Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources • This is data which already exists – letters, diaries, novels, stats, newspapers, films etc etc It can be in either quantitative or qualitative form

Official Statistics This mainly refers to data already in existence having been collected by governments, for example, statistics relating to births, marriages, deaths, health, crime, the economy and so on. • Official statistics are seen as scientific because they are collected in a highly standardised way. For example, births, marriages, divorces and deaths have to be registered, by law. Government surveys such as the Census, the General Household Survey and the British Crime Survey are viewed as highly reliable and objective in their design,

Official Statistics - Advantages • They are readily available • Sample sizes are large = better representativeness • Usually well planned and detailed questionnaires • Their use saves time, effort and money.

Official Statistics - Advantages • They have been scientifically collected. • They give a wide-ranging picture of social phenomena. • They have excellent comparative value in that they allow examination of trends over time.

Official Statistics - Disadvantages • Sociologists must ask how they are created. • Atkinson found coroners in different countries gave different verdicts to the same deaths. • Stats are social creations (man/woman made)

Official Statistics - Disadvantages • Official stats may have political bias • The definition of unemployment has changed many times to make the figures look better. • Stats don’t always give the whole picture – • Crime figures don’t tell us about the ‘dark figure’ (unreported and unrecorded crime)

Official Statistics – theoretical issues • Positivists • See them as providing essential quantitative data. Useful for looking at correlations. Durkheim used stats on suicide to help establish sociology as the science of society • Interpretivists • Stats are not facts but are social creations (man/woman made). They are not objective realities but constructed by people. E.g. Atkinson showed how suicide stats are the results of coroner’s decisions about death classifications – these can vary from coroner to coroner and country to country. • Marxists • See stats as tools of the ruling class. They are used to justify the established order in capitalist systems.

Documents • Covers a wide range of written material – letters, diaries, memoirs, novels, newspapers, photos, music recordings etc. • Life Documents refers to material created by an individual during the course of their lives – diaries, suicide notes, social media etc.

Historical Documents • Historical documents such as government reports and White Papers, historical treatises, diaries and even novels from a particular period may add qualitative insight into the evolution of social phenomena and problems. • For example, police documents from the 1930s and 1940s may give us invaluable insight into modern policing methods. • The novels of Dickens may give us insight into poverty in the nineteenth century whilst those of Jane Austen may help us understand gender relations in the early nineteenth century.

Historical Documents Using Historical documents • Often very subjective accounts • Bias and prejudice mean that the sociologist must treat with care • However they can provide a rich in depth view of what life was like in a bygone age. • Anne Frank’s diary shows us a deep insight into life under Nazi rule in Holland • Interpretations of such documents can differ according to the researcher’s views, background etc

Assessing Historical Documents • John Scott 1990 • Gives 4 quality controls for assessing the usefulness of historical documents • 1. Authenticity • Is it genuine? • The Hitler diaries in the 1980’s were found to be forgeries – but fooled top historians at first.

Assessing Historical Documents • 2. Credibility • Is the author sincere? Or does he/she distort things • And how do you know? • Check against other material from the same era

Assessing Historical Documents 3. Representativeness • Is it typical? • Does it fit in with other accounts from the same time? • This can be difficult to assess if few documents from the same era have survived

Assessing Historical Documents 4. Meaning • Literal meaning of the text – problems with language • But also the meanings and significance – are these clear? • Often such meanings can never be settled and we rely on assumptions

Personal or Life Documents • These are documents used by sociologists which record part of an individual’s life. Some of these documents may be in their own words, for example, in the form of a diary, letters or autobiography. • They may be in the words of others, for example, biographies. The use of biographies by sociologists is further complicated by the fact that they are likely to be based on historical documents, with their potential drawbacks, as we have seen. • Gordon Marshall notes that use of personal documents may even stretch to the analysis of photographs and gravestones.

Personal Documents • Some sociologists may ask people taking part in their research to keep a diary documenting their activities and feelings. • For example, Ann Oakley asked women in her study of housework to report activities occupying each hour of the day. This is known as time-budgeting. • This type of method is regarded as very comprehensive because it focuses on aspects of behaviour which are very difficult to anticipate in questionnaires and interviews.

Personal Documents • However, some sociologists suggest that this method is too subjective because it is over-dependent on the interpretation of the subjects. They may be more concerned with justifying their activities than with objectively recounting their experiences. • Life histories or autobiographies may also be elicited through oral interviews. Survivors of particular historical and eras and events such as the First World War and the Holocaust may be able to give sociologists important first-hand information about their experience of such events. Older relatives may be able to give us insight into experience of social policies such as the tripartite education system which we are unable to glean from textbooks.

Personal Documents • However, life histories can be problematic. The people whose memories we use may not be representative of the population. Their recall of facts from the past may not be accurate or may be overly subjective and therefore biased.

Secondary Sources