Quantitative research Methods-Questionnairs

Created by: Lucy
Created on: 29-05-17 22:04


	Quantitative research Methods-Questionnairs
	Advantages PRACTICAL: cheap way to gather large amount of info/ no training needed / data is easily qualified ETHICAL: no direct harm-can answer what they want/ give constant when filling it out- in black and white RELIABILITY: can be repeated/ allows answers to be confirmed and falsified/ standardized measuring instrument/ comparisons./ Detachment and objective - away from influence of researcher REPRESENTATIVE: They are large scale can easily post or email to wide geographical areas/ they use represenative samples: can obtain a good representative sample THEORY: Positivists see this as a good way scientific approach and they believe questionnaire-based research achieves the main goals of scientific sociology. For positivists questionnaires produce representative findings that can be generalized to the wider population. They are a reliable, objective and detached method for producing Quantitative data, testing hypotheses and developing causal laws of social behavior	Disadvantages PRACTICAL: limited as questionnaires have to be brief/ incentives may be necessary which can cost money/ questions are inflexible / low response rate / because questions are thought of before research most have some knowledge of hypothesis/ only snapshots Reliability:fails to produce valid picture of actors meaning.To obtain valid data they argue that we must use methods that involve us closely with the people we research so that we can gain a subjective understanding of meaning/ lying / forgetting and trying to impress REPRESENTATIVE: only represents if people complete in and questionnaires have a low response rate Theory: for interpretative it is important that our research methods reveal meaning of the social actors we are studying. In their view however questionnaires are more likely to impose the researcher's framework of ideas on he respondent than to reveal the respondent's meanings. For example by choosing in advance which questions to ask, the researcher has already decided what is important Feminists and Questionnaires: they are critical of this method they prefer unstructured interviews
	Evaluation Questionnaires ask people to provide written answers to pre-set, written questions: These questions may be - closed ended questions: also called 'forced choice' questions respondents must choose from a limited range of possible answers that the researcher has selected in advance such as yes/no -respondents - Open-ended: Respondents are free to answer however they wish in their own words without any pre-selected choices being offered by the researcher. In mot questionnaires closed-ended questions are more common, but open-ended ones may be used as well or instead

Quantitative research Methods-Questionnairs

Advantages

PRACTICAL: cheap way to gather large amount of info/ no training needed / data is easily qualified
ETHICAL: no direct harm-can answer what they want/ give constant when filling it out- in black and white
RELIABILITY: can be repeated/ allows answers to be confirmed and falsified/ standardized measuring instrument/ comparisons./ Detachment and objective - away from influence of researcher
REPRESENTATIVE: They are large scale can easily post or email to wide geographical areas/ they use represenative samples: can obtain a good representative sample
THEORY: Positivists see this as a good way scientific approach and they believe questionnaire-based research achieves the main goals of scientific sociology. For positivists questionnaires produce representative findings that can be generalized to the wider population. They are a reliable, objective and detached method for producing Quantitative data, testing hypotheses and developing causal laws of social behavior

Disadvantages

PRACTICAL: limited as questionnaires have to be brief/ incentives may be necessary which can cost money/ questions are inflexible / low response rate / because questions are thought of before research most have some knowledge of hypothesis/ only snapshots
Reliability:fails to produce valid picture of actors meaning.To obtain valid data they argue that we must use methods that involve us closely with the people we research so that we can gain a subjective understanding of meaning/ lying / forgetting and trying to impress
REPRESENTATIVE: only represents if people complete in and questionnaires have a low response rate
Theory: for interpretative it is important that our research methods reveal meaning of the social actors we are studying. In their view however questionnaires are more likely to impose the researcher's framework of ideas on he respondent than to reveal the respondent's meanings. For example by choosing in advance which questions to ask, the researcher has already decided what is important
Feminists and Questionnaires: they are critical of this method they prefer unstructured interviews

Evaluation

Questionnaires ask people to provide written answers to pre-set, written questions: These questions may be - closed ended questions: also called 'forced choice' questions respondents must choose from a limited range of possible answers that the researcher has selected in advance such as yes/no -respondents - Open-ended: Respondents are free to answer however they wish in their own words without any pre-selected choices being offered by the researcher. In mot questionnaires closed-ended questions are more common, but open-ended ones may be used as well or instead

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Quantitative research Methods-Questionnairs