Postal Questionnaires

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Postal Questionnaires

Advantages

  • THEORETICAL: easily quantified as usually close-ended, objective as gives 1 opinion on something from 1 person, relatable as set questions that can be given out to lots of different people
  • PRACTICAL: no interviewer bias as researcher is detached from the interviewee, quick to administer and relatively cheap as no employees to pay and train, large quantities of data can be collected, large geographical area covered
  • ETHICAL: usually anonymous so confidential

Disadvantages

  • THEORETICAL: not qualitative so doesn't give a true insight into an individuals beliefs, not subjective so no feelings and beliefs, not very representative as those who reply may not be typical of the target population
  • PRACTICAL: very low response rate so can't be generalised easily, may lie so social desirability is at play, can't operationalise a term to the person answering the questionnaire so they may just guess, incentives for them to return it are hidden costs, must be brief so what you can ask is limited
  • ETHICAL: no informed consent from the person is given unless they return it as the sample is normally gained from a third party sampling frame

Evaluation

They're very useful if a positivist wanted to obtain quantitative data on a relatively simple topic, however, they aren't useful for interpretivists who want to obtain information on complex or sensitive topics such as domestic violence. They are not very good practically as they may require incentives such as a raffle draw of entrants if they want people to reply but they are good for covering wide areas in order to generalise the information.

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