Topic 4 - Questionnaires Flashcards
(17 cards)
What are some practical advantages of questionnaires ?
-they are a quick and cheap means of gathering large amounts of data from large numbers of people
-there is no need to recruit and train interviewers or observers to collect data , because respondents complete and return the questionnaires themselves
-the dats is usually easy to quantify , particularly where pre coded , closed ended questions are used , and can be processed quickly by the computer to reveal the relationships between different variables
Practical advantages of questionnaires - what did Connor and Dewson do ?
-Connor and Dewson posted nearly 4,000 questionnaires to students at 14 higher education institutions around the country in their study of the factors influencing the decisions of working class students going to university
What are the 2 reasons that questionnaires are to be seen as a reliable method of collecting data ?
-when the research is repeated ,a questionnaire identical to the original one is used , so new respondents are asked exactly the same questions , in the same order , with the same choice of answers , as the original respondents
-with postal or online questionnaires , unlike with interviews , there is no researcher present to influence the respondents answer (different researchers might influence respondents to give different answers )
What are the advantages due to the reliability of questionnaires ?
-the reliability of questionnaires also means that if we do find differences in the answers that respondents give , we an assume that these are the result of real differences between the respondents and not simply the result of different questions
-another advantage is that questionnaires allow comparisons , both over time and between different societies . By asking the same questions , we can compare the results obtained in 2 different societies Or at 2 different times
Why do positivist favour questionnaires ?
-positivists favour questionnaires because they are a detached and objective (unbiased) method , where the sociologists personal involvement with their respondents is kept to a minimum
Why do sociologists see questionnaires as being representative ?
-because questionnaires can collect information from a large number of people , the results stand a better chance of being truly representative of the wider population than compared to other methods that study only very small numbers of people
Are there any ethical issues with questionnaires if so what ones , if not why ?
-questionnaires pose fewer ethical problems than most other research methods , although questionnaires may ask intrusive or sensitive questions , respondents are under no obligation to answer them
-never less , researchers should gain respondents in formal consent , guarantee their anonymity and make it clear that they have a right to not answer any of the questions they don’t wish to answer
What are some practical problems of questionnaires ?
-the data from questionnaires tends to be limited and superficial , this is because they need to be fairly brief , since most respondents are unlikely to complete and return a long , time consuming questionnaire - this limits the amount of information that can be gathered from each respondent
- similarly , although questionnaires are a relatively cheap means of gathering data , it may sometimes be necessary to offer incentives such as entry to a prize draw - to persuade respondents to complete the form which will add to the cost
What are 2 additional practical problems of postal and online questionnaires ?
The researcher isn’t sure ;
-whether the potential respondent has actually received the questionnaire
-whether a returned questionnaire was actually completed by the person to who it was addressed
What did Hite’s study show is a major problem with questionnaires ?
-Hite’s study of love , passion , and emotional violence in America sen out 100,000 questionnaires but only 4.5% of them were returned
Why does low response rate from questionnaires lead to problems such as lacking representativeness ?
-the danger with low response rate is that those who return their questionnaires may be different from those who don’t. For example , busy people in full time work may fail to respond , whereas the unemployed or socially isolated with time on their hands may be more likely to fill in their questionnaires
-similarly , those with strong views on a subject are more likely to respond than those who have little knowledge or interest in it
-if the respondents are different from the non respondents ,this will produce distorted and unrepresentative results , from which no accurate generalisations can be made
Disadvantages of questionnaires - inflexibility ?
-Questionnaires are a very inflexible method , once the questionnaire has been finalised , the researcher is stuck with the questions they have decided to ask and cannot explore any new areas of interest should they come up during the research
-contrasts with unstructured interviews , where the researcher can simply ask new questions if they seem relevant
Disadvantages of questionnaires - questionnaires as snapshots how does this lead them to not be valid ?
-questionnaires are snapshots , they give a picture of social reality at only one moment in time , the moment when the respondent answers the questions
-questionnaires therefore fail to produce a fully valid picture because they don’t capture the way people’s attitudes and behaviour change , this snapshot contrasts with the moving image of social life that participant observation provide
Disadvantages of questionnaires - detachment - why do interpretivists such as Cicourel argue that questionnaires lack validity due to detachment ?
-interpretivists such as Cicourel argue that data from questionnaires lacks validity and doesn’t give us a true picture of what is being studied
-they argue that we only gain a valid picture by using methods that allow us to get close to the subjects of the study and share their meanings , ideally, the method should enable us to put ourselves in the subjects place and see the world through their eyes
-questionnaires fail to do this because they are the most detached method
-this lack of contact means there is no way to clarify what the questions mean to the respondent or to deal with misunderstandings , there is no way of knowing whether the respondent and the researcher both interpret the questions or the answers in the same way
Disadvantages of questionnaires - lying , forgetting and right answerism how does this lead to problems of validity ?
-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 answers that are not full
-for example , respondents may lie ,forget , not know or understand , or try to please the researcher , some may give respectable answers they feel they ought to give , rather than tell the truth
-these problems put questionnaires at a disadvantage when compared with observational methods , since the observer can see for themselves what the subjects actually do , rather than what they say they do
Disadvantages of questionnaires - why do interpretivists argue that questionnaires are likely to impose the researchers own meanings than to reveal those of the respondent ?
-by choosing which questions to ask , the researcher , not the respondent , has already decided what is important
-if we use closed ended questions , respondents than have to try to fit their views into the ones on offer , if they feel some other answers to be important , they have no opportunity to give it , thus producing an invalid picture of their reality
-on the other hand , if we use open ended questions , respondents are free to answer as they please , but when the researcher comes to code them to produce quantitative data , similar but non identical answers may get lumped together in the same category
Disadvantages of questionnaires - imposing the researchers own meanings - what did shipman’s study show ?
-shipman found that when the researchers categories are not the respondents categories , pruning and bending of the data is inevitable . The questionnaires distorts the respondents’ meanings and undermines the validity of the data
