Psychology - Evaluating questionnaires

Evaluation

Questionnaires are ethical because they allow for informed consent and allow for the right to withdraw. They are also reliable because standardised instructions tell participants what to do and are the same for everyone. This is good because what the researcher says might influence how the participant answers.Questionnaires are also good because people can describe what they do in everyday situations. This is more realistic than some experiments, for example investigating dreams in a laboratory. This would be an unfamiliar setting and might not produce very valid results. A questionnaire can ask about what dreaming is like at home, so is more life-like.However, on the other hand, when participants fill in a questionnaire they sometimes fall into patterns of answering. This is called a response bias. Also, when participants answer a questionnaire, they know someone will read it. They may want to look good, even if this is unconscious. This can make them give socially acceptable answers rather than what they really believe. This is called social desirability bias. Questionnaires could have ethical problems, for example sometimes researchers need to avoid participants knowing the aims of the study as this might bias their responses. This is an ethical problem because it means they cannot give full informed consent.