Flashcards on Questionnaires (3.4)

One way of gathering data about people is through the use of questionnaires. Questionnaires ask people to provide answers to pre-set questions. What are the two types of questions that may be asked?

There are number of practical advantages questionnaires offer to researchers. For example, they are a quick and cheap means of gathering large amounts of data from geographically dispersed people. Which pair of sociologists demonstrated this in their research?

Another practical advantage of questionnaires is that there is no need to recruit and train interviewers or observers to collect data. Why?

Finally, what is the benefit questionnaires give, particularly when using pre-coded, close-ended questions?

Another advantage questionnaires offer is reliability. What does it mean when a research method is described as 'reliable'?

There are two reasons why questionnaires are reliable. What are they?

How can questionnaires be described?

The reliability of questionnaires also means that if differences are to arise, we can assume what?

A related advantage to this is that they allow comparisons. Why is this useful?

Questionnaires can also be seen as beneficial when testing what?

From the analysis of answers, patterns can be identified. These can then be used to make what?

Why do positivist sociologists favour questionnaires?

Another advantage of questionnaires is their objectivity. Positivists also favour questionnaires because they are a detached research method. What is meant by this?

Questionnaires can collect information from a large number of people. What advantage does this carry?

Researchers who use questionnaires tend to pay more attention to the need to obtain a representative sample. As such, what can questionnaire findings be used to make?

Finally, questionnaires pose fewer ethical problems than most other research methods. Why?

However, to avoid any ethical issues, what should researchers do?

Despite the advantages, there are also a number of disadvantages, for which they have been criticised. What practical problem arises from the need to keep questionnaires brief?

While questionnaires are relatively cheap, what cost is sometimes involved when using them?

With postal questionnaires, there are two additional problems. What are they?

Although questionnaires have the potential to collect data from large samples, low response rates can be a problem. Why?

When studying 'love, passion and emotional violence', Shere Hite distributed 100,000 questionnaires. How many were returned?

How can a higher response rate be obtained?

Non-response is sometimes due to faulty design. What is meant by this?

What is the danger of a low response rate?

Another disadvantage sociologists experience when using questionnaires is inflexibility. Why can questionnaires be described as inflexible?

Questionnaires have also been criticised for being 'snapshots'. What does this mean?

Interpretivists like Cicourel argue that data from questionnaires lacks validity and doesn't provide a 'true' picture. Why do they think this?

Cicourel argues that the lack of contact involved in questionnaires results in what?

Problems of validity are created when respondents give answers that aren't complete and/or honest. For example, respondents may try to please the researcher by giving the 'correct' answer. What is this called?

Right answerism puts questionnaires at a disadvantage when compared with observation methods. Why?

What is meant when a method is described as valid?

Do interpretivists regard questionnaires as valid?

How may questionnaires impose the researcher's meanings?

Which sociologist argues that when the researcher's categories are not the respondent's categories, 'pruning and bending' of data is inevitable?