Outline the sources of secondary data that sociologists use and assess their advantages and disadvantages
Outline the sources of secondary data that sociologists use and assess their advantages and disadvantages. (33 marks)
A source of secondary data that sociologists use is official statistics, official statistics are quantitative data created by the government or other official bodies. A ten-yearly Census of the entire UK population is done on a range of area’s e.g. births, marriages and divorces. Government use official statistics in policy-making and there are several types of sources: registration, official surveys and administrative records.
Official statistics are free source of quantities date, is quick to access and is available on a range of topics. Official statistics also shows up-to-date trends and trends over time, this allows sociologists look at trends before and after social policies to identify correlations between variable’s and show possible cause and effect relationships. Official statistics also allow sociologists to make comparisons between groups due to the census covers the entire UK population and asks everyone identical questions, this allows sociologists to compare different social groups etc. Sample sizes are often large therefore, they are more likely to be representative. Only the state has the resources to conduct large-scale surveys due to the high cost and time, and only official statics may be a sociologist’s only choice on a topic. Although the government makes statistics for its own purposes and not for the benefit of sociologists which isn’t presented in a useful way for sociologists to use, as the state uses different definitions in collecting the data and definitions change over time and different states may define the same term differently. This makes it difficult to make comparisons over time or between countries difficult. There also may be no statistics available on the topic a sociologists is interested in e.g. the French state does not collect data on race, religion and ethnicity of its citizens which means there are no
A source of secondary data that sociologists use is official statistics, official statistics are quantitative data created by the government or other official bodies. A ten-yearly Census of the entire UK population is done on a range of area’s e.g. births, marriages and divorces. Government use official statistics in policy-making and there are several types of sources: registration, official surveys and administrative records.
Official statistics are free source of quantities date, is quick to access and is available on a range of topics. Official statistics also shows up-to-date trends and trends over time, this allows sociologists look at trends before and after social policies to identify correlations between variable’s and show possible cause and effect relationships. Official statistics also allow sociologists to make comparisons between groups due to the census covers the entire UK population and asks everyone identical questions, this allows sociologists to compare different social groups etc. Sample sizes are often large therefore, they are more likely to be representative. Only the state has the resources to conduct large-scale surveys due to the high cost and time, and only official statics may be a sociologist’s only choice on a topic. Although the government makes statistics for its own purposes and not for the benefit of sociologists which isn’t presented in a useful way for sociologists to use, as the state uses different definitions in collecting the data and definitions change over time and different states may define the same term differently. This makes it difficult to make comparisons over time or between countries difficult. There also may be no statistics available on the topic a sociologists is interested in e.g. the French state does not collect data on race, religion and ethnicity of its citizens which means there are no