Questionnaires

Question 1

Questionnaires: What are they and who favours them?

Answer 1

Favoured by positivists, written or self-completed questionnaires are a form of social survey and can be distributed in a range of ways - notably, via post, email or handed out in person. Questionnaires are typically a list of pre-set questions that are closed-end questions with pre-coded answers.

Question 2

Questionnaires: Advantages

Answer 2

• Practical - questionnaires are cheap and quick
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• Quantifiable data
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• Representative - reach a geographically widespread research sample
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• Reliable - the questionnaire can be easily repeated due to how the questions are pre-set
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• Limited ethical issues - the respondent is under no obligation to answer the question

Question 3

Questionnaires: Disadvantages

Answer 3

• Response rate - postal questionnaires, in particular, obtain a very low response rate, which may hinder the representativity.
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• Low validity - People may be more willing to lie.
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• Unrepresentative - You are likely to get a certain group of people, for example, the unemployed or elderly that answer the questionnaire as many other people might be too busy, and so you won’t get a particularly representative sample.
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• The interviewer isn’t there to ask follow-up questions and explain questions the participants if they don’t understand