Compare and contrast the effectiveness of questionnaires and interviews in sociological research.

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George Amos 12K – Sociology

Compare and contrast the effectiveness of questionnaires and interviews in sociological research.

When sociologists wish to collect some data about people’s behaviour, questions must first be asked. It comes as no surprise to learn that sociologists spend most of their time asking questions of the respondents and collecting the data. But what is the best way to ask these questions?

Questionnaires have become an everyday occurrence with most people having filled in a questionnaire at some point in the life span.

There are two methods of asking questions; firstly, an interviewer can ask questions of the respondents and record the results, which means that the questionnaire is likely to be filled out correctly, but on the other hand, the respondent may change his or her opinion based on what they think the interviewer wants them to hear. I.e. if the interviewer is a female, a male respondent is more likely to be sympathetic to feminist views.

The second method is the self-completion method of answering. Self-completion questionnaires can be either; Posted to respondents, which has the ability to cover a large geographical area but tends to suffer from a large non-response. Another style is when the questionnaire is given to the respondent and the interviewer waits until the respondent is done. This style is good because the interviewer will be there to answer any queries, but this approach is not always possible. The final style is when the questionnaire is given to the respondent and returned at a later date; again non response is a major problem here.

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Before designing the questionnaire the sociologist needs to define words clearly, as different people may interpret the same words differently. For example, if I was doing a study of the behavioural patterns of abused children in later life, I could classify ‘child abuse’ as ‘physical or verbal abuse coming directly from a parent to the child’. This is called operationalising the term child abuse.
 

 There are two types of question, open or closed. Open questions are more qualitative as they allow the respondent more chance to express themselves, and closed questions are easier to turn into stats ...

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