other researchers and expressed in statistical form, e.g. official statistics such as crime rates, birth and death rates, divorce rates, exam results, etc. written by other people and expressed in words such as personal diaries and letters, emails, photographs, novels, newspaper articles, etc.

Task 1 One side of the classroom will research quantitative secondary source of data, the other will research qualitative secondary source of data. Use the textbook, pages 36 - 41, read the appropriate section and fill in the worksheet. You can work in pairs to help each other out. You have 10 minutes.

Quantitative Qualitative Type Quantitative Qualitative Definition Examples Advantages Disadvantages Statistics which already exist because they have been collected by other researchers and the government. Already exist because they have been collected by other researchers. They are expressed in words. Birth, death, marriage and divorce rates as well as crime rates, unemployment rates and exam results. Personal documents including letters, diaries and photographs. Public documents such as novels, biographies and governments documents. Mass media products such as TV documentaries, internet blogs and websites, newspaper articles. Cheap and easy to get as they already exist. Allow sociologists to make comparisons between the past and present to show social change. Sociologists can use the official statistics to make comparisons with the results of their own primary research, e.g. If researching the link between gender and achievement, statistics can show who does better, girls or boys. Sociologists can use them as research before they start their own primary research. For example, when researching schools, sociologists can read the school’s website, prospectus, Ofsted report and exam league tables. Statistics may not be fully accurate, e.g. divorce statistics do not include people in empty shell marriages so they do not tell us the whole picture of marital breakdown. Not all statistics are fully accurate, such as crime rates – their accuracy is affected by the way they are collected, e.g. not all crimes are reported to the police. These are called soft statistics. Statistics show us how people behave, but do not explain why they behave the way they do. Personal documents may be difficult to get hold of, e.g. people may not want others to read their diary. Public documents may have been forged so they would not be valid.

Quantitative secondary sources of data Quantitative secondary sources of data include statistics which already exist because they have been collected by other researchers and the government. Official statistics are collected by the government and published annually. Anyone can access them online for free. They include birth, death, marriage and divorce rates as well as crime rates, unemployment rates and exam results. The government collects such statistics through the Census, but also through the police (when crimes are reported) as well as by people having to register births, marriages, etc.

Advantages and disadvantages of quantitative secondary sources of data Cheap and easy to get as they already exist. Allow sociologists to make comparisons between the past and present to show social change. Sociologists can use the official statistics to make comparisons with the results of their own primary research, e.g. If researching the link between gender and achievement, statistics can show who does better, girls or boys. Statistics may not be fully accurate, e.g. divorce statistics do not include people in empty shell marriages so they do not tell us the whole picture of marital breakdown. The very accurate figures, such as birth rates, are referred to as hard statistics. However, not all statistics are fully accurate, such as crime rates – their accuracy is affected by the way they are collected, e.g. not all crimes are reported to the police. These are called soft statistics. Statistics show us how people behave, but do not explain why they behave the way they do.

Qualitative secondary sources of data Qualitative secondary sources of data already exist because they have been collected by other researchers. They are expressed in words. Examples include: Personal documents including letters, diaries and photographs. Public documents such as novels, biographies and governments documents. Mass media products such as TV documentaries, internet blogs and websites, newspaper articles.

Advantages and disadvantages of qualitative secondary sources of data Sociologists can use them as research before they start their own primary research. For example, if white sociologists were to research the Bengali community in East London, it might be useful for them to read ‘Brick Lane’ by Monica Ali, a novel about the Bengali community. Also, when researching schools, sociologists can read the school’s website, prospectus, Ofsted report and exam league tables. Personal documents may be difficult to get hold of, e.g. people may not want others to read their diary. Historical documents may have been forged so they would not be valid.

Task 2 Work in pairs to complete the worksheet using these words: valid diaries TV exam time generalise death available reasons birth correlations (links) numerical why newspaper

Task 3 Work on your own to answer this exam question. You have been asked as a sociologist to investigate the division of housework and childcare amongst married and cohabiting couples today. Identify one secondary source you might use and explain why it would help. (4 marks) One secondary source of data I could use to investigate the division of housework and childcare amongst married and cohabiting couples is... . This is a... It would help because... 1. Name one type of secondary data. 3. Write about its advantage, but make sure to link it with the topic of the research. 2. Define that type of secondary data.

Possible answer One secondary source of data I could use to investigate the division of housework and childcare amongst married and cohabiting couples is the woman’s personal diary. This is a qualitative source of secondary data written by a participant. It would help because it would be a valid source of research before I start my own primary research through, e.g. Interviews with the couples. This is because it may show who does more housework in the woman’s opinion as she may write about it in her diary.

Secondary sources of data Longitudinal studies Observations Interviews Key concepts in Sociology – society, culture, subculture, norms and values, socialisation, social role and status Types of data – primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative data and reliability, validity and objectivity Sampling methods Questionnaires Secondary sources of data Longitudinal studies Observations Interviews The research process – aims, hypothesis and pilot study, data analysis and evaluation Ethical issues How can Sociology influence social policy? Revision and End of unit assessment – mock exam

Plenary – true or false? Official statistics provide qualitative data. If a method is reliable, it means it can easily be repeated by another researcher. Diaries, TV programmes and newspaper articles are types of secondary qualitative data. Birth and marriage rates are more valid than crime rates. Being objective means to be biased. Valid data is data that shows us what something is really like. Quantitative methods require the researcher to have excellent inter-personal skills. Questionnaires are a secondary research method. False True True True False True False False