Questionnaires
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- Created by: asusre
- Created on: 11-04-21 10:28
What is a questionnaire?
A questionnaire is a list of pre-set questions, usually consisting of close-ended questions, which can be completed in-person, by post or online.
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What are the practical advantages of questionnaires?
Questionnaires are quick and cheap.
They gather large amounts of data from a wide geographical area.
There is no need for special training.
The data is easy to quanitify and process in a computer.
They gather large amounts of data from a wide geographical area.
There is no need for special training.
The data is easy to quanitify and process in a computer.
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Which study shows that questionnaires gather data from large amounts of people over a wide geographical area?
Connor and Dewson (2001) posted nearly 4,000 questionnaires to students at 14 higher education institutions around the country in their study of the factors influencing working class students to go to university.
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What are the ethical advantages of questionnaires?
Questionnaires may be the most ethical research method, as respondents are under no obligation to answer sensitive or obtrusive questions.
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What are the theoretical advantages of questionnaires?
Questionnaires are reliable.
They are useful for hypothesis testing.
They are detached and objective.
They are representative.
They are useful for hypothesis testing.
They are detached and objective.
They are representative.
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What are the practical disadvantages of questionnaires?
Questionnaires produce limited data because they are brief.
It is sometimes necessary to offer incentives, which increases cost.
Researcher can't know whether it was completed by the person it was addressed to.
It is sometimes necessary to offer incentives, which increases cost.
Researcher can't know whether it was completed by the person it was addressed to.
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What is an ethical disadvantage of questionnaires?
Questionnaires may be inappropriate to use to investigate sensitive subjects.
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What are the theoretical disadvantages of questionnaires?
Questionnaires often have low response rates.
Validity issues:
They are inflexible.
They are snapshots/cannot show change.
They are detached - easy to misunderstand.
Respondents can give untruthful or incomplete answers.
They impose the researcher's mean
Validity issues:
They are inflexible.
They are snapshots/cannot show change.
They are detached - easy to misunderstand.
Respondents can give untruthful or incomplete answers.
They impose the researcher's mean
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What study shows that questionnaires often have low response rates?
Hite (1991) sent out 100,000 questionnaires but only 4.5% of them were returned.
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Which interpretivist argues that contact with participants is necessary for validity?
Cicourel (1968) argues that we can only understand someone’s behaviour by viewing the subjects of the study up close and sharing their meanings. The lack of contact means that there is no way to clarify meanings or deal with misunderstandings.
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Which study argues that questionnaires impose the researcher's meanings?
Shipman (1997) argues that questionnaires distort the respondents’ meanings by ‘pruning and bending’ the data to fit into the researcher’s categories when coding answers to open-ended questions to produce quantitative data.
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Why do positivists favour questionnaires?
Questionnaires achieve the main positivist goals of reliability, generalisability, and representativeness - standardised questions, pre-coded responses produce quantitative data, help establish cause and effect relationships, large-scale.
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Why do interpretivists reject the use of questionnaires?
Interpretivists reject the use of questionnaires because they impose the researcher’s framework of ideas on respondents. This tells us little about individuals’ meanings. Questionnaires fail to achieve the main interpretivist goal of validity.
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What are the practical advantages of using questionnaires to investigate education?
Questionnaires gather large amounts of data quickly and cheaply.
They can be used to reach parents.
They can be used to reach parents.
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What study shows that questionnaires gather large amounts of data quickly and cheaply?
Rutter (1979) used questionnaires to gather large amounts of data from 12 inner-London secondary schools, allowing him to correlate achievement, attendance and behaviour with class size and number of staff. This would have been more difficult had he used
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What are the ethical advantages of using questionnaires to investigate education?
Questionnaires are easier to make anonymous than face-to-face methods like interviews, which is useful when studying sensitive subjects like bullying.
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What are the theoretical advantages of using questionnaires to investigate education that improve representativeness and validity?
Anonymity increases response rate/honest answers.
Teachers + parents are used to filling in questionnaires, fewer misunderstandings, increases response rate.
Teachers + parents are used to filling in questionnaires, fewer misunderstandings, increases response rate.
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What theoretical advantages of using questionnaires to investigate education improves validity?
Researcher is not present when questionnaire is being completed, which helps overcome the power difference between pupil and researcher.
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What are the theoretical advantages of using questionnaires to investigate education that improve representativeness?
Pressure from headteachers increases response rate.
Schools have a large number of potential respondents.
Lists of staff, students and parents can provide sampling frames.
Schools have a large number of potential respondents.
Lists of staff, students and parents can provide sampling frames.
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What are the practical disadvantages of using questionnaires to investigate education?
Schools may not sort lists for sampling frames.
Schools can deny access to confidential info.
Researcher needs permission to distribute questionnaires.
Questionnaires gather limited and superficial data.
Children have shorter attention spans so questionn
Schools can deny access to confidential info.
Researcher needs permission to distribute questionnaires.
Questionnaires gather limited and superficial data.
Children have shorter attention spans so questionn
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What study shows that questionnaires produce limited and superficial data?
Rutter (1979) showed correlation between class size and achievement but not an explanation for this.
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What theoretical disadvantage of using questionnaires to investigate education reduces representativeness?
Low response rates as schools may not allow sociologists to disrupt classes by distributing questionnaires or may object to the subject matter.
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What are the theoretical disadvantages of using questionnaires to investigate education that reduce validity?
Peer pressure in classrooms.
Children have limited life experience and recall.
Gossip in schools can affect later responses.
Teachers can guess aims and change answers.
Questionnaires look formal, so anti-school subcultures refuse to cooperate.
Detachment
Children have limited life experience and recall.
Gossip in schools can affect later responses.
Teachers can guess aims and change answers.
Questionnaires look formal, so anti-school subcultures refuse to cooperate.
Detachment
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
What are the practical advantages of questionnaires?
Back
Questionnaires are quick and cheap.
They gather large amounts of data from a wide geographical area.
There is no need for special training.
The data is easy to quanitify and process in a computer.
They gather large amounts of data from a wide geographical area.
There is no need for special training.
The data is easy to quanitify and process in a computer.
Card 3
Front
Which study shows that questionnaires gather data from large amounts of people over a wide geographical area?
Back
Card 4
Front
What are the ethical advantages of questionnaires?
Back
Card 5
Front
What are the theoretical advantages of questionnaires?
Back
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