Why Do Some Sociologists Use Questionnaires?

Choose one answer for each item. 1. A questionnaire, as defined in the notes, is:

• A face-to-face interview using open questions

• A yearly set of government statistics

• A list of questions about a topic distributed to a large group of people

• Covert observation carried out inside a school

Most questionnaires use _____ questions, meaning the respondent selects from a limited set of options.

• Closed

• Essay-style

• Unstructured

• Hypothetical

Postal questionnaires are especially useful when a researcher wants to:

• Obtain responses the same day

• Reach the largest possible group of people

• Build rapport through personal contact

• Eliminate the risk of low response rate

An important advantage of questionnaires is that closed questions let the sociologist:

• Maximise validity

• Observe behaviour directly

• Guarantee in-depth explanations

• Produce quantitative data such as percentages and averages

High reliability means the same questionnaire can:

• Be repeated again and again to see whether results change

• Reveal participants’ hidden feelings

• Replace the need for a pilot study

• Predict exam grades without error

According to the hand-out, questionnaires are a straightforward tool for:

• Generating ethnographic field notes

• Testing a hypothesis or prediction

• Recording life histories in detail

• Measuring body language cues

A key disadvantage is that closed questions provide little detail, which mainly lowers:

• Reliability

• Sample size

• Validity

• Response rate

Postal questionnaires often struggle with a very:

• High development cost

• Long data-analysis phase

• Low response rate

• Small sample size

When a hand-delivered questionnaire is filled in under a researcher’s eye, some respondents may:

• Give socially desirable answers rather than the truth

• Leave every question blank

• Post their responses back later

• Demand a copy of the raw data

If certain people do not understand all the questions, they may:

• Raise the validity of the study

• Provide inaccurate answers or fail to respond

• Increase the postal return rate

• Ensure perfect reliability