Postal Questionnaires Flashcards
1
Q
What is a postal questionnaire?
A
Postal questionnaires are sent to respondents in the post.
2
Q
Practical - Weaknesses
A
- Postal questionnaires takes a long time to disperse, for respondents to fill them out and return them. This means that relying on postal questionnaires to gather data can be time consuming.
- Although they are easy to disperse to a large population, there is no guarantee that respondents will complete or return the questionnaire which cause low response rates.
3
Q
Ethics - Strengths
A
- Questionnaires allow for high levels of anonymity and confidentiality because participants do not have to express any information regarding themselves when completing the questionnaire.
- They should include an introduction that explains to the participants the purpose and aims of the questionnaire. This will ensure that no participants are deceived regarding the true aims.
- Questionnaires should be accompanied with a form of consent in order to participants to sign and agree if they wish to complete the questionnaire, hence informed consent.
4
Q
Ethics - Weaknesses
A
- Schofield’s postal questionnaire raised ethical concerns because he included questions that may be sensitive to some respondents such as ‘Are you a virgin?’.
5
Q
Theoretical - Strengths
A
- This research method is favoured by positivists due to the creation of quantitative data. This is because self-completion questionnaires allow for the researcher to remain detached from the respondents. This means that questionnaires are a valid research method which positivist theory supports.
6
Q
Theoretical - Weaknesses
A
- Questionnaires are criticised by interpretivists because the creation of quantitative data fails to provide in-depth information regarding respondents.
7
Q
Reliability - Strengths
A
- Questionnaires are reliable because the set let of closed questions with predetermined answers helps to provide a standardised procedure. For example, how many questions there are and what order they appear in. Therefore, questionnaires are reliable in order to test for consistency of results.
8
Q
Representativeness - Strengths
A
- Postal questionnaires are likely to be representative because they can easily be geographically dispersed through sending them to multiple locations. This means that the sample may have varying characteristics that increase the representativeness of the findings.
- Williams football violence postal questionnaire contained 80,000 adults which means that the data reflects a wide array of characteristics.
9
Q
Representativeness - Weaknesses
A
- Limited representativeness of Williams football violence questionnaire because of a response rate of 39.4%. This low response rate affects representativeness of sample because it limits the size of the sample and those who did not reply are likely to have similar characteristics.
10
Q
Validity - Strengths
A
- Questionnaires typically use closed questions as a way of gathering information which provides quantitative data. This provides validity because the analysis does not involve any interpretation of answers and is therefore free from subjectivity.
- Questionnaires can include open questions in order to gain a greater insight into respondents related to the topic area. This helps to ensure greater levels of validity.
11
Q
Validity - Weaknesses
A
- Validity can be compromised because self-completion questionnaires allow for no interference from the interviewer. This means that there is a possibility that ambiguity relating to the wording of questions can cause misinterpretation by respondents which challenges validity.
- Postal questionnaires provide quantitative data through closed questions. This means that they are low in validity because they fail to provide in-depth answers in the form of quantitative data.
- There is uncertainty as to whether the intended person is actually the one completing the questionnaire. This can challenge validity of findings especially if the experimenter is intending to study as specific demographic.
