Sociological research methods - questionnaires

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O2 Socio Paper 1 Q4

Using questionnaires is favoured by positivists as they produce results that can be easily generalised, are highly reliable and largely representable of the studied subjects. This also means that interpretivists dislike this method as the results are not personal and have very little depth to them. There are strengths and weaknesses to both arguments.

An advantage of questionnaires is that they are cheap and fast to produce, this means that they can be produced on mass to produce more reliable results. Answers in questionnaires are easily comparable with standardised and close ended questions and could produce representative, qualitative data that is also easily replicable. This means that sociologists are able to make links and comparisons in society in different areas and during different time periods. If a large number of questionnaires are sent out they should produce representative results with a better chance of being truly accurate. Connor and Dewson send out nearly 4000 surveys to 14 higher education institutes around the country which resulted in a large sample size. This method is also favoured more for purposed of educational attitudes than others such as participant observations, which is used to study small groups and produce valid qualitative data. A researcher’s hypothesis should be proven or proven wrong with the results of the questionnaire but this may lead the researcher to produce leading questions, the parent, in this instance, may then try to please or attempt to second guess the researchers aims, leading to further invalid results.

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Statements can then be produced from the questionnaires which will either prove or disprove the hypothesis, and a ‘cause-and-effect’ relationship can be gathered from relevant information and variables. Questionnaires also raise very few ethical problems even though they ask sensitive and intrusive questions as people are generally under no pressure to answer them and can skip questions if they choose to. This method produces unbiased results making them objective.  

Practical problems include a low response rate as not all those that the survey is sent to will respond and end it back as they may think it ...

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