Questionnaires

Question 1

Give an example of a questionnaire study

Answer 1

Census - 10 yearly national questionnaire

S.Hite - questionnaire on love and passion, only 4.5% responded

Question 2

What is a social survey?

Answer 2

Large scale data collection based on a questionnaire or structured interview

Question 3

What is a questionnaire?

Answer 3

Large scale written questionnaires usually use close-ended questions with pre-coded answers. This makes data analysis easier and allows for trends and patterns to be identified

Question 4

What are the practical strengths and limitations of questionnaires?

Answer 4

Quick
Cheap
Easy to administer
Research specific areas
No need to train interviewers
Easy to quantify and analyse

Question 5

What are the ethical implications of questionnaires?

Answer 5

Highly ethical – don’t have to answer all questions

Question 6

What are the theoretical strengths of questionnaires?

Answer 6

Representative – large samples
Reliable – easy to repeat
Generalisable
Used by positivists
Establish cause and effect

Question 7

What are the theoretical weaknesses of questionnaires?

Answer 7

Lacks validity – as it is easy to lie, forget, or not know
“Right answerism” – giving desirable answers
Only people who have time will answer it, reducing representativeness
Not flexible – can’t find new topics
No explanations/reasons/meanings
Interpretivists reject questionnaires
No verstehen
Other people might complete it