(Dis)Advantages of methods

Question 1

What is the disadvantage of postal questionnaires?

Answer 1

Loe response rate, unless an incentive is given (like the census)

Question 2

What are the advantages of postal questionnaires?

Answer 2

Cheap
Researcher doesn’t interact with the respondent, no particular skills required
Can reach a large geographical area.

Question 3

What are the advantages of self-completion questionnaires?

Answer 3

Good for sensitive topics - anonymous

Easy to analyse, quantify results + make comparisons

Question 4

What are the disadvantages of self-completion questionnaires?

Answer 4

Only high response rate if an incentive is given
Inflexible - can’t change the Qs once sent out
People may give socially desirable answers
Relies on the respondents interpreting the Q correctly.
If posted online, limited to those who have a computer

Question 5

What are some general disadvantages of questionnaires?

Answer 5

Lacks qualitative data - can’t establish verstehen and the data is low in validity
Participants can choose not to answer certain Qs - not full set of data

Question 6

What are some general advantages of questionnaires?

Answer 6

Generally not too probing - if they are researchers often make them anonymous
Quit to fill in, increases response rate
Quantitative data: easy to quantify, see correlations, reliable, no specialist skills required.

Question 7

Who would prefer to use questionnaires?

Answer 7

Positivists

Question 8

What are the advantages of semi-structured interviews?

Answer 8

It allows the researcher to have some control over the direction of the interview but also allows flexibility.
It involves less personal skills than a unstructured interview.
Allows for a mixture of quantitative (comparable data) and qualitative (descriptive data).

Question 9

What are the advantages of group/ focus interviews?

Answer 9

It’s less time consuming and cheaper than interviewing them individually.
It enables the research to observe + interpret actions + interactions between the participants.

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of group/focus interviews?

Answer 10

Could be problematic when researching sensitive topics as participants may not want to share.
Demand characteristics + social desirability are more likely to have a more significant impact.