Surveys

Question 1

surveys

Answer 1

way to collect primary data from large numbers of people

Question 2

surveys - favoured by who?

Answer 2

positivists

produces quantitative statistical data

Question 3

surveys - stages of a survey

Answer 3

1. hypothesis/question
2. operational concepts
3. survey population and sampling frame
4. sample size and sampling method
5. research method
6. pilot survey
7. evaluate pilot survey
8. full-scale survey
9. analyse/interpret findings
10. report on findings

Question 4

surveys - importance of pilot survey

Answer 4

small-scale practice survey
identify unforeseen problems
avoid wasting time and money in final survey
changes can be made before the main survey

Question 5

surveys - problems of social survey

Answer 5

• validity; interpretivist: fail to describe peoples motives, categories imposed by sociologists
• generalisation; representative: how far findings generalised to survey population
• reliability; findings found by other researchers