Use of Secondary Data From Bryman and Neuman From Bryman • The methods of data collection like surveys, interviews etc are time consuming and expensive • Many organizations collect data that can be used by social scientists • It is used by those researchers who are not involved in the collection of the data • It can be quantitative or qualitative Advantages of Secondary Data • Cost and time • High quality: Good sampling procedures involved, cover wide geographic regions, collected by highly experienced researches • Opportunity for longitudinal analysis: it can chart out trends over time • Subgroup analysis: when sample is large, subgroups in it are also large • Opportunity of cross cultural analysis: secondary analysis of two or more countries can provide cross cultural analysis • More time for data analysis: you get more time Disadvantages of Secondary Analysis • • • • Lack of familiarity with data Complexity of the data No control over quality data Absence of key variables Official Statistics • • • • Researchers can also use official statistics It saves time and money of researchers Reactivity is decreased. You can analyse this data both cross sectionslly and longitudinally • Prospect of cross cultural analysis • Official records of crime reports are often misleading From Neuman • Existing statistics research is best for topics that involve information routinely collected by large bureaucratic organization • Public or private organizations systematically gather many types of information. It is rarely collected for purposes directly related to a specific research question • For example, existing statistics can be used by a researcher who wants to see whether unemployment and crime rates are associated in 150 cities across 2 year period Social indicators • They are the quantitative indicators of social well being • These are developed in areas like population, family, health etc • Eg. Indicators of crime can be alcoholism, job dissatisfaction etc Locating data • Secondary data can be located from government agencies and private sources • They are publically available in libraries • It takes time and effort to locate piece of information a researcher wants Validity • Validity problems occur when the researcher's theoretical definition does not match that of the government agency or organization that collected the information. • For example, a researched refines a work injury as including minor cuts, bruises, and sprains that occur on the job, but the official definition in government reports only includes injuries that require a visit to a physician or hospital. • Another example occurs when a researcher defines people as unemployed • Another validity problem arises when official statistics area surrogate or proxy for a construct in which a researchers really interested. This is necessary because the researcher cannot collect original data. • For example the researcher wants to know how many people have been robbed, so he or she uses police statistics on robbery arrests as a proxy. But the measure is not entirely valid because many robberies are not reported to the police, and reported robberies do not always result in an arrest. • A third validity problem arises because the researcher lacks control over how information is collected. • All information, even that in official government reports, is originally gathered by people in bureaucracies as part of their jobs. A researcher depends on them for collecting, organizing, reporting, and publishing data accurately. There may be errors in collecting and publishing information Reliability • Reliability problems develop when official definitions or the method of collecting information changes over time. • E.g. unemployment • Researchers often use official statistics for international comparisons but national governments collect data differently and the quality of data collection varies. Missing Data • One problem that plagues researchers who use existing statistics and documents is that of missing data. Sometimes, the data were collected but have been lost. • More frequently, the data were never collected • Ethical Concern • The primary ethical concern is the privacy and confidentiality of using information gathered by someone else.
