QUESTIONNAIRES

QUESTIONNAIRES

1. Questionnaires are also known as surveys.

2. They are pre-set questions.

3. They tend closed questions, meaning they tend to only require a yes or no, straight answers.

   • However, they can be open questions too, which gives the participant more freedom with their answer.

4. They tend to produce quantitative data, which positivists prefer.

5. Questionnaires can be distributed in many ways.

   • Text
   • Email
   • Face to face
   • Social Media
   • Phone Call
   • Post
   • In work
   • Magazines/ Newspapers

6. Disadvantages

   • They are also low in validity.
   • They are unable to build verstehen.
   • Interpretivists do not like questionnaires as they prefer qualitative data, and questionnaires do not produce this.
   • However, people can rush questionnaires, which leads to less accurate answers.
   • Participants can be untruthful on them for social desirability.
     • Social desirability - wanting to impress someone, social acceptance.
   • Not everyone has access to the interent.
   • Can be difficult to understand, eg, in Schofields study.

7. Connor and Dewson used questionnaires when researching why some people from the lower class did not attend university.

   • Michael Schofield also used questionnaires to find out about sexual behaviour between 15-19 year olds.
     • Census uses questionnaires.