Questionnaires

- A set of written questions either given to respondents to complete or are posted to them. It consists of a list of pre-set questions. In this type of research the same questions are usually given to respondents in the same order so that the same information can be collected from every member of the sample.

- Those questions may be open ended or close ended. Open ended are designed to allow respondents to give their own answers. Whilst close ended allows the researcher to achieve clear definite answer (yes/no).


Advantages:

• Large amount of data can be collected quickly.

• It is easy to quantify the results, find correlations and use multivariate analysis to look for causes.

• It can be used to test theoretical ideas by using a hypothesis.

• To some quantitative researchers, their findings can be analyzed more ‘scientifically’ and objectively compare to qualitative data.

• Comparative analysis and replication (repeating the questionnaire) are easy, making the results reliable.

• To positivists, the statistical patterns revealed can be used to develop new theories and questionnaires can be devised to test existing theories.

• Non-positivist sees questionnaires as useful for collecting straightforward, descriptive data.


Disadvantages:

• Different answers may not reflect real differences between respondents since they may interpret questions differently.

• In designing questionnaires, researchers assume they know what is important, and therefore it is difficult to develop novel hypotheses.

• The operationalization of concepts distorts the social world by shaping concepts in line with researchers rather than respondent’s meanings.

• The validity of data may be undermined by deliberate lying. For example, La Pierre (1934) found that US hoteliers were racist when replying to questionnaires but not when faced with real situations.

• Researcher are distant from their subjects (low in verstehen), interaction cannot be understood through questionnaires.

• The coding of open-ended data distorts the distinct answers given by individuals.


References:

• John Goldthorpe and David Lockwood’s Affluent Worker studies(1968,1969)
• Young and Willmott(1973) on their survey of family life in London,1970.
• Mack and Lansley in their initial study of poverty used a sample of 1,174 people.
• British Crime Survey used a sample of 14,947 households.
• Heath, Jowell and Curtice (1985,1994) in their two studies of British Elections.
• Ivor Crewe (1987a) used statistical data to check his theory that housing tenure among other factors, had an influence on voting behavior independent of social class.
• Marshall et al. (1988) used questionnaire data to back up their claim that they had falsified the proletarianization thesis.