Flashcards in (Dis)Advantages of methods Deck (10)
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1
What is the disadvantage of postal questionnaires?
Loe response rate, unless an incentive is given (like the census)
2
What are the advantages of postal questionnaires?
Cheap
Researcher doesn't interact with the respondent, no particular skills required
Can reach a large geographical area.
3
What are the advantages of self-completion questionnaires?
Good for sensitive topics - anonymous
Easy to analyse, quantify results + make comparisons
4
What are the disadvantages of self-completion questionnaires?
Only high response rate if an incentive is given
Inflexible - can't change the Qs once sent out
People may give socially desirable answers
Relies on the respondents interpreting the Q correctly.
If posted online, limited to those who have a computer
5
What are some general disadvantages of questionnaires?
Lacks qualitative data - can't establish verstehen and the data is low in validity
Participants can choose not to answer certain Qs - not full set of data
6
What are some general advantages of questionnaires?
Generally not too probing - if they are researchers often make them anonymous
Quit to fill in, increases response rate
Quantitative data: easy to quantify, see correlations, reliable, no specialist skills required.
7
Who would prefer to use questionnaires?
Positivists
8
What are the advantages of semi-structured interviews?
It allows the researcher to have some control over the direction of the interview but also allows flexibility.
It involves less personal skills than a unstructured interview.
Allows for a mixture of quantitative (comparable data) and qualitative (descriptive data).
9
What are the advantages of group/ focus interviews?
It's less time consuming and cheaper than interviewing them individually.
It enables the research to observe + interpret actions + interactions between the participants.
10
