Sociology-RM-Questionnaires Flashcards
What are the advantages of questionnaires?
Practical advantages, reliability, hypothesis testing, detachment/objectivity, representativeness, and ethical issues
What are the practical advantages of questionnaires?
Quick and cheap means of gathering large amounts of data from large amounts of people, widely spread geographically. No need to recruit and train interviewers or observers to collect the data as respondents complete and return the questionnaires themselves. Also data is usually easy to quantify, especially where pre-coded closed-ended questions are used
Why is reliability an advantage of questionnaires?
Seen as reliable as they can be repeated by another researcher and should give similar results because an identical questionnaire can be used, and the interviewer cannot influence answers with postal/online questionnaires. Any differences in results can be assumed to reflect real differences, so it can allow comparisons over time and between groups
Why is hypothesis testing an advantage of questionnaires?
Useful for testing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships between different variables. From this, we can make statements about possible causes and make predictions. Questionnaires can identify possible causes so are very attractive to positivist sociologists
Why is detachment and objectivity an advantage of questionnaires?
Sociologists personal involvement with respondents is kept to a minimum which is a good way to maintain detachment and objectivity (unbiased method)
Why is representativeness an advantage of questionnaires?
Can collect information from large number of people so are more likely to be representative of wider population than other methods that study small numbers of people. Also researchers who use questionnaires tend to pay more attention to need to obtain representative sample
Why are ethical issues an advantage of questionnaires?
Pose fewer ethical problems than most other research methods. They may ask intrusive or sensitive questions but respondents are often under no obligation to answer them. Still, however, researchers should gain informed consent, guarantee anonymity and make it clear they have a right not to answer any questions they do not wish to answer
What are the disadvantages of questionnaires?
Practical problems, low response rate, inflexibility, questionnaires as snapshots, detachment, lying/forgetting/’right answerism’, and imposing the researcher’s meanings
What are the practical problems of questionnaires?
Data tens to be limited and superficial as they need to be fairly brief in order to get responses. May need to offer incentives to get responses which adds costs to the research. With postal and online questionnaires the researcher cannot be sure whether the potential respondent received the questionnaire, or if the returned questionnaire was actually completed by the person it was addressed to
Why is low response rate a disadvantage of questionnaires?
Few who receive questionnaires actually complete and return them. Eg Hite’s study sent out 100,000 questionnaires but only 4.5% were returned. Higher response rate can be obtained if follow-up questionnaires are collected by hand but this adds cost and time. Non-responses can be due to faulty questionnaire design eg if language is too complex to understand. Low response rate can reduce representativeness if only a certain type of person responds, meaning no accurate generalisations can be made
Why is inflexibility a disadvantage of questionnaires?
Very inflexible method. Once it has been finalised, the researcher cannot change the questions or decide to explore new areas of interest during course of the research. This contrasts with more flexible methods such as unstructured interviews where the researcher can ask new questions if they seem relevant
Why is ‘questionnaires as snapshots’ a disadvantage of questionnaires?
Only give a picture of social reality at one moment in time: the moment when asked the question. Therefore they fail to produce a fully valid picture as they do not compare the way people’s attitudes and behaviour change. This snapshot contrasts with the moving image of social life that participant observation can provide
Why is detachment a disadvantage of questionnaires?
Interpretivists such as Cicourel argue data from questionnaires lacks validity as they don’t give a true picture of what has been studied. Can only gain a valid picture by using methods that allow us to get close to subjects of study and share their meanings. This should enable us to put ourselves in their place and see the world through their eyes, but questionnaires fail to do this as they are the most detached primary research method. No direct contact in postal/online questionnaires meaning there is no way to clarify meaning of questions or deal with misunderstandings. No way of knowing if the questions were interpreted in the same way as the researcher
Why are lying, forgetting and ‘right answerism’ disadvantages of questionnaires?
All methods depend on respondent’s willingness and ability to provide full/accurate answers. Problems of validity are created when respondents give answers that are not full or clear. Eg respondents may lie, forget, not know, not understand (and not want to admit they don’t understand) or try and please/second guess researcher. Some may give ‘respectable’ answers they feel they should give rather than telling the truth. These put questionnaires at a disadvantage as in other methods the observer can see themselves what subjects actually do, rather than what they say they do
Why is imposing the researcher’s meanings a disadvantage of questionnaires?
Valid methods give truthful picture of peoples meanings and experiences. Interpretivists argue questionnaires are most likely to impose researchers own meanings than to reveal those of respondent. By choosing which questions to ask the interviewer has already decided what is important, closed-ended questions force respondents to find an answer that fits with theirs and sometimes none might match their views. Open ended questions would give freedom to answer as they wish but the researcher then has to code them to produce quantitative data and similar but not identical answers may be grouped together into the same category. Shipman, ‘pruning and bending’ of data is inevitable, which distorts respondents’ meanings and undermines the validity of the data
