what is the strength of questionnaires in regards to representativeness? how is this achieved?
- reach larger and thus more representative samples of people
- because its handed out/ posted to many people
what is the strength of questionnaires in regards to reaching different places?
- use postal questionnaires
- if research pop. is geographically dispersed or if info is needed from different regions for comparison
what is the strength of questionnaires in regards to time and money?
- less time consuming
- cheaper
what is the strength of questionnaires in regards to sensitive topics?
- if they guarantee anonymity, they’re useful for research that wants to ask sensitive or embarrassing questions
what is the strength of questionnaires in regards to sociologist’s influence?
- It ensures that the sociologist has minimum contact with the respondent
- So wont influence results by being there during filling in
What 3 reasons are positivist sociologists keen on questionnaires for?
- They say they’re scientific because they’re high in reliability
- if its designed well with neutral and objective questions, then another researcher could use the same questionnaire and achieve similar results = it’s a standardised instrument of measurement
what is the weakness of questionnaires in regards to response?
- People not bothered to reply and so questionnaires suffer low response (or no response) rates
- Postal questionnaires suffer worst response rates
- If rate is less than 50% it undermines validity of results because they’re unlikely to reflect the social make-up of the research pop. that’s being investigated
what is the weakness of questionnaires in regards to validity and who makes this criticism?
- Interpretivist sociologist criticise for producing data that’s low in validity
- It low because they say that real life is too complex to categorise into closed q’s and responses
- Thus, not suitable for uncovering motives for behaviour
what is the weakness of questionnaires in regards to interpretation? who makes this criticism?
- interpretivists sat there’s chance that respondents may interpret questions in a different way to what the researcher intended
- since sociologist isn’t there to clarify misunderstandings, increases likelihood of misinterpretation of q’s = undermine validity of data
what is the weakness of questionnaires in regards to impression management?
- people manage the impression other people have of them which can shape their responses in a questionnaire
- thus, people may lie or misrepresent themselves
what is the weakness of questionnaires in regards to the imposition problem and who makes this argument?
- interpretivist sociologists
- questionnaires that use closed questions with tick-box responses suffer from imposition problem
- this means that it measures what sociologist thinks is important not the respondents experiences
- by choosing the questions and responses, the sociologist has mapped out the respondent’s experiences
- respondents may also be forced to tick boxes that only approximate their views, experiences etc.
