Lesson 4.3.2.2

4.3.2.2 Sources of data and primary and secondary data Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 3

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.3.2.2, Sources of data and primary and secondary data: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Sociology (7192), Unit 3: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What distinguishes primary data from secondary data?

    • Primary data are held by governments only, while secondary data are held only by universities and private research companies
    • Primary data are collected by the researcher for the study in hand, while secondary data were collected by others for other purposes
    • Primary data are always quantitative and secondary data are always qualitative, so the distinction depends on the type of numbers used
    • Primary data are always collected in the first year of a study, while secondary data are always collected in the final year

  2. Which is an example of secondary data?

    • Transcripts of interviews that the researcher carried out with carers in a care home during the current research project
    • Official census statistics on household size, analysed by a researcher who did not collect them
    • Responses from a questionnaire that a researcher distributes to students in their own university department this term
    • Notes made by a researcher during a participant observation study of a youth club that the researcher ran personally

  3. What is a key advantage of official statistics as a data source?

    • They reveal the full subjective meanings of respondents, since the statistics include detailed personal accounts in people's words
    • They can be produced by any researcher in a day, since official data require no collection, cleaning or classification at all
    • They are always free from error, since government agencies have no reason to make mistakes in recording or publishing data
    • They are large, systematically collected and available over long periods, which allows comparison and trend analysis

  4. What is a key limitation of official statistics for sociological research?

    • Categories are set by the agency that produces them and may not match the concepts the researcher wants to study
    • Official statistics are never available to the public, so researchers have no legal means of accessing them for analysis
    • Official statistics cover only a single year, so they cannot be used to compare any two periods of time in the past
    • Official statistics are only available in paper form, which makes them impossible to analyse with any modern software package

  5. Which method is most suited to gathering comparable responses on people's attitudes using a fixed set of questions?

    • Non-participant observation, which records behaviour from a distance without asking participants any questions at all
    • Documentary analysis, which examines existing texts such as letters and diaries without any direct contact with people
    • An unstructured conversation with no pre-set topics, in which the researcher follows whatever the participant wishes to discuss
    • A structured questionnaire, which asks each respondent the same questions in the same order to allow comparison

  6. What is a key strength of participant observation?

    • It avoids any ethical issues, since participants are never aware of being observed by the researcher in any setting
    • It allows the researcher to understand behaviour in its natural context and to see what people actually do, not only what they say
    • It produces large representative samples quickly, since the researcher can observe thousands of people in a single day
    • It removes the influence of the researcher, since the researcher's presence has no effect on how people behave at all

  7. What is a potential problem with participant observation?

    • The researcher's data are always statistically significant, since observing one group produces results that can be generalised
    • The researcher's presence may change how people behave, and the researcher may become too closely involved to remain objective
    • The researcher is never required to take notes, since memory alone is always fully reliable for observational research
    • The researcher is always able to observe every relevant event, since participants never conceal anything from observers

  8. What is a documentary source in social research?

    • A recording of a live event that is broadcast to a remote audience in real time over a television network
    • Written, visual or recorded material such as letters, diaries, official reports or photographs, which can be analysed by researchers
    • A source of funding for research projects, such as grants from charities, foundations and government research councils
    • A list of the registered members of a professional body, which is used to draw samples for surveys of practitioners

  9. Which data source would be most useful for studying how a government policy was framed in public documents?

    • A large survey of voting intentions, which records only the political party respondents intend to support at the next election
    • A laboratory experiment in which participants are asked to read a policy paper and then rate their willingness to comply
    • Documentary analysis of policy papers, parliamentary debates and official reports
    • A structured observation of members of parliament as they walk through the lobby of the House of Commons each afternoon

  10. Which of these is the main strength of using experiments as a method of data collection in sociology?

    • They always reproduce real-world social conditions exactly, since laboratory settings are identical to everyday life in every way
    • They can test cause and effect by controlling variables and comparing a treatment group with a control group
    • They are never subject to ethical limits, since participants in experiments have no rights to withdraw or to be protected
    • They are always cheap and quick, since no participants need to be recruited, consent or be paid for their time in any study

  11. What is a limitation of using laboratory experiments in sociology?

    • Laboratory experiments can only be run with children, so their results cannot be applied to adults in any circumstances
    • Artificial settings may not reflect everyday social life, which can limit the generalisability of the findings
    • Laboratory experiments produce only qualitative data, so they cannot be used to test any hypothesis about social behaviour
    • Laboratory experiments are always too expensive to run, so sociologists have stopped using them in every area of research

  12. Which source of data would be most appropriate for a researcher who wants to compare the opinions of a large population on a single issue?

    • A diary kept by one family over a year, which records their daily routines in great detail but for a single household
    • A participant observation study of one workplace, which describes everyday practices within one organisation in depth
    • A survey using a large random sample, which allows results to be estimated for the wider population
    • A single unstructured interview with one participant, which yields rich detail about one life but no population estimate

  13. What is 'secondary analysis' of survey data?

    • A review of the original research question, carried out after data collection to decide whether a further study is needed
    • A check on the first draft of a research report by a second researcher, who reads the document for spelling and grammar errors
    • Analysis of an existing dataset by a researcher who did not design or collect it, to answer a new research question
    • A second round of data collection carried out by the same researcher, in which the original respondents are interviewed again

  14. A researcher uses existing hospital records to study patterns of admissions. Which feature of these records is most important to consider?

    • The records are identical in every hospital, so results from one hospital can be assumed to apply to all others without question
    • The records are never confidential, so the researcher may use them without any consideration of patient privacy or consent
    • The records were created for clinical purposes, so the categories may not match the concepts the researcher wants to study
    • The records are always accurate and complete, so no assessment of their quality or coverage is needed before analysis

  15. Which of these is the best example of a qualitative data source?

    • Transcribed interview accounts in which participants describe their experiences of work in their own words
    • A database of exam results, which lists the number of candidates who achieved each grade in each subject each summer
    • A table of average earnings by occupation, drawn from an official national survey of employees across the country
    • A set of counts showing how many households own a car, drawn from a census table for each local authority area

  16. What is the main ethical concern with using secondary data that contain personal information?

    • Secondary data are protected by copyright, so ethical concerns about privacy do not arise for any researcher who uses them
    • Secondary data are always anonymous, so there is no ethical concern about using personal information for any new purpose
    • Individuals may not have consented to their information being used for new research, which raises issues of confidentiality
    • Secondary data are never personal, since they are always collected from groups rather than from individuals in every study

  17. Why might a researcher combine documentary sources with interviews?

    • To reduce the amount of data collected, since using two sources always produces fewer records than using one source alone
    • To remove all bias from the research, since two sources are always free from error when they are used together in a study
    • To avoid having to analyse either source in depth, since combining them means that neither needs careful interpretation
    • To check and enrich one source with another, which can increase confidence in the findings

  18. Which data source is least likely to be affected by a researcher's presence during data collection?

    • Unstructured interviews in which the researcher builds a close rapport with participants over a series of meetings
    • Focus groups in which the researcher moderates a discussion and encourages participants to speak to one another
    • Documents and official statistics that already exist, since their content was produced before the research began
    • Participant observation in which the researcher spends several months in the setting, taking notes on daily interactions

  19. Which of these best describes a limitation of relying on self-completed questionnaires?

    • Respondents always complete questionnaires in full, so missing data never appears in any survey undertaken by researchers
    • Respondents always understand every question exactly as the researcher intended, so misunderstanding is never a concern at all
    • Respondents are always honest, since no social pressure ever affects the answers people give on paper or online
    • Respondents may misunderstand questions or give socially desirable answers, and the researcher cannot probe their meaning

  20. Which type of source provides the most detailed information about individual biographies over time?

    • Life history interviews or personal diaries, which record the experiences of individuals across their life course
    • A national sample survey of attitudes, which records opinions at one moment without collecting any personal history information
    • A single census return, which records the household composition on census night but no information about past or future life
    • An official crime statistic, which records the number of offences recorded by police in one local area during a single year

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