Examine the advantages of using questionnaires in sociological research.
Questionnaires are quick and easy ways of finding out information from people about a range of things. Written or self-completed questionnaires are the most common form of social survey. They can be distributed to people via post, email, the workplace and schools or completed on the spot. Questionnaires tend to contain mostly closed-ended questions, meaning that questions will have a few answers which the subject will select their answer from.
Positivists favour questionnaires as a type of research as the results of questionnaires will allow them to obtain a quantitative data based conclusion, in turn producing generalisations and cause-and-effect statements. Positives believe that questionnaires deliver reliable data, as the same set of questions can be repeated exactly on other people. However, interpretivists claim that the data obtained from questionnaires lack validity, as the little or no contact between the researcher and the respondent and there is no way of knowing if they both interpret the questions and answers in the same way.
There are many advantages to questionnaires, the main advantage being on the practical side. Questionnaires are quick, easy and cheap to run and conduct. There is also no need to teach or train researchers and interviewers. They gather up all the information they have collected together from large amounts of people, widely spread out geographically – especially if the questionnaire is a postal one – and examine the results. The closed-ended and pre-coded questions make it easy for the researchers to put together the quantitative results and draw up an informative conclusion.
For positivists, reliability is a big factor in the use of questionnaires. As questionnaires have a set list of questions and a restricted choice of specific answers, it is easily replicated. By asking the same questions, the results obtained will be easy to collect and analyse. Questionnaires are often completed with little or no personal contact between
Positivists favour questionnaires as a type of research as the results of questionnaires will allow them to obtain a quantitative data based conclusion, in turn producing generalisations and cause-and-effect statements. Positives believe that questionnaires deliver reliable data, as the same set of questions can be repeated exactly on other people. However, interpretivists claim that the data obtained from questionnaires lack validity, as the little or no contact between the researcher and the respondent and there is no way of knowing if they both interpret the questions and answers in the same way.
There are many advantages to questionnaires, the main advantage being on the practical side. Questionnaires are quick, easy and cheap to run and conduct. There is also no need to teach or train researchers and interviewers. They gather up all the information they have collected together from large amounts of people, widely spread out geographically – especially if the questionnaire is a postal one – and examine the results. The closed-ended and pre-coded questions make it easy for the researchers to put together the quantitative results and draw up an informative conclusion.
For positivists, reliability is a big factor in the use of questionnaires. As questionnaires have a set list of questions and a restricted choice of specific answers, it is easily replicated. By asking the same questions, the results obtained will be easy to collect and analyse. Questionnaires are often completed with little or no personal contact between