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Research Methods - Coggle Diagram
Research Methods
A list of written questions, usually closed ended.
Ask respondents to provide answers to pre-selected questions.
Distributed in a number of ways: postal, emailed, completed in person.
Favoured by Positivists as they generate data which can be generalised and replicated, showing they are a reliable method.
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Evaluation
Practical
Strengths:
Quick and cheap:
Quick and cheap way of gathering large amounts of data from large numbers of people- especially if postal or used online.
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Weaknesses:
Limited and superficial:
Interpretivists: questionnaires lack depth and fail to discover social meanings.
Pre-set questions means they are inflexible and produce superficial responses. Restricts the researcher from 'digging deep', making verstehen difficult to obtain.
Access:
With postal and online questionnaires, researcher cannot be sure that the respondent has received the questionnaire.
Whether a returned questionnaire was actually completed by whom it was addressed to.
Inflexible:
Questions and answers are pre-determined- researcher has already decided what is important to ask.
Not allow for participant's interests to emergy.
Differs from flexible methods (unstructured interviews).
So social reality is narrowed and socially constructed by researcher.
Ethical
Strengths:
Informed consent:
More ethical as they require informed consent from the participants, who will be fully aware of the research.
High confidentiality:
Structure of questionnaires allows this research method to be more confidential ensuring participants' personal information is not shared with others- can make statistical profile of data.
Theoretical
Strengths:
Reliability:
Questionnaires can be repeated and will give similar results because when repeated, questionnaire used is identical to the original one used (same questions) and detached nature makes respondents more willing to compete them honeslty as they are anonymous and confidential and able to make comparisons.
Representative:
Sent out to a large number of people.
Sample= more representative as can access many respondents, with method being less time-consuming and less intrusive on a person's time.
Can then generalise the sample, which would be favoured by positivists.
Detachment and objectivity:
Positivists favour as they are more objective.
Detached nature of structured questionnaires makes them more reliable as they can be completed objectively and under the same conditions- alone.
Detached nature also makes respondents more willing to complete them honestly as they are anonymous and confidential.
Hypothesis testing and generalisations:
Useful to test hypotheses about cause and effect relationships between different variables.
Positivists favour this as it would allow generalisations and statements to be made, which can be applied to the wider population.
Weaknesses:
Low response rate:
Often high non-response rate due to them being sent via the mail.
On average only 50% response rate.
Less able to make successful comparisons of social groups and discover cause and effects which makes it more difficult to make generalisations.
Unrepresentative:
Respondents tend to be particular people
e.g. elderly who have more spare time
Narrowed and socially constructed by researcher.
Supported by HITE (1991): love, passion and emotional violence.
Postal questionnaire ti investigate people's sexual behaviour and satisfaction in marriage.
Sent out 100000 questionnaires, but only 4.5% of them were returned- under 5000.
However, could increase response rate by:
sending out a follow up questionnaires, collecting questionnaires by hand, incentivise the respondents to send it back.
Validity:
Interpretivists: questionnaires lack validity and do not give a true pictures of what has been studied.
Detached.
No way to clarify what the question means to the respondent or to deal with misunderstnadings.
Only give a picture of reality at one moment and fail to capture how people's behaviour and attitudes can change.
Lying, forgetting and 'right answerism':
Results depend on the respondents giving full, accurate answers.
Validity can be compromised if respondent lies, forgets, does not know or understand the researcher.
Some may give what they think is the correct and 'respectable' answer, rather than tell the truth- 'right answerism'.
Imposing researcher's meanings:
Interpretivists: as researcher chooses the questions, they are imposing their own meanings.
As they pick the questions, they have already decided what is important.
Closed-ended questions respondents have to fit their view into an answer on offer.
When they use open-ended questions, when research is quantifying the answers they get to pick what is relevant and what is not.
Operationalising concepts:
Researchers may operationalise concepts differently.
Hard to compare findings.
Open questions: the participant can answer the question in as much detail as they want to.
Closed questions: questions that only lets the respondent choose from a fixed set of answers (yes, no).
Methods in context
Primary school children:
May have lower reading level + so may not understand the questions or articulate their responses well.
Secondary school children:
Comprehension difficulties, lack of motivation, limited insight, peer influence + ethical concerns.
Pupils and parents who have English as their second language:
Most likely won't understand the questions as well + will struggle to articulate their responses.