quantitative survey - general advantages, disadvantages and problems

Question 1

t - advantage - sample size
examples

Answer 1

. large sample sizes possible
. increases representativeness and reliability
. can make generalisations from the sample population
e. chubb and moe able to generalise about parents’ views on the ways schools should be run following their large scale survey into parental attitudes towards schooling

Question 2

t - results - advantage

Answer 2

results are verifiable and reliable because the questions are standardised

Question 3

t - advantage - quantifiable
example

Answer 3

. standardised closed ended questions makes it possible to produce statistics and establish relationships and correlations
e. comparisons can be made between social groups, time periods and across societies when researching educational achievement,
bowles and gintis established correlation between personality traits valued by employers and high exam grades
e. sullivan established through questionnaires of high school students a correlation of cultural capital and good gcse exam performance

Question 4

t - advantage - hypotheses
example

Answer 4

. useful for testing hypotheses about cause and effect relationships
e. relationship between material deprivation and education achievement
. social laws and predictions can be made

Question 5

t - disadvantage - no rapport
example

Answer 5

. pps may lie due to not building up rapport with researcher
e. school pupils may see researcher as an authority figure if present so wont trust them enough to tell truth,
people may not understand or know answers to questions
.some may give answers they think researchers want to hear
. all lower validity

Question 6

t - disadvantage - shallow answers
example

Answer 6

closed questions can produce shallow answers as they can limit what respondents say
. lack of depth, insight, meaning and feelings
. lower validity
e. rutter unable to find out the reasons why class size shaped exam achievement in his correlational study

Question 7

t - disadvantages - imposing researcher’s meanings
example

Answer 7

. surveys impose researcher’s meanings
. lower validity
. researcher decides what questions are important
. results predefined and respondent may not be able to give their relevant answer
e. chubb and moe may have chosen questions and categories of answers to produce a set of results which suited their new right view point

Question 8

t - disadvantages - flexibility

Answer 8

. lack of flexibility due to predefined questions
. researcher has no room to follow up interesting avenues
. lowers validity

Question 9

problem - operationalising
example

Answer 9

. operationalising concepts in sociology for the public to understand may be difficult
e. concepts such as deferred gratification or cultural capital in language for pupils to understand will be hard

Question 10

problem - access

Answer 10

schools may be reluctant to allow surveys in school due to the disruption it causes

Question 11

problem - length

Answer 11

. keeping questionnaires short is important especially for young pupils due to short attention spans
. limits info that can be gathered

Question 12

problem - perceivement

Answer 12

surveys perceived as offical and formal documents - some school students like anti-school students may refuse to take them seriously