Sociology - Quesionnaires

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  • Created by: Iqra
  • Created on: 17-12-12 17:38
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  • Questionnaires
    • Census is an example. They ask respondents to provide answers to pre-set questions.
      • Closed ended with limited range of pre-set answers, or sometimes open ended where they are free to answer
    • Quick, cheap and can gather large amounts of quantifiable data, widely spread geographically
      • No need to recruit interviewers due to respondents completing questionnaires themselves
        • Easy to quantify data
          • Data is often limited due to them being brief in order for completion
      • Incentives may be required
      • Postal questionnaires
      • Low response rates
      • Inflexible
    • Positivists favor questionnaires.Due to them being representative, reliable, objective and detached method for producing quan data
      • P follow natural science model to discover causal laws.
        • Researchers can test hypotheses to identify correlations
      • Reliablity
        • Other researchers can easily replicate the original research by using the same questionnaire
      • Representativeness
        • P prefer questionnaires due to them being large scale, easy to distribute and cheap to post
          • However this can be undermined due to low response rate, those who answer and those who don't
    • Interpretvism
      • Reject detachment and objectivity because they fail to produce valid data
        • Believe that questionnaires impose researchers framework on respondent
          • Lying, trying to impress and forgetting all create validity problems
    • Ethical issues
      • Parental consent may be required with children
        • Confidentiality is assured, due to most questionnaires are completed anonymously

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