questionnaires

quesitionaire

ask respondents to provide answers to pre-set questions

self-completion questionaires

filled in by the respondent

pre-coded questions

respondents choose from a limited range of answers that the researcher has decided in advance

open-ended questions

respondents are free to give whatever answer they wish

positivist view on questionnaires

• achieve reliability, generalisability, representativeness

• pre-coded questions produce quantitative data: can establish cause and effect

interpretivist view on questionnaires

• reject questionnaires because they impose the researcher’s ideas on respondents

• fail to achieve goal of validity

self completion advantage: schofield

• no need to recruit and train interviewers to collect the data

• SCHOFIELD: survey of teenage sexual behaviour

self completion disadvantage

some may give ‘respectable’ answer rather than the truth due to social desirability bias → lowers validity

postal advantage

completed at a distance involves little to no personal contact with respondents → maintains detachment and objectivity

postal disadvantage: hite

lack of contact means there is no way to clarify what the questions mean or to deal with misunderstandings → low response rate