Documents (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note
Exam code: 7192
Personal documents
Documents are a secondary source of data
They are an important source of both qualitative and quantitative data
Interpretivists prefer personal documents, as they provide insight into meanings and lived experiences
Personal documents are also known as life documents and include:
letters, diaries, photos, emails, blogs and autobiographies
These are created by individuals and record personal experiences and social actions, e.g.,
Oakley (1974) explored housewives’ emotional experiences using personal diaries in her groundbreaking feminist study, The Sociology of Housework, which examined domestic labour and women’s roles in the home
Thomas and Znaniecki (1919) analysed 764 personal letters in their influential study The Polish Peasant in Europe and America to explore individuals’ experiences of migration and social change
Personal documents are often used to understand how people interpret their world and give insight into subjective experiences
However, researchers must be cautious of potential bias or selective memory when analysing documents
Evaluation of personal documents
Advantages | Limitations |
|---|---|
High validity – personal documents offer rich, qualitative insights into people’s thoughts, feelings and experiences in their own words. | Access issues – gaining permission to use letters, diaries or other private materials can be difficult due to ethical and privacy concerns. |
Ethnographic value – they often provide an in-depth account of everyday life from the subject’s perspective, helping researchers understand meaning. | Low reliability – the content of documents may be difficult to verify, meaning they cannot be cross-checked or replicated by other researchers. |
Longitudinal insight – diaries and life documents can cover extended periods, showing how attitudes or behaviours change over time. | Subjectivity – the information may be one-sided, emotionally biased, or selective, especially if written for personal reflection or specific audiences. |
Accessible and low-cost – personal documents like published autobiographies or archived diaries can be relatively easy and inexpensive to obtain. | Incomplete or inconsistent – writers may omit key details or fail to record significant experiences, which limits their usefulness as sociological data. |
Triangulation – they can be used alongside interviews or official statistics to check consistency and add depth to the research. | Unrepresentative – only certain groups (e.g., literate, reflective individuals) tend to leave behind such documents, so findings cannot be generalised. |
Public & historical documents
Public documents are produced by organisations such as schools, hospitals, and government departments
E.g., Ofsted reports, public enquiry reports, school inspection reports, company records, and census data
Public documents can be contemporary, such as media reports and internet content
E.g., adverts, films, Facebook groups, Reddit forums and Wikipedia
Public documents may be historical
E.g., sources from the past, such as letters, government archives, or paintings
Historical documents can provide context about previous eras and social conditions
Positivists prefer public documents and content analysis (below) because they are reliable and can be quantified
Assessing documents
Sociologists must critically assess documents to judge their usefulness
Scott (1990) suggests assessing documents using 4 criteria
Authenticity – Is the document what it claims to be? Is it genuine and free from error?
Credibility – Is it believable? Was it intended for publication, or was it edited to persuade?
Representativeness – Is it typical? Can generalisations be made? Not all documents survive or are preserved
Meaning – What is the intended meaning? Interpretation may differ between researchers
Analysing documents
Content analysis is a method used by sociologists to systematically analyse the content of documents
Can be qualitative (e.g. themes in diaries) or quantitative (e.g. frequency of words in newspapers)
Allows researchers to explore patterns in media, advertisements, letters, etc
E.g., feminist studies of the representation of gender in television advertisements might use content analysis in the following way:
The researcher constructs a set of predetermined categories, for example, 'male advertising tech product/female advertising tech product
The researcher then works through the advertisements, coding all sections that show a male or female advertising a tech product
Once the contents have been coded, the researcher counts up the number of times a female or male advertises a tech product
Evaluation of public and historical documents
Advantages | Limitations |
|---|---|
Accessible and cost-effective – many public documents (e.g., school reports, policies, media articles) are easy to access online or in archives. | Questionable authenticity – historical documents, especially older ones, may be forged, misattributed, or altered over time. |
Insight into institutions – they provide useful data on how organisations like schools, hospitals or governments operate and represent issues. | Limited representativeness – surviving documents may not reflect the views of the wider population, particularly if only certain types of records remain. |
Useful for identifying trends – public documents can reveal patterns or changes over time, such as shifts in school exclusion policies or curriculum. | Potential for censorship – governments or organisations may omit, distort or censor documents to present a favourable image or hide sensitive information. |
Rich qualitative data – some documents, like public enquiries or policy reviews, include first-hand accounts and detailed narratives. | Difficult to interpret – researchers may misinterpret the original meaning, especially if taken out of historical or social context. |
Historical insight – historical documents allow researchers to study past societies, values, or policies that cannot be researched using modern methods. | Researcher bias – interpretations may be shaped by the researcher’s own perspective, especially when analysing politically or ideologically charged material. |
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