research methods practice questions (10 markers)

questionnaires are less time consuming than other research methods, this is because:

the writing of a questionnaire does not require much time
neither does its distribution, especially considering that questionnaires can be completed online, so a large number of physical copies do not need to be created
questionnaires, favoured by the positivist approach, are predominantly used in gathering quantitative data, and so, unless in the less common circumstances that a questionnaire is being used to gather qualitative data, then the answering of its questions will not be time-consuming

questionnaires allow for the social characteristics of the researcher to have as little impact as possible

while the social characteristics of the researcher may have an impact in terms of what questions they write, the anonymity of the researcher to the participant ensured by the fact that there will be likely be very little interaction between the two, and the fact that participants can feel they are answering the questionnaire privately, can lead to there being a sense of emotional distance between the two parties. This is a technique favoured by positivism
while questionnaires are typically more concerned with reliability than validity, the fact that the social characteristics of the researcher are prevented from having too large an impact on the answers given by the participant can increase the truthfulness of the answers (people are far less likely to change their answers if the researcher is anonymous to them; find out what this effect is called, I think its the Hawthorne effect or something)