Research Methods (Structure Interviews/ Questionnaires) Flashcards
What are some practical advantages of questionnaires?
- They are quick and cheap way of gathering large amounts of data.
- There is no need to recruit or train interviewers or observers to collect the data.
- The data is usually easy to quantify.
How are questionnaires reliable?
IF THEY ARE REPEATED BY ANOTHER RESEARCHER, THE QUESTIONNAIRE SHOULD GIVE SIMILAR RESULTS.
-When the research is repeated, the same questions will be used, in the same order + with the same choice of answers.
-Postal or online questionnaires, meaning no influence from researcher.
-The reliability of questionnaires also means that if we do find differences in the answers that respondents give, we can assume that these are the result of real differences between respondents.
-They allow comparisons, both over time + between different societies.
How is hypothesis an advantage of questionnaires?
-Useful for testing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships; showing a correlation between children’s achievement and family size.
-Can make possible statements about the possible causes of low achievement and predictions about children most likely to underachieve.
-Favoured by positivists (enable us to identify possible causes).
How is detachment and objectivity an advantage of questionnaires?
-Questionnaires are detached and objective, meaning they’re unbiased (favoured by positivists).
-The sociologists personal involvement with their respondents is kept to a minimum.
How are questionnaires representativeness?
-Large sample size.
-Allow us to make more accurate generalisations about the wider pop.
How is the lack of ethical issues an advantage of questionnaires?
-Researchers should gain respondents’ consent, guarantee their anonymity + make it clear they have a right not to answer any of the ?s.
-Any intrusive or sensitive questions do not have to be answered.
What are the practical problems of questionnaires?
-Data can be brief and limited
-Most respondents are unlikely to complete + return a long questionnaire.
-Limits the amount of info that can be gathered
-Incentives may need to be offered (adding to cost).
-If posted or online, we cannot be sure of potential respondent has actually received the questionnaire + if it was completed by whom it was addressed.
Why may a low response rate be a disadvantage of questionnaires?
-Few of them who receive questionnaires complete and return, e,g. Hite (1991)
-Follow up questionnaires + collection in hand can ^ response rate but these add to cost and time.
-Can lead to unrepresentative data as respondents may be different from non-respondents, e.g. the busy people in full time work may not respond while the unemployed/socially isolated may.
-Non-response can sometimes be caused by faulty questionnaire design, e.g. a questionnaire that uses complex language may only be completed by the well educated.
Why may inflexibility be a disadvantage of questionnaires?
-Questions finalised cannot be changed
-Cannot explore new areas of interest, should they come up during the research.
-This contrasts with more flexible methods such as unstructured interviews, where the researcher can simply ask new ?s if they seem relevant.
How may Questionnaires being a snapshot be a disadvantage?
-They give a picture of social reality at only one moment in time.
-Fail to produce a fully valid picture.
-Don’t capture people’s attitude or behaviour changes.
-This snapshot contrasts with the moving image of social life that participant observation can provide.
Why may detachment be a disadvantage of questionnaires?
-Interpretivists such as Cicourel (1968); data from questionnaires lack validity because a valid picture is achieved by getting close to subjects and sharing their meanings.
-Ideally, the method should enable us to put ourselves in the subjects place + see the world through their eyes.
-Questionnaires fail to do this as they can involve no direct contact.
-No way to clarify what the question means to the respondents.
How is lying, forgetting and ‘right answerism’ a disadvantage of questionnaires?
-Respondents may not be willing or able to provide full accurate data
-Questions the validity
-May lie, forget, not know or understand
-Give ‘respectable’ answers
-These problems put questionnaires at a disadvantage when compared with observational methods, since the observer can see for themselves what the subjects acc do.
How may imposing the researcher’s meanings be a disadvantage of questionnaires?
-A valid method is one that gives a truthful picture of people’s meanings + experiences.
-Interpretivists argue that questionnaires are more likely to impose the researcher’s own meanings than to reveal those of the respondent.
-The researcher decides what is important by choosing the questions to ask.
- Respondents cannot explain answers. Using close-ended ?s means respondents have to try to fit their views into answers given.
-Thus producing an invalid picture of their reality.
-On the other hand, open-ended ?s allows respondents to answer as they please but when producing quantitative data, similar answers may be lumped together.
