AQA A Level Official Statistics T+M
- Created by: harriet_docksey
- Created on: 09-01-21 14:17
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- Official statistics
- Produced by the government and similar official bodies
- Types of sources
- Registration (such as births)
- Official surveys (such as the ten-yearly Census)
- Administrative records: (such as hospitals, courts and schools)
- Practical advantages
- Free source of huge amounts of quantitative data
- Only the state has the power to compel individuals to supply certain data
- Let us make comparisons between different groups
- They show trends and patterns over time as they are collected at regular intervals
- Practical disadvantages
- Due to being created for the purposes of the gov., may be none on the topic the sociologists are interested in
- Mismatches between sets of stats
- Definitions such as 'homelessness' or 'truancy' may different
- Theoretical issues
- Positivism
- They are representative due to covering a large sample
- Reliable because they are compiled by trained staff who use standardised collection techniques
- Interpretivism
- Cicourel: stats are merely social constructs
- In order to end up as a statistic, the individual must go through a series of social interactions
- Hard and soft statistics
- Hard: more valid than soft, include birth rates, marriages, divorces...
- High level of validity as there is little dispute as how to define the categories
- High validity as they are created from registration data
- Soft: compiled from administrative records. They represent a record of the decisions made by these agencies, not very valid
- Hard: more valid than soft, include birth rates, marriages, divorces...
- Marxism
- Official stats serve the interests of capitalism. Stats are part of Althusser's ISA
- Politically sensitive data that would reveal capitalism may not be published
- Definitions conceal the true reality of capitalism
- Social class categories are based on occupation: gives the impression of a gradual hierarchy rather than a conflict
- Official stats serve the interests of capitalism. Stats are part of Althusser's ISA
- Feminism
- As official stats are created by the state, they maintain patriarchal oppression... Little coverage of unpaid domestic labour
- There have been changes in the definitions that may reveal women's position more clearly... HRP
- Positivism
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