Questionnaires - Topic 5 (part 2) - Theory and Methods

Many large scale surveys such as the census use a questionnaire. 

Researchers take time to carefully design the questionnaire with clear instructions and questions that often can be answered with a ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’. Leading questions should be avoided, E.g. “why do you think homework is bad”. This is an example of a bad, leading question because it assumes homework is bad! 

Questions should be clear and written with neutral language. 

Confidentiality of participants should be assured meaning that their answers will be kept private and anonymous. 

Activity!

Design a 5 question questionnaire on a topic of your choosing with “yes”, “no” or “don’t know” answers. 

Topic suggestions - school policies such as homework or discipline, school life, school experiences.

Give the questionnaire to 5 people in the class. Collect answers and see what issues arised from questionnaire such as wording of questions.



Closed Questionnaires

Closed questionnaires are highly structured, containing a list of pre-set closed questions with limited multiple-choice answers such as, “yes”, “no” or “don’t know”.

Advantages

- reliable - they could produce similar results if the questionnaire study was repeated by another researcher.

- they produce quantitative data which is preferred by positivists 

- the can be completed quickly, especially if done and submitted online

- they allow comparisons to be made between different groups. As the questions are the same the answers between different groups, eg men and women can be compared  

Disadvantages 

- researchers cannot expand or further explain questions 

- The Imposition Problem - the researcher imposes the questions on the participants with pre-set answers rather than allowing the respondents to respond with their own words in detail. This brings in the problem of validity as the study only the reflects the results the researchers pre-set answers rather the participants actual answers. 



Open Questionnaires 

Open (or open ended) questionnaires are less structured than closed questionnaires - they contain pre-set questions but not pre-set answers. Participants can write their own answers to questions in their own words, providing more detail and elaboration when needed.

Advantages 

- the imposition problem is less of a factor as participants can provide their own answers rather than pre-set answers. This produces more valid data as it collects the the participants own words.

- they produce more in-depth answers 

Disadvantages 

- the results and answers cannot be quantified into numerical data/statistics 

- it can be hard to compare the results with other similar or identical studies due to the range of answers provided


Weakness

A major overall flaw in questionnaires is truth and validity. When it comes to postal or online questionnaires the researcher has no way of knowing for sure who exactly has completed the questionnaire or if they have given truthful answers 

Strength 

Questionnaires are a relatively cheap method of research. Researchers do not need to be paid for long hours of conducting interviews. 

Strength 

Respondents can fill out questionnaires in their own time, which is done under less pressure and give more precise answers 

Strength

Less interviewer bias and interviewer influence when questionnaires are completed remotely. Respondents do not feel the need to please the interviewer with answers and can be totally honest.

Weakness

Many self-completion  and postal questionnaires have a very low response rate.

 


Sample exam questions 

1. Identify and explain three reasons why questionnaire research may not produce valid data. 

- respondents can be untruth in answers 

- the imposition problem suggests that questionnaires reflect only the researchers interests- this is especially a problem in closed questionnaires 

- with postal or online questionnaires the researcher has no way of knowing who actually completed the survey 








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cognitive Approach to Explaining Depression

Image
 The AQA Psychology spec for this segment requires you to be familiar with 2 theories; 1. Beck's negative triad 2. Ellis's ABC Model In order to make this an interesting task - it can be best to recap on behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of depression that we learned about in the previous lesson.  We saw that depression can lead to aggression, changed eating behaviour, low mood and low self esteem, poor concentration and a tendency to dwell on the negative. For homework, you can take one of the two theories mentioned above, read about it in your book on page 150 and draw a diagram or colourful mind map to help you remember and imbed the theory. You can present it to the class and explain any creative additions you included and why they help you remember the theory.  Beck's negative triad Beck looked at people's cognitions (the way they think) to explain depression and he came up with some interesting theories. Faulty Information Processing - this is
Read more

Interviews - Topic 5 (part 3) - Theory and Methods

Structured (Formal) Interviews   Structured interviews (and interviews in general) are a widely used research method in gathering data in Sociology. They involve an interviewer asking a number of closed questions that can be pre-coded - this coming allows answers to be put into quantitative data and statistical form (suitable for Positivists - Can you name a Positivist Sociologist?). Advantages  - Structured interviews can be seen as more reliable as the study can be repeated using the same questions and this can allow for comparisons with other studies - pre-coded questions and answers can be turned into quantitative data (positivists) - they are a better way of getting questionnaires completed - postal questionnaires have a low response rate Disadvantages  - answers are limited ("yes, "no") as the interviewer imposes limits with closed questions  - they are more time consuming and costly than closed questionnaires - possibility of interviewer influence and interviewer
Read more

Coding, capacity and duration of memory - Memory

Image
Coding Information is stored in different forms - this is referred to as 'coding'. It is almost the minds method of applying labels to information and placing it in the correct cupboard. Research by Alan Baddeley found that short term memory is coded acoustically and long term memory is coded semantically.  Baddeley divided lists of words into four groups and asks participants to remember them. When trying to recall from short term memory participants did worst on acoustically similar words and when recalling from long term they did worst with the semantically similar words. See the video below for  a simple explanation. It seems counterintuitive to think that because participant did worse on acoustically similar words for short term memory that indicates that short term memory codes acoustically. For your exam please try to remember that short term memory is coded acoustically and long term memory codes semantically . That is a chunk of AO1 that you need to recall if asked in
Read more