evaluate surveys (20)

Question 1

intro

Answer 1

-a social survey is a method of collecting data from a large group of people in a relatively short amount of time (eg. the Census)
-they are usually conducted through questionnaires, or (less commonly) structured interviews

Question 2

practical (weakness)

Answer 2

-the practicality of a research method refers to how easy it is to conduct, looking at access to locations, funding, time, and ppts
-surveys are not very practical as they can be very costly to make, replicate and send out
-they can be very time consuming to conduct as the researchers need to think of effective questions to gain info and analyse, especially time consuming if they conduct a pilot study as they need to wait for the responses and analyse them to see where clarification may be needed

Question 3

ethics (strength)

Answer 3

-the BSA issues a “statement of ethical conduct” which encourages researchers to consider factors such as harm, deception, privacy and confidentiality of the ppt. Ethical research must consider the impact the study may have on both the ppts and the researcher themselves
-surveys are highly ethical as informed consent if gained when ppts decide they want to take part in the survey, and there is unlikely to be any harm or deception, unless the topic being studied is sensitive
-RTW is always given at the top of the survey too, further making surveys an ethical research method

Question 4

theory (strength)

Answer 4

-Positivism is an approach to sociological research based on social facts. They believe we shouldn’t go beyond the boundaries of what is observed and prefer quantitative methods of research because statistics are factual and measurable, allowing for comparisons between groups/the findings
-Positivists like surveys as they gather quantitative data, making the findings easily measurable and comparable to gain objective knowledge

Question 5

reliability (strength)

Answer 5

-reliability refers to the repeatability of a study, so if the study were to be replicated it would produce the same results
-surveys are easy to repeat as they use a standardised list of questions that is asked to every ppt
-eg. the Census is sent out every 10 years, therefore showing that surveys are replicable and therefore are reliable

Question 6

representativeness (weakness)

Answer 6

-representativeness is the extent to which a sample mirrors the researcher’s target population and reflects it’s characteristics
-surveys generally have a low response rate, which heavily lowers the representativeness of the findings
-those who do respond are likely to have similar characteristics, which creates bias in the sample, meaning the findings will not be representative of everyone in the general population

Question 7

validity (weakness)

Answer 7

-the validity of a research method refers to how detailed and accurate the study’s results are
-surveys generally have low validity as it is possible for respondents to misinterpret the questions as there is unlikely to be a researcher with them as they complete the survey to clarify any confusion
-it is also possible that social desirability bias may impact the answers if ppts do not answer truthfully but answer in the way they think they’re meant to answer