Free Essays on Sociologists Choose To Base Their Research On Secondary Sources

Examine the reasons why some sociologists choose to base their research on secondary sources Secondary sources contain data that has already been produced, often by other people besides sociologists. Examples of secondary data would be documents such as letters, dairies and autobiographies produced by individuals. Sociologists often also use secondary data produces by the government and organisations such as trade union, charities and various other companies. The secondary data used can be either contemporary or historical and the data available from them may be either primarily quantitative or qualitative. Also when sociologists refer to other sociological studies, it is defined as using secondary sources. In this essay I will be exploring the factors that lead to sociologists using secondary sources rather then primary sources. There are many forms of secondary data, one of which being historical documents. Sociologists who wish to study social change that takes place over a long period of time view historical documents as having a very vital importance. An area in particular where historical sources have been considered of great importance is the study of family life. Peter Laslett (1972) used parish records to help him discover how common nuclear and extended families were in pre-industrial England. The data used proved most useful in clearing the assumption that extended families were the norm in pre-industrial Britain. Without historical documents, sociologists such as Max Weber (1958) would have been unable to conduct studies such as the influence of religion on the development of capitalism, and Michael Mann (1986) would not have had the resources to conduct a study on the relationship between different sources of social power throughout history. Michael Anderson also used historical sources to cond uct his research on the family but due to the fact that he only obtained data from one town, his results could be described... Free Essays on Sociologists Choose To Base Their Research On Secondary Sources Free Essays on Sociologists Choose To Base Their Research On Secondary Sources Examine the reasons why some sociologists choose to base their research on secondary sources Secondary sources contain data that has already been produced, often by other people besides sociologists. Examples of secondary data would be documents such as letters, dairies and autobiographies produced by individuals. Sociologists often also use secondary data produces by the government and organisations such as trade union, charities and various other companies. The secondary data used can be either contemporary or historical and the data available from them may be either primarily quantitative or qualitative. Also when sociologists refer to other sociological studies, it is defined as using secondary sources. In this essay I will be exploring the factors that lead to sociologists using secondary sources rather then primary sources. There are many forms of secondary data, one of which being historical documents. Sociologists who wish to study social change that takes place over a long period of time view historical documents as having a very vital importance. An area in particular where historical sources have been considered of great importance is the study of family life. Peter Laslett (1972) used parish records to help him discover how common nuclear and extended families were in pre-industrial England. The data used proved most useful in clearing the assumption that extended families were the norm in pre-industrial Britain. Without historical documents, sociologists such as Max Weber (1958) would have been unable to conduct studies such as the influence of religion on the development of capitalism, and Michael Mann (1986) would not have had the resources to conduct a study on the relationship between different sources of social power throughout history. Michael Anderson also used historical sources to cond uct his research on the family but due to the fact that he only obtained data from one town, his results could be described...