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

2. 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

3. Example of Official Statistics:

4. Official Statistics - What are they??

5. Example of Official Statistics:

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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They may be out of date

9. 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?