QUESTIONAIRES

Question 1

Connor and Dewson (Practical Advantages)-

Answer 1

• Questionnaires are a cheap and quick means of gathering large amounts of data from large numbers of people, on a wide geographical basis, especially if a postal or online questionnaire is used.
• Connor and Dewson, for example, posted nearly 4,000 questionnaires to students at 14 higher education institutions around the country in their study of factors influencing the decision of whether working-class pupils went to university or not.
• It’s cheap because there is no need to recruit and train interviewers or observers to collect the data, especially since respondents complete and return the questionnaires themselves. Data is usually easy to quantify, especially when it’s **pre-coded with closed-end questions.*`

Question 2

Eval (Hite, Low Response Rate, Disadvantages)-

Answer 2

• Despite the fact questionnaires have the potential to collect data from large, representative samples, low response rates can make the practical advantages ineffective.
• This is because few of those who receive a questionnaire actually bother to complete it.
• Hite’s 1991 study of ‘low, passion and emotional violence in America’ sent out 100,000 questionnaires, but only 4.5% responded.
• Response rates can be increased through follow up questionnaires, but this is more costly.
• Low response rates can also result from certain groups being inadequate at answering questionnaires, like the working class.
• Also those with stronger views may be more likely to answer, resulting in a lack of valid results.

Question 3

Positivists (Reliable, Advantages)-

Answer 3

• Questionnaires are reliable as they can be easily repeated since an identical questionnaire can be issued out.
• Respondents are asked the same questions, in the same order, with the same choice of answers.
• With postal or online questionnaires too, there is no researcher present to influence the respondents answers, and so minimises the Hawthorne effect.
• It can also be assumed that differences between answers occur due to differences in respondents, which allows for easy comparisons.

Question 4

Eval (Shipman, Imposing the Researchers Meanings, Disadvantages)-

Answer 4

• However, it’s validity is questionable as interpretivists argue that questionnaires are more likely to impose the researcher’s own meanings rather than reveal those of the respondents.
• The choice of questions demonstrates what the research already thinks is important.
• Also, if we used closed-ended questions, respondents then have to try and fit their views into the ones on offer, and even if they feel another answer to be important they have no way of showing this.
• When the researcher comes to code results into quantitative data, even with open-ended questions, similar but non-identical answers may get lumped together into the same category.
• Shipman points out that when the researcher’s categories are not the respondent’s categories, the ‘pruning and bending’ of data is inevitable- the questionnaire imposes a straitjacket which distorts the participants meanings and undermines data validity.

Question 5

Positivists (Detachment and Objectivity, Advantages)-

Answer 5

• Positivists favour questionnaires because they are a detached and objective method where the sociologist’s personal involvement with their respondents in kept to a minimum, with,
• for example, postal questionnaires being completely distant and involving little or no personal contact with respondents- they help maintain objectivity.

Question 6

Eval (Cicourel, Detachment, Disadvantages)-

Answer 6

• However, interpretivists like Cicourel argue that the results produced are not valid as it doesn’t give a true picture of what’s being studied.
• Only a true picture of what’s being studied can be found by using methods which allow us to get close to the subjects of the study and discover their interpretations.
• To get a picture we should be able to empathise with the subject.
• Questionnaires can’t do this as they are detached of all primary methods, and this lack of contact means there is no way to clarify what a question means to the respondent or deal with misunderstandings.

Question 7

Positivists (Hypothesis Testing, Advantages)-

Answer 7

• Questionnaires are useful for testing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships between variables.
• For example, when looking at educational achievement, analysis of respondents’ answers could show whether there is a correlation between children’s achievement levels and size.
• We can make assumptions and use this to make statements about possible causes.

Question 8

Eval (Lying, Forgetting and ‘Right Answerism’, Disadvantages)-

Answer 8

However, it may not demonstrate cause-and-effect as if the answers that are provided are not accurate, it means that the cause or effect may be incorrectly identified. Respondents may lie, forget, not know, not understand, or try to please/ second-guess the researcher. Some may also attempt to give the ‘respectable’ answers they feel they ought to give, rather than be trueful.