QUESTIONNAIRES Flashcards
1
Q
(PET)- P; Price
A
- Quick and cheap means of gathering lots of data
- Dewson (2001), 4000 questionnaires for 14 higher education institutions
2
Q
(PET)- P; No need to recruit people
A
- No need to train interviewers, as the respondents complete/return the questionnaire themselves
3
Q
(PET)- P; Easily quantifiable data
A
- Data can be processed easily
- Pre-coded, closed-ended questions can quickly show the relationships
4
Q
(PET)- P; Reliability
A
- Identical questionnaires can be sent out
- No researcher present to influence respondent’s answers
- Allow comparisons
5
Q
Hypothesis Testing
A
- Useful for testing hypotheses
- Can find correlations
- Attractive to positivists
6
Q
Detachment and Objectivity
A
- Sociologist’s personal involvement is kept to a minimum
7
Q
Representativeness
A
- Due to large sample size, data is more representative
8
Q
(PET)- E;
A
- Hardly any ethical issues
- Intrusive/Sensitive questions but the participants don’t have to answer them
- Must obtain informed consent
9
Q
Disadvantages (PET)- P; Superficiality
A
- Because they need to be brief, limits amount of info that can be gathered
- May have to pay for incentives
10
Q
Low Response Rate
A
- Due to few people being bothered to reply to the questionnaire
- Hite (1991); sent 100,000 questionnaires but only 4.5% were returned
- Unrepresentative due to different people answering them
11
Q
Inflexibility
A
- Can’t explore any more lines of enquiry after the questionnaire’s contents have been finalised
12
Q
Questionnaires as snapshots
A
- Only give the sociologist one picture at one moment in time
13
Q
Detachment
A
- Cicourel (1968); lack validity
- No way of knowing if the participant has interpreted the question differently
14
Q
Lying, forgetting and ‘right answerism’;
A
- Validity issues if answers aren’t completely truthful
15
Q
Imposing the researcher’s meanings
A
- The questions reflect what the researcher deems important
- Shipman (1997) agrees
