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15 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Practical Advantages |
There is no need to recruit & train interviewers or observers to collect the data |
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Reliability |
If repeated by another researcher, the questionnaire should give similar results to those gained by the first researcher |
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Hypothesis testing |
Used for testing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships between different variables |
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Detachment & Objectivity |
Positivists also favour questionnaires because they are a detached and objective (unbiased) method, where the sociologist’s personal involvement with their respondents is kept to a minimum |
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Representativeness |
The results stand a better chance of being truly representative to the wider population |
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Ethical issues |
Although questionnaires may ask intrusive or sensitive questions, respondents are generally under no obligation to answer them |
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Practical problems |
The data from questionnaires tends to be limited and superficial |
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Low response rate |
This can be a major problem, especially with postal questionnaires, which is because few of those who receive a questionnaire bother to complete and return it |
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Inflexibility |
Once the questionnaire is finalised, the researcher is stuck with the questions they have decided to ask and can’t explore |
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Questionnaires as snapshots |
They give a picture of social reality at only one moment in time |
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Detachment |
Interpretivists such as Cicourel (1968) argue that data from questionnaires lacks validity and doesn’t give a true picture of what has been studied |
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Lying, forgetting and ‘right answerism’ |
Problems of validity are created when respondents give answers that are not full or frank |
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Imposing the researcher’s meanings |
Interpretivists argue that questionnaires are more likely to impose the researcher’s own meanings than to reveal those of the respondent |
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Operationalisation of concepts |
Involves turning abstract ideas into a measurable form. It can be difficult to turn sociological ideas to language students understand |
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Anonymity |
Questionnaires can be particularly useful when researching sensitive educational issues such as bullying, where their anonymity may overcome pupils’ embarrassment or fear of retribution from bullies |
