Primary and Secondary Sources

• Primary Data


  Information that is collected by sociologists by themselves for their own purpose
• Social Surveys


  Involve asking people questions in a written questionnaire or an interview
• Participant Observation 


  The sociologists joins in with the activities of the group that they are studying
• Experiments

  Using field experiments and the comparative method
• Secondary Data


  Information that has been collected by someone else for their own purpose, which sociologist can then use