P1 Research Methods - Documents

Question 1

What are secondary sources of data?

Answer 1

Secondary sources are information that has been collected by individuals or agencies for their own purpose but sociologists use for their research

Question 2

What do sociologists use as secondary data?

Answer 2

• Books and maps
• Media including newspapers, tv and radio
• Published statistics: census housing and social security data
• Published texts: theoretical work, secondary analysis by reports
• Personal documents: diaries

Question 3

What are public documents?

Answer 3

They’re produced by organizations such as government departments, schools, welfare agencies, businesses and charities.
It includes documents ( Ofsted reports, council meetings and published company accounts)

Question 4

What are personal documents?

Answer 4

They consists of items such as letters, diaries, photo albums and autobiographies. These are first person accounts of social events and personal experiences (include writers feelings and attitudes)
Two main types:
- Diaries and personal letters

Question 5

What are historical documents?

Answer 5

Personal or public document in the past.
Often the only source of information unless the event was recent enough that there are still people alive that can be questioned.

Question 6

How do positivists feel about documents?

Answer 6

They reject documents as they fail to meet their aims of reliability, generalisability and representativeness
- They are under standardised (too unique, no generalisation can be drawn)
- Unrepresentative, only the literate can write a diary
- When interpreting researchers impose on their own meaning on them.

However positivists will use content analysis to produce quantitative data from them (Durkheim study)

Question 7

How do interpretivists feel about documents?

Answer 7

They favour documents as they achieve validity
- Not written with research in mind so are authentic statements
- Provide qualitative data that gives insights into the authors worldview and meaning

Question 8

What are some factors of potential practical issues?

Answer 8

1. Ease of access (easy to get participants or not?)
2. Time and funding bodies (how long and how big the study is, if there is money to research from funding bodies)
3. Personal skills and characteristics (individual characteristics of the sociologist + ppts makes it easier/harder to research
4. Subject matter (may be more likely to research useful subject or subjects that lead to promotion/financial, academic gains.
5. Research opportunities arising (some areas may not arise often as there could be risks)

Question 9

What are factors of potential ethical issues?

Answer 9

1. Vulnerable groups (some groups of people need extra care given to them when research is carried out on that group - disabilities etc.
2. Confidentiality + Privacy ( identity of the ppts should be kept secret and personal information should be private. Researchers should do this to prevent any negative effects from the research
3. Informed consent ( the ppts should be able to choose to take part in the research. Sociologists should ensure they inform participants of the nature of the study.
4. Effects on research participants (researchers should be aware of possible consequences of their research on the participants. It could include police intervention, damage to employment prospects and social exclusion. These should be anticipated and prevented

Question 10

What factors are potential theoretical issues?

Answer 10

There are three different areas: reliability, validity + perspective of positivist/interpretevists
1. Reliability: replication of a study
2. Validity
3. Methodological perspectives (positivist + interpretevism)

Question 11

Disadvantage of Documents:

Answer 11

1. Problems of authenticity: is the document what it claims to be?
2. Problems of credibility: is the document believable? Was the author sincere?
3. Problems of representativeness: is the evidence in the document typical? If not we cannot generalise from it. Not all documents survive: are the surviving documents typical to the ones that get destroyed or lost?
4. Problems of meaning: the researcher may need special skills to understand a document as it may have to be translated from a foreign language and words may change their meaning over time.