Sociology 1 - Studying Society - Sources of data

Primary data is data collected by the researcher himself, for example: Structured interviews, or Participant observation

Secondary data is data used that has been previously collected by someone else, like Official Statistics or Mass media reports

Sources of data:

Qualitative:

Primary - Observation, Structured Interviews, Unstructured Interviews

Secondary - Written documents (Biographies, Diaries etc..), Mass media sources (Articles, Documentaries)

Quantitative:

Primary - Questionnaires

Secondary - Statistics (GCSE results, SAT results etc..), Official Statistics (Birth/Death/Unemployment rates)