Critically examine the use of social surveys as research method

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Critically examine the use of the social survey as a resach method for sociologists

Social surveys can  be defined as research projects which collect standardized data about large numbers of people. Alan Aldridge and Ken Levine argue that the key charcteristic of  a survey is “that we collect the same information about all cases in the sample”.  The data are usually in a statistical form, and the most practical way of collecting such data is through the use of questionaires which may or may not be administered by an interviewer.

A Social survey in the form of a Questionnaire consists simply of a list of pre-set questions. In questionnaire research, the same questions are usually given to respondents in the same order so that the same information can be collected.

Questionnaires can be administrated in a variety of different ways. One way in which a questionnaire can obtain its results is to be given in the form of a structured interview.

This is when an interviewer asks the questions as they read on the questionnaire to the interviewee and records the answers given. This method was used by Gordon Marshall et al in their study of class.

Structured interviews do have an advantage, as there is a trained interviewer there to assist with any issues such as the wrong interpretation of a question.

However as the interviewer is present the problem of interviewer bias may arise, this means that the interviewer may influence the response of the interviewee, for example if the questionnaire is personal the interviewee my feel intimidate and pressured to be dis-honest. This method is also expensive as there are ranges of costs, for example; the interviewer needs to be paid, an establishment is needed for the interview to take place this may be costly etc

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 Questionnaires can also be administrated in the form of a postal questionnaire; this is when the questionnaire is mailed to the respondent, often with a stamped addressed envelope for return.

Postal questionnaires are a cheap way of gathering information however, the return rate of the questionnaires rarely exceeds 50%. This may seriously bias the result, since there may be systematic difference between those who return questionnaires and those who do not.

 Questionnaires can be administrated to groups e.g. a class of students. This method is an adaptation of structured interviews as it still has the advantage of ...

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