Methods: Questionnaires

Question 1

What are Questionnaires?

Answer 1

A list of predetermined questions. They can be administered by hand, post, or online. Each type carries its own advantages and disadvantages.

Question 2

What are closed questions?

Answer 2

Questions with a predetermined range of response options fixed by the researcher; the respondent selects from alternative options, a box to tick, or a preference to circle.

Question 3

What are open questions?

Answer 3

Ask the respondent to answer in their own words without any predetermined options. Space is left to allow freedom and detail.

Question 4

Are Questionnaires qualitative or quantitative RM?

Answer 4

Although open ended questions allow qualitative data to be gained, questionnaires are the main method used for a macro level of analysis and for generating quantitative data as they allow classification and measurement.

Question 5

What type of questions do interpretivists prefer?

Answer 5

Open ended questions, because they allow more freedom and detail.

Question 6

Practical Advantages of Questionnaires:

Answer 6

• They are a cheap means of gathering large amounts of data from a large sample.
• Respondents complete and return questionnaires themselves, therefore there is no need to recruit and train interviewers.
• The data is easy to quantify, particularly when pre-coded, closed questions are used.
• Data can be processed quickly by a computer to identify relationships between variables.

Question 7

Advantages of Questionnaires - Reliability:

Answer 7

• Are standardised and fixed yardstick that can be used by any researcher; all respondents are asked the same questions in a fixed order, with the same options for answers. Therefore research is repeatable.
• Differences in answers can be assumed to be a reflection of real differences between respondents, not simply the result of different questions or how they are asked.

Question 8

Advantages of Postal/Online Questionnaires - Reliability:

Answer 8

• There is no researcher present to influence the respondents answers.
• One researchers study can easily be repeated by another and comparisons can be made

Question 9

Advantages of Questionnaires - Hypothesis Testing:

Answer 9

• Useful for testing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.
• They are attractive to positivists, because they enable possible causes to be identified as they take a scientific approach, seeking to discover laws of causation.

Question 10

Advantages of Questionnaires - Detachment and Objectivity:

Answer 10

Positivists favour questionnaires as are a detached and objective method, where the sociologists personal involvement with their respondents is kept to a minimum. They are a good way of maintaining detachment an objectivity.

Question 11

Advantages of Questionnaires - Representativeness

Answer 11

The results of questionnaires stand a better chance of being truly representative as they collect information from a large sample of people. Researchers who use questionnaires are more likely to obtain a representative sample, allowing the findings to be generalised to the wider target population.

Question 12

Advantages of Questionnaires - Ethics:

Answer 12

Although questionnaires may ask intrusive or personal questions, respondents are under no obligation to answer and their anonymity is guaranteed; therefore they pose fewer ethical issues than most other methods.

Question 13

Practical Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Superficiality:

Answer 13

-The data from questionnaires tends to be limited and superficial. This is because they tend to be brief to ensure that respondents complete and return them. This limits the amount of information that can be gathered.

Question 14

Practical Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Participation

Answer 14

It may sometimes be necessary to offer incentives to persuade respondents to participate. With postal and online questionnaires, the research cannot guarantee that the potential respondent actually received the questionnaire or whether a returned questionnaire was actually completed by the person it was addressed to.

Question 15

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Low Response Rate:

Answer 15

Low response rates particularly from postal or online questionnaires can be a huge problem. Those who do return questionnaires may be different from those who do not distorting the representativeness, so no valid generalisations can be made.

Question 16

Shere Hite (1991) - Low response rates

Answer 16

100,000 questionnaires were sent out in the US for a study on ‘love, passion and emotional violence’ by Shere Hite in 1991 however only 4.5% were returned.

Question 17

Why might the representativeness of a postal questionnaire be distorted?

Answer 17

Those who do return their questionnaires may be different from those who do not. For example those who are retired may return questionnaires at a higher rate than those working, because they have more time to respond. If the respondents and non-respondents are different results will be distorted and unrepresentative thus no valid generalisations can be made.

Question 18

How can researchers ensure a higher response rate to postal questionnaires?

Answer 18

A higher response rate can be obtained if follow up questionnaires are sent, or they are collected by hand. However this adds to cost and time.

Question 19

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Inflexibility:

Answer 19

They are inflexible as new areas of interest that come up in the research cannot be explored.

Question 20

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Snapshot Pictures:

Answer 20

They provide a picture of social reality at only one point in time; the moment when questions are completed. They do not provide a fully valid picture, because they do not capture the way people’s attitudes and behaviour change. This snapshot contrasts with the moving picture of social life gained from participant observation.

Question 21

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Theory:

Answer 21

Interpretivists argue that the data from questionnaires lacks validity and does not give a true picture of what has been studied as they do not allow the sociologist to get close to the subjects that they study and share their meanings. They believe that research should enable a sociologist to put themselves in the subjects place and see the world through their eyes. Questionnaires prevent this as they involve no direct contact between the researcher and participant.

Question 22

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Clarification:

Answer 22

There is no direct contact between the researcher and participant in a questionnaire, this means there is no way to clarify what the questions mean or to deal with misunderstandings and misinterpretations.

Question 23

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Validity:

Answer 23

All methods that gather data by asking questions depend on the respondents’ willingness and ability to provide full and accurate answers. Problems of validity are created when respondents give limited answers.

Question 24

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - ‘Right answerism’, Lying, Forgetting:

Answer 24

Respondents may be dishonest, forget, not understand, or try to please the researcher. Some may give ‘respectable’ answers they feel they ought to give rather than tell the truth. In contrast, observational methods allow the sociologist to see for themselves what the subjects actually do, not what they say they do.

Question 25

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Imposing the Researcher’s Meaning:

Answer 25

Interpretivists argue that questionnaires are likely to impose the researchers own meanings than reveal those of the respondent; by choosing which question to ask, how to ask them, and the predetermined options for answering they have decided what is important.

Question 26

Disadvantages of Questionnaires - Analysis:

Answer 26

If open questionnaires are asked, similar but non-identical answers may get lumped together in the same category for analysis, thus distorting the respondents’ meanings and undermining the validity of the data.

Question 27

What advantages are there to closed ended questions?

Answer 27

The data can be quantified - put into statistics.
The data can be used to quantify - positivists.
Replies can be easily categorised.
Allows for mass data analysis of patterns and trends.

Question 28

Why do critics argue that questionnaires lack flexibility?

Answer 28

New areas of research that arise during research cannot be explored. Researcher cannot follow up lines of inquiry because it isn’t in person. Questions cannot be changed once the questionnaire is sent out.

Question 29

Give three reasons why positivists prefer questionnaires:

Answer 29

They can be used to generalise.
They are detached and objective: the sociologist’s personal involvement is kept to a minimum
They allow for a macro level of analysis.

Question 30

Suggest why detachment might be a disadvantage in research:

Answer 30

Doesn’t allow sociologist to get close enough to the respondents, so interpretivists would argue it lacks validity. Participants can’t seek clarification.

Question 31

In what ways might questionnaires impose the researcher’s meanings on respondents?

Answer 31

The predetermined answers chosen. The number of questions on each category and topic. The wording of the questions. How researchers interpret answers - similar but not identical responses getting lumped together.

Question 32

Suggest reasons why questionnaires often have a low response rate:

Answer 32

Low levels of interest
Language barriers/literacy
Getting lost in the post
Expensive to reply - postage