Questionnaires

Question 1

social surveys

Answer 1

involves obtaining information in a standardised way from large groups of people. The main survey methods are questionnaires and structured interviews.

Question 2

What are Questionnaires

Answer 2

designed to collect information from large numbers of people in standardised form.
Questionnaires ask respondents to provide answer to pre-set questions.
Two types of questions:
Close-ended Q-respondents must choose from limited range of answers that researcher decided e.g yes or no
Open ended Q-respondents are free to give whatever answer they wish
Two well-known examples of Social Surveys:
The UK national census- sent out to every UK household every ten years and asked basic information about who lives in the household, employment, education, religion and health.

British social attitudes survey-a sample of around 3000 and asks people a range of questions to measure opinions on a range of topics – such as family life, religious belief,

Question 3

Advantages of Questionnaires

Answer 3

• Practical advantages
• Reliability
• Hypothesis testing
• Detachmnet & objectivity
• Representativeness
• Ethical issues

Question 4

Practical advantages of Questionnaires

Answer 4

Quick & cheap means of gathering large amounts of data especially if postal or online from wide geographical area
No need to recruit & train interviewers or observors to collect data
Data is quantifiable if close ended questions used

Question 5

Reliability of Questionnaires

Advantage

Answer 5

reliable method of data collection.If repeated by another researcher would obtain same results
when research is repeated same questionnaire are used thus new respondents are asked Q in same order,same choice of answers
in postal & online questionnaires-no researcher present to influence respondents answers
reliability of questionnaires means that diff in answers respondents give are result of real diff between respondents answers not just Q

Question 6

Questionnaires-useful for hypothesis testing

Advantage

Answer 6

Can establish cause & effect relationship between diff variables-favoured by positivists who take scientific approach

Question 7

Detachment & objectivity of Questionnaires

Advantage

Answer 7

Positivists favour Q because unbiased & objective method
as sociologists involvement is kept to a minimum

Question 8

Disadvantages of Questionnaires

Answer 8

• Practical problems
• Low response rate
• Inflexibility
• Detachment

Question 9

Practical problems of Questionnaires

Disadvantage

Answer 9

data from questionnaires tend to be limited & superficial
They need to be fairly breif as most respondents unlikely complete them

Question 10

Questionnaires-Low response rate

Disadvantage

Answer 10

Few of those who recieve questionnaire bother to complete & return them

Question 11

Questionnaires-inflexibility

Disadvantage

Answer 11

Questionnaires are inflexible method.Once questionnaire finalised the researcher is stuck with questions they have decided to ask & cannot explore any new areas of interest

Question 12

Positvists view on Questionnairres

Answer 12

• Positivists-favour questionnaires they achieve their main goal of reliability,generalisability & representatieveness
• standardised qs & answers produde reliable data & so other researchers can replicate questionnaire
• pre-coded responses allow us to produce quantitative data

Question 13

Interpretivist view on Questionnaires

Answer 13

interpretivists-reject use of Questionnaires because impose the researchers framework of ideas on respondents.
Tell us little about the meanings held by social actors
Questionnaires fail to achieve their main goal of validity