Practical advantages of questionnaires
- quick and cheap to gather large amounts of data
- no need to recruit and train interviewers or observers to collect the data, it’s made for the respondents to return it themselves
- the data is easy to quantify( close ended questions)
Reliability of questionnaires
-it’s easy to repeat so the questionnaire is identical to the original one used with the same format( close ended)
-with online questionnaire there’s is no influence of the researcher
- allow comparisons over time between different societies by comparing the same questions with different answers
Hypothesis testing
Because questionnaire enable us to identify possible causes it’s preferred by positivists because of the science approach
Detachment and objectivity
Questionnaire are detached and objective- preferred by positivists:
For example postal questionnaires are completed at a distance and no influence bias
Representativeness
Questionnaire aim for representativeness
And because you can collect information from a large amount of people it represents the wider population
Ethical issues
- pose fewer ethical problems
- even if asked sensitive questions you are not obliged to answer
Disadvantages- practical problems
- most people are unlikely to complete it which limits the amount of information that can be gathered
- cost may be high because prizes used to draw people in
Postal and online questionnaires: - whether the respondent has received the questionnaire
- whether the returned questionnaire was completed by who it was addressed
Disadvantage- low response rate
-Less people return the questionnaires
In HITEs study in America she sent out 100,000 questionnaires but only 4.5 per cent returned
-those who return their questionnaires may be different than those who don’t
(For example part time and full time workers)- this will unrepresent the results then no generalisations can be made
Disadvantage- inflexibility
-Once a questionnaire is set the researcher is limited to the questions set and can’t explore more areas of interest
-unlike unstructured interviews
Disadvantage- Questionnaires as snapshots
Fail to produce a valid picture because they don’t capture people’s attitudes and behaviour change - this contrasts with participant observation
Detachment
- postal questionnaires involve no direct contact between the researcher and respondent
- the lack of contract means there’s no way to clarify what the question means to the respondent and deal with the misunderstanding
- both the researcher and respondent might interpret something differently and detachment doesn’t help this
Disadvantage- Lying, forgetting and ‘right answerism’
-Respondents may lie, forget, not know, not understand or try to please/ second guess the researcher
-reduces validity
Disadvantage- imposing the researchers meanings
-by choosing the questions the researcher only has decided what’s important
- in close ended questions the respondents have to fit their view into the ones on offer - invalidity
-the wide range of answers in open ended questions is hard to quantify and put into a category
shipman
when the researchers ideas are not the same as the respondents, ‘pruning and bending’ of data happens
-it distorts the respondents meaning and therefore decreases validity
