Questionnaires

What are the 2 main types of question?

closed question

open question

Using closed questions makes it easy to discover ________

correlations

KEY TERM

the process of putting the ‘thing’ being researched into a form which can be measured

operationalisation

What is an example of operationalisation in a survey?

• British Social Attitudes survey

• asks people to select 1 of 6 alternatives which describe belief (or lack thereof) in God (Dawkins used follow-up questionnaire to ask people who selected ‘Christian’ what their justification was)

What is the problem with operationalisation?

• does the new ‘form’ of the thing being measured actually definitively indicated it?

• eg. would attendance at a place of worship indicate strong religious beliefs?

KEY TERM

the classification of questions into various categories

coding

What sort of questions are coded after the answer has been given?

open questions

KEY TERM

the percentage of the sample that participates in the research

response rate

A low response rate may indicate an ________________ sample

unrepresentative

What is an example of a questionnaire with a low response rate?

Shere Hite’s ‘The Hite Report on the Family’ (1994): 3%

What are the possible reasons for non-response?

• failure to make contact

• contact is made, but the interview is unable to proceed eg. the person is deaf, doesn’t speak English etc.

• refusal to participate (time, interest, upset, suspicion, embarrassment etc.)

_______________ might argue that operationalisation simply imposes the researcher’s interpretations on the meanings they intend to discover

interpretivisists

What must respondents to questionnaires be told (according to general ethical guidelines)?

• who researcher is

• purpose of research

• how/why they have been selected for participation

• can withdraw at any time

• can not answer particular Qs

• consent = voluntary

• privacy + confidentiality will be respected

What are the advantages of social surveys + questionnaires?

• cost-effective

• collect large quantities of data in short time

• easy to quantify

• data can be analysed quickly (particularly with computers)

• reliable (easy to replicate)

What are the disadvantages of social surveys + questionnaires?

• respondents may interpret Qs differently

• Qs might not be relevant

• researchers impose concerns + priorities

• operationalisation distorts Qs (may not measure what they are supposed to)

• difficult to assess truth of responses