Questionnaire Method Flashcards
What are the practical advantages of questionnaires.
-Quick and cheap
-No need to recruit or train interviewers and observers
-data is easy to quantify
Reliability of questionnaires
Can be repeated accurately and the interviewer has no influence on the respondent. They allow comparisons of time and societies.
Hypothesis testing of questionnaires
Useful for testing the cause and effect relationship between different factors and variables. We can make a hypothesis as questionnaires allow us to identify possible causes.
Detachment and objectivity in questionnaires. (Advantages)
Favoured by positivists as they are unbiased and can produce more real to life results making the experiment valid and reliable.
Representative of questionnaires
Can collect information from a large group and stand a better chance of being representative of the wider population. Enable us to make generalisations about the wider population.
Ethical advantages of questionnaires
Respondent has the right to not answer all questions and their anonymity is almost guaranteed.
Practical disadvantages of questionnaires.
-time consuming and can be superficial
-fairly brief
-costly
-problems with sending and receiving the questionnaires. Technical problems.
Theoretical problems with questionnaires
-low response rates
-unflexibility
-snapshots
-lack validity
Questionnaires and low response rates
Not all complete the form and return it. Eg. Shere hites sent out 100000 questionnaires to USA but only 4.5% of them were returned.
Questionnaires and inflexibility
Once the questions have been finalised, the researcher is stuck with the questions and can’t explore further interest.
Questionnaires as snapshots
Give just a picture of social reality at only one moment meaning that questionnaires fail to give a valid picture as they don’t capture people’s attitude and behaviour change.
Questionnaires lacking validity
Interprevists argue that data lacks validity and don’t give a full picture of what is being studied. Questionnaires are mostly detached, lack of contact means clarifying questions are difficult.
Who is Cicoutel in questionnaires
Argues that we only gain a valid picture by using methods that allow us to get close to the subjects of the study, and share their meanings.
Ethical problems with questionnaires
Depends on the respondent’s willingness and ability to provide full accurate answers. They may lie and forget or not know the answers. Make them less valid and reliable.
What issues in education do sociologists study in questionnaire form
• subject and university choice
• bullying on experience of schooling
• achievement and school factors
• parental attitudes of education
Operationalisation ideation of concepts in education
Involves turning abstract ideas into measurable forms. Difficult with this method for pupils as their grasp of abstract concepts is less than adults. It is difficult to turn ideas such as cultural capital into language that pupils will understand.
Samples in education in questionnaire Methods
Schools may have ready made samples like classes and teacher departments for sociologists to draw a representative sample. Schools may not have lists to reflect the researchers interests.
Distributing questionnaires in education, sampling frames
Surveys in schools are easy and access a large number of respondents. However, it will need schools permission. Parents are harder to locate so surveys can be an effective way to overcome this difficulty. It is a formal document which younger people may find of putting.
Access and response rate in educational questionnaires.
Response rates can be low as schools may be reluctant to distribute due to disruption to lessons. However they can be higher if the head makes it compulsory. This can produce representative data and generalisations can be made.
Practical issues of questionnaires in education.
Useful for gathering large qualities, quick and cheap. Data can be limited and superficial. Younger children may not be able to read the questions or know the answer. They also have a shorter attention span than adults.
Who is Michael Rutter in questionnaires on education
He used questionnaires to collect large quantities of data from 12 London, secondary schools. He was able to correlate achievement, attendance and behaviour with variable such as School sizes, class sizes and number of staff.
Anonymity in questionnaires on education.
Can be useful when researching sensitive issues, such as bullying. pupils can overcome embarrassment if they are anonymous. Leads to higher response rates and more valid answers.
Detachment in questionnaires on education.
Reassurance is difficult to achieve with detached methods as there is little personal contact with the researcher. Less contact with respondents is difficult with young people as they are less likely to give honest responses.
Why do peoples with Anti school subcultures reject questionnaires?
It’s a formal document, which equates with School and teacher authority, leading to them refusing to cooperate, resulting in incomplete or invalid data.
