Questionnaires

Question 1

What are some strengths of Questionnaires?

Answer 1

-Can collect lots of data easily/quickly & cheap

-Can access people’s thoughts

-Easy to repeat, data can be collected from large numbers of people

-Respondents are more likely to reveal personal info in a questionnaire than face to face in an interview

Question 2

What are some weaknesses of Questionnaires?

Answer 2

-Different questions may be interpreted dissimilarly by different participants, affecting the reliability

-Social desirability bias: respondents may deliberately answer in a way that shows them in a positive light

-Leading questions may cause respondents to answer in a particular way, affecting the validity of the data

Question 3

What is one advantage + one disadvantage of closed questions?

Answer 3

-(+) Produces quantitive data which is easier to analyse

-(-) Respondents may be forced to select answers which do not represent their real thoughts and feelings- reducing validity of data

Question 4

What is one advantage + one disadvantage of open questions?

Answer 4

-(+) Produces qualitative data, that provides in-depth answers which are rich in detail, allowing researchers to gain new insight

-(-) Can be difficult to analyse due to the large number of possible answers, making it challenging to draw conclusions