Questionaries Flashcards
What are Questionnaires?
Questionnaires are a list of pre-determined questions. Can be sent by hand, post or online. Two types of questions can be asked: Closed questions have a pre-determined range of response options fixed by the researcher; the respondent selects from alternative options, a box to tick or a preference to circle. Open questions ask the respondent to answer in their own words without any predetermined options.
Space is left to allow freedom and detail. Although open questions allow qualitative data to be gained, questionnaires are the main method used for a macro level of analysis and for generating quantitative data as they allow classification and measurement.
What are closed questions?
Closed questions have a pre-determined range of response options fixed by the researcher; the respondent selects from alternative options, a box to tick or a preference to circle.
(ADV of Questionnaires) 1. Practical Advantages (3)
They are quick and cheap means of gathering large amounts of data from a large sample geographically dispersed.
-Respondents compete and return it themselves, no need to train interviewers or observers to collect data
-Easy to quantify if it’s pre-coded, closed questions can be processed quickly
(ADV of Questionnaires) 2.Reliability (2)
All respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order with same options for answers (easily replicated)
-Therefore comparisons can be easily made between other researchers findings
(ADV of Questionnaires) 3. Hypothesis Testing
-They are particularly useful for testing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships. They are attractive to positivists, because they enable possible causes to be identified as they take a scientific approach
(ADV of Questionaries) 4. Detachment and objectivity
-Positivists also prefer this as it is detached and objective. (sociologists involvement with the participants is kept at a minimum)- Particularly with postal and online
(ADV of Questionaries) 5.Representativeness
- The results of questionnaires stand a better chance of being truly representative as they collect information from a large sample of people. This allows the findings to be generalised to the wider target population.
(Disadvantages of Questionaries) 1. Practical problems (2)
-The data from questionnaires tend to be limited and superficial (because they are brief)
-With postal and online questionaries there is no way to guarantee wether the person who responded was the person who received it
(Disadvantages of Questionaries) 2.Low response rate
-100,000 Q were sent out and only 4.5% were returned (HITE)
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(Disadvantages of Questionaries) 3.Inflexibility
They are inflexible as new areas of interest that come up in the research cannot be explored. This can be contrasted to unstructured interviews, where the researcher can ask new questions if they seem relevant.
(Disadvantage of Questionaries) 5. Detachment
Interpretivists would argue that the data from questionaries lacks validity and does not give the true picture of what has been studied as they do not allow the sociologist to get close to the subjects.
Why do critics argue that questionaries lack flexibility?
They cannot ask follow up questions to their respondents if they see something relevant
Three reasons why positivists prefer Questionaries
-Detached objective method
-Macro level of analysis
-Test cause and effect hypothesis
Suggest one reason why detachment might be an disadvantage in research?
- doesn’t gain a full picture of the research and what has been studied.
Suggest a reason why questionnaires often have a low response rate?
-People may feel uninterested due to not understanding purpose of research
