Qualitative

• Qualitative secondary sources

  • Public documents.
  • Personal documents.
  • Historical documents.
  • Existing sociological research.
• Public documents

  • Documents which are readily available in the public domain.
  • Government departments
  • Schools, colleges and universities
  • Welfare agencies
  • Charities
  • Minutes from council meetings
  • Parliamentary debates
  • Businesses and published company accounts
• Personal documents

  • Documents which are private, and contain first-hand experiences and accounts of social events; they also usually include the writer's thoughts, feelings and attitudes.
  • Letters.
  • Photographs
  • Autobiographies
  • Diaries
• Historical documents

  • A public or personal document which was created in the past.
  • Church records; Laslett.
  • Middle-ages paintings; Aries.
• Qualitative statistics

  Advantages

  • Usually free to access.
  • Sometimes it may be the only source available.
  • Sometimes used in conjunction with the results of primary methods to offer an 'extra check.'
• Qualitative statistics

  Disadvantages

  • Documents may not be available on the subjects of study.
  • Sometimes difficult to obtain.
  • Often lengthy and in-depth, adding time to the study; practical disadvantage.
  • Not representative
  • Personal bias
• Qualitative statistics

  Disadvantages

  Scott (1990)

  • Identifies four issues with the use of documents.
  • Authenticity.
  • Credibility.
  • Representativeness.
  • Meaning/interpretation
• Authenticity

  • Is this document what it claims to be? Is it complete? Who wrote it? Is it a copy of the original? If so, is it free from errors?
• Credibility

  • Is this document believable? Is the author sincere and genuine? Is the document accurate?
• Representativeness

  • Do all documents survive? Are the ones which have survived typical of all documents? Are the documents classified or currently unavailable? i.e. official secrets, post-humous publication only. Are certain groups under-represented?
• Meaning/interpretation

  • Is it a foreign language? Have the words and meanings changed over time?
  • Will different sociologists interpret the contents differently?
• Content analysis

  • A method for dealing with documents, usually used in the sociology of mass media for analysing newspapers, television, films, advertisements, and other forms of media.
  • Documents are usually qualitative, but a content analysis allows quantitative data to be produced.
• Content analysis

  Content analysis can be compared with official statistics.

  • Why is this useful?
  • Comparing the results with official statistics identifies whether the source material is representative, or whether it portrays a stereotype.
• Content analysis

  Advantages

  • Cheap and easy to access
  • A useful source of quantitative data, according to positivists.
• Content analysis

  Disadvantages

  • Counting the frequency of something occurring gives no indication of its meaning, according to interpretivists.
  • Open to interpretation.