Questionnaires have practical, theoretical and ethical advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, considering the practical issues; questionnaires are considered generally to be a quick and cheap way of gathering data. Also, there is no need to train people on how to analyse and collect the data. However, there are also many disadvantages for practical issues. For example, questionnaires are considered to be generally quick, although, in some situations they take long to design, apply and analyse. There is also the trouble of not knowing if they person the questionnaire was sent to, received the questionnaire and actually completed it themselves. Furthermore, the respondent might lie to look good. For instance, they might be embarrassed about a particular subject and not tell the complete truth, when answering the question. Additionally, the theoretical issues also have two sides. Positivists prefer using questionnaires are they are easy to categorise. Although, the common mistake of asking too many questions should be avoided as they will lead to the respondent, giving up half way through or not completing it altogether. On the other hand, interpretivists believe that questionnaires lack validity as asking a question with a only a yes or no answer, does not produce a true or genuine picture of what somebody really thinks or believes. This does not let the researcher get close to the respondents meaning or feelings. This is why interpretivists prefer semi-structured questionnaires, as they can then ask why, following the question. However, open-ended questions, such as ‘why’ questions, can take a long time to analyse and collect data from. Moreover, we also need to look at the advantages and disadvantages of ethical issues, relating to questionnaires. Ethical issues refer to the moral issues of right and wrong. Questionnaires need to make sure they follow the following principles, set by the British Sociological Association about ethics. For example, questionnaires need to be confidential and private. This means that researchers should keep the identity of research participants secret in order to help to prevent possible negative effects on them. Additionally, researchers should be aware of the possible effects of their work on those they study. This is called the effects on research participants. For example, they should make sure that the questionnaire cannot put participates in any sort of harm or cause psychological damage. Finally, researchers also need to make sure that the participants are offered the right to refuse. The researcher should also tell the participants all the relevant aspects of the research so that they can make a fully informed decision. Also, if a participant is under the age of 18, the researcher needs to get parental consent before they can take part in the research.
Comparing questionnaires to other research methods, we can see the difference in the data collected and why each theorist likes a particular research method. For example, interviews are preferred by feminists as they allow you to collect qualitative and in-depth information about the participant. Interviews are social interactions and allow the interviewees to express themselves fully. However, unstructured interviews are less representative and quantification is difficult. This is why functionalists prefer questionnaires, as the data is quantitative and easy to organise and collect. Interviews also face problems such as interviewer bias, status or cultural differences between the interviewer and interviewee. Whereas, questionnaires do not face this problem, as the researcher creating the questionnaire cannot be bias to a particular race, as they do not know what background/origin the person receiving the questionnaire will be from.
Questionnaires can be used in society, as it’s a quick and easy way of understanding how the public feel. For example, sending out a million questionnaires will give you a bigger range of information and will make it easy to generalise; rather than, interviewing a million people, which is time-consuming and could take years. Also, it would be hard to categorise how the people feel, as many people might say different things or not relate to one another. Furthermore, questionnaires are also good in the education system, as if a child is getting bullied and is afraid to say, then an anonymous questionnaire might let them speak out about how they feel. Questionnaire response rates can often be higher in schools, than in other areas because once the head teacher has given their consent and put their authority behind the research, then teachers and pupils may be under pressure to cooperate.
In conclusion, sociologists believe questionnaires are useful to obtain a large amount of opinion, quickly and cheaply. Although, if they want to understand more about a particular topic or understand the meaning and feelings of the participants, with a more in-depth, informative response, then they will use interviews or participant observation, to involve themselves in the research and to be able to have a full conversation, face-to-face, with the participant themselves.
