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Questionnaries and social surveys - Coggle Diagram
Questionnaries and social surveys
Types of questions
Closed/pre coded
The researcher provides a set of answers produce mainly quantitative data from which the respondent can choose one (or sometimes more), so their own response
Advantage: Makes it easy to analyse the results and produce statistical tables.
disadvantage: Some respondents may want to give answers that are not available in the options provided.
Open
Produce mainly quantitive data
More difficult to analyse the data
Ways of administering surveys
Self-completion questionnarie
Respondents answer the questions without any additional
guidance from the researcher, who is not present
Postal questionnarie
Can reach large numbers of people so you can have a large sample, depending on your sampling method, which should make your results more representative and allow you to generalise.
However, the response rate for postal qeustionnaries is often very low and this calls into question the representativnes of the findings.
Structured interviews
An alternative way of administering a questionnaire
the researcher reads out the questions, including the answers allowed in closed questions, and records the respondents answer for them.
This can be done as a telephone questionnaire or face-to-face
Limitations
Participants may give socially desirable answers; that is, the answers that they think are the right ones, which give the interviewer the impression of them that they want
Strengths
The interviewer can ask additional questions, probing deeper, or avoid questions that are not relevant to the participant.
Interviews
Unstructured interviews
the interviewer has only a brief set of prompts
The aim is to get the interviewee to talk freely
Semi-structured interviews
Interview guide
The order of questions may
vary and questions not in the guide may be asked
Focus groups
Interviews are about one particular topic
What the interviewed say
as members of a group and how they respond to the views of others
Group interviews
Any interview involving a group interviewed together
Experiments
Neglected method in sociology but they are a valid way of studying social behaviour,
They are the closest we can get in sociology to the methods of the natural science
Usually a positivis method, producing quantitative data
Often used to fi nd cause and effect relationships or correlations
Case Studies
Detailed research on one or more examples of people or things
Any method or combination of methods,quantitive or qualitative
Stengths
can provide a deep and detailed account of the case.
Limitations
The deep involvement of the researchers may lead to them being influenced by their own feelings.
Longitudinal Studies
Panel studies
In some longitudinal research the same sample is used each time. Th e group of people or households being studied is called the panel or the panel sample
Limitations
This kind of research requires a considerable commitment of time and research over a long period.
Strengths
It becomes possible to see what factors may have brought about changes in people’s lives over time