questionnaires

Questionnaire definition

• Written or electronic self completition survey method which can be given to the participants to be filled out anonymously

What are closed questions?

• Questions that have set responses which the participant chooses from, each answer can be analysed by the researcher

What can closed questions help to generate?

• Social facts

What are open questions?

• Questions that dont have set responses, participants free to respond to these how they wish and can offer their thoughts and feelings

What can open questions help to do?

• Generate empathetic understanding (verstehen)

What is a practical advantage of questionnaires?

• Quick and cheap to distribute, esp online or via post, no need for interviews , making data collection efficient

What is a ethical disadvantage of questionnaires?

• Some questions may be sensitive and respondents may feel restricted in their answers

What is an ethical advantage of questionnaires?

• Informed consent is provided, they chose to answer the questionnaire

Are questionnaires reliable?

• Yes, standardised questions ensure consistency, making it easy to replicate the study

Are questionnaires valid?

• Yes- responses are fixed, no interviewer bias

• No- responses may lack depth bc of predefined categories

What is an example of questionnaires?

• Used in large scale surveys like the UK census which collects structured data from millions

What’s a negative example of questionnaires?

• Hates research on love and relationships had low response rate, limiting validity

Are questionnaires representative?

• Yes- can reach a large sample, increasing generalisability

• No- certain individuals with certain characteristics more inclined to answer

Which theoretical perspective prefers quesionnaires?

• Positivists - quantitative data- statistically analysed

• Interpretivists argue that closed questions fail to capture the complexity of human behaviour