Primary and Secondary Data and Data Sources

Primary and Secondary Data and Data Sources

1. Primary Data

   • Primary Data is collected by sociologists themselves, usually obtained by carrying out a social survey, using questionnaires and interviews, or by participant or non-participant observation.

2. Secondary Data

   • Secondary Data are those which already exist and are collected from secondary sources.
   • Qualitative Secondary Sources
     • Qualitative secondary sources include newspaper, radio, TV reports, websites, novels, literature, art, autobiographies, letters, diaries, parish registers, historical documents, previous sociological studies, school records, social work files, police records, minutes of meetings, and some official government reports.

3. Both of these forms of data can take either quantitative (statistical) or qualitative (non-statistical) forms. These may either be PUBLIC or PERSONAL documents.

   • PUBLIC documents are those which are produced for public knowledge, such as government statistics, business and the mass media.
   • PERSONAL documents are (usually) private documents from a persons own use, which record a part of a persons life, e.g. Diaries and personal letters.