Secondary data

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  • Secondary Data
    • Novels
      • Gives an insight into attitudes and behaviours of certain gourps of people in different eras
      • However, if the novel is fiction it may be overexaggerated. Writing novels is a middle/upper class activity so it could limit the insight
      • EXAMPLE : TRACEY BEAKER STORY
    • Documents
      • Documents can be : letters, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, novels, newspapers, advertisements, poster, photographs, raodio, TV.
        • Public documents
          • School records, parish registers
        • Private documents
          • Diaries, letters
      • Personal documents are usefu for understanding social lives and changes. Public documents are easy to access and provide qualitative data
      • However, not all documents are easily accessible & going through the data can be time consuming.
      • Analysises
        • Thematic analysis
          • Looks at motives and ideologies
        • Formal consent analysis
          • Classifies & quantifies the content in a document in an objective manner.
        • Textual analysis
          • Close examination of the text
      • Historical documents : Key studies
        • Peter Laslett - The family and industrialisation (1972, 1977)
          • Laslett used parish records to discover how common nuclear families were in the pre-industrial times.
            • The problems with this is that many parish records are incomplete and Laslett used them from only one village so he cannot make a generalisation.
    • Diaries & letters
      • Helps us to provide insight into how things happened at that time.
      • But the writer may have had disorted views or gloryfying themselves
      • EXAMPLE : ANNE FRANKS DIARY / LETTERS FROM SOLIDERS WW1 & 2
    • Mass media
      • Large amount s of tv, film, newpapers and novels to offer insight. They are readily available and are usually cheap. They get peoples attention and reaches out to a vast amount of people
      • However, the can be inaccurate, misleading and disort images. They normally represent only one view point.
    • Official statistics
      • Readily available and costs little or nothing to use. They are facts as they can be birth, death, marriage certificates. provided by home office, tax offices etc. These stats are released regulary and government surveys such as the census is well planned and organised.
        • However, the researcher has no control over the range of variables the original researcher used. The stats may be out of date or wrong.
    • Advantages
      • 2) research contains illegal activity & it would be safer to just collect secondary data
      • 1) Infomration already exists, so it saves time, money and effort.
      • 3) Some groups are unwilling to be researched E.g Rich & powerful
    • Disadvantages
      • The only way to get information such as historical data is by the participants which are either dead or too old.
      • 2) The documents may be forged, biased or contain errors.
      • 3) May be inaccurate or unrepresentitave
    • Content analysis: key study
      • Used to analyse the way gender roles were presented in primary schools in the 60's and 70's.
        • The analysis listed the toys played with and the activities preformed by boys only, girls only and both.
          • The research found that boys are presented as more adventerous as they are stronger. Boys have more choices. Girls are more caring than boys.

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