Questionnaires Flashcards
Definition…
A questionnaire, or social survey, is a popular research method that consists of a list of questions.
If administered directly by the researcher to the subject in person then this is the same as a structured interview, however, questionnaires can also be completed independently (self-completion questionnaires) and therefore administered in bulk through the post or electronically, for example.
The method can use closed or open questions or indeed a mixture of the two, depending on what sort data is desired and how the researcher intends to analyse it.
Practical…
Questionnaires are a quick and cheap means of gathering large amounts of data from large numbers of people, even if they are widely dispersed geographically if the questionnaire is sent by post or conducted online. It is difficult to see how any other research method could provide 10s of millions of responses as is the case with the UK national census.
In the context of education, Connor and Dewson (2001) posted nearly 4000 questionnaires to students at 14 higher education institutions in their study of the factors which influenced working class decisions to attend university.
With self-completion questionnaires there is no need to recruit and train interviewers, which reduces cost.
The data is quick to analyse once it has been collected. With online questionnaires, pre-coded questions can be updated live.
Ethical…
When a respondent is presented with a questionnaire, it is fairly obvious that research is taken place, so informed consent isn’t normally an issue as long as researchers are honest about the purpose of the research.
It is also a relatively unobtrusive method, given the detachment of the researcher, and it is quite an easy matter for respondents to just ignore questionnaires if they don’t want to complete them.
Theoretical…
Positivists favour questionnaires because they are a detached and objective (unbiased) method, where the sociologist’s personal involvement with respondents is kept to a minimum.
Questionnaires are particularly useful for testing hypotheses about cause and effect relationships between different variables, because the fact that they are quantifiable allows us to find correlations.
Questionnaires allow the researcher to collect information from a large number of people, so the results should be more representative of the wider population than with more qualitative methods. However, this all depends on appropriate sampling techniques being used and the researchers having knowledge of how actually completes the questionnaire.
Super reliable - There are two main reasons for this: 1 When the research is repeated, it is easy to use the exact same questionnaire meaning the respondents are asked the exact same questions in the same order and they have the same choice of answers. 2 With self-completion questions, especially those sent by post, there is no researcher present to influence the results.
Imposition problem – When the researcher chooses the questions, they are deciding what is important rather than the respondent.
Secondly, Interpretivists argue that the detached nature of questionnaires and the lack of close contact between researcher and respondent means that there is no way to guarantee that the respondents are interpreting the questions in the same way as the researcher.
Researchers may not be present to check whether respondents are giving socially desirable answers, or simply lying, or even to check who is actually completing the questionnaire.
Closed vs Open questions…
Closed questions structure the answer by only allowing responses which fit into pre-decided categories.
Data that can be placed into a category is called nominal data. The category can be restricted to as few as two options, i.e., dichotomous (e.g., ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ ‘male’ or ‘female’), or include quite complex lists of alternatives from which the respondent can choose (e.g., polytomous).
Closed questions can also provide ordinal data (which can be ranked). This often involves using a continuous rating scale to measure the strength of attitudes or emotions.
For example, strongly agree / agree / neutral / disagree / strongly disagree / unable to answer.
Strengths…
They can be economical. This means they can provide large amounts of research data for relatively low costs. Therefore, a large sample size can be obtained which should be representative of the population, which a researcher can then generalise from.
The respondent provides information which can be easily converted into quantitative data (e.g., count the number of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers), allowing statistical analysis of the responses.
The questions are standardized. All respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order. This means a questionnaire can be replicated easily to check for reliability. Therefore, a second researcher can use the questionnaire to check that the results are consistent.
Limitations…
Questionnaires may lack detail.
Because the responses are fixed, there is less scope for respondents to supply answers which reflect their true feelings on a topic.
Open questions…
Open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words. Open-ended questions enable the respondent to answer in as much detail as they like in their own words.
For example: “can you tell me how happy you feel right now?”
If you want to gather more in-depth answers from your respondents, then open questions will work better. These give no pre-set answer options and instead allow the respondents to put down exactly what they like in their own words.
Open questions are often used for complex questions that cannot be answered in a few simple categories but require more detail and discussion.
Lawrence Kohlberg presented his participants with moral dilemmas. One of the most famous concerns a character called Heinz who is faced with the choice between watching his wife die of cancer or stealing the only drug that could help her.
Participants were asked whether Heinz should steal the drug or not and, more importantly, for their reasons why upholding or breaking the law is right.
Strengths of open questions…
Rich qualitative data is obtained as open questions allow the respondent to elaborate on their answer.
This means the research can find out why a person holds a certain attitude.
Limitations of open questions…
Time-consuming to collect the data. It takes longer for the respondent to complete open questions. This is a problem as a smaller sample size may be obtained.
Time-consuming to analyse the data. It takes longer for the researcher to analyze qualitative data as they have to read the answers and try to put them into categories by coding, which is often subjective and difficult. However, Smith (1992) has devoted an entire book to the issues of thematic content analysis that includes 14 different scoring systems for open-ended questions.
Not suitable for less educated respondents as open questions require superior writing skills and a better ability to express one’s feelings verbally.
How to design a questionnaire…
Aims - Make sure that all questions asked address the aims of the research. However, use only one feature of the construct you are investigating in per item.
Length - The longer the questionnaire, the less likely people will complete it. Questions should be short, clear, and to the point; any unnecessary questions/items should be omitted.
Pilot Study - a small scale practice study to ensure people understand the questions. People will also be able to give detailed honest feedback on the questionnaire design.
Question Order - Questions should progress logically from the least sensitive to the most sensitive, from the factual and behavioral to the cognitive, and from the more general to the more specific. The researcher should ensure that the answer to a question is not influenced by previous questions.
Terminology There should be a minimum of technical jargon. Questions should be simple, to the point and easy to understand. The language of a questionnaire should be appropriate to the vocabulary of the group of people being studied. Use statements which are interpreted in the same way by members of different subpopulations of the population of interest. For example, the researcher must change the language of questions to match the social background of respondents’ age / educational level / social class / ethnicity etc.
Presentation- Make sure it looks professional, include clear and concise instructions. If sent through the post make sure the envelope does not signify ‘junk mail.’.
