Survey- Evaluation

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  • Surveys Evaluation
    • Strengths
      • Data has high ecological validity because it relates to real experiences in the real world rather than artificiality of the lab studies
      • Researchers can ask about long term effects, experiences or causes, so there can be a great deal of breadth and depth in the information
      • If questionnaires are used the sample size can be very large, so the conclusion drawn have a better chance of being relevant to the wider population
      • Qualitative data on respondents' perception provides a rich source of detailed information
    • Weaknesses
      • Large- scale questionnaires rely on mail-shots, which tend to produce a biased sample as busy people do not rely, so the results may not be representative of the wider population
      • People are not always honest in their replies, either giving socially desirable answers or being too embarrassed to own up to the truth
      • Responses about the past experiences may be inaccurate if collected many years later, as memory is fallible
      • However, if participants are followed over many years to avoid forgetting, drop-out rates and intervening events may create distortions in the data collected

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