Cross-Sectional Survey Questionnaires As The Only Data Collection Methods

Because the survey allows for check all that apply, some data, when compared in the situations where the variable was a part of the “all that apply” question, may be confusing because information may be counted twice or more times.

A questionnaire is a list of a research or survey questions asked to respondents, and designed to extract quantitative date. Questionnaires are easily distributed to the community and can be completed and collected on the spot or be emailed or posted back to the researcher. Self completed questionnaires are the most common survey as they are cheap and can be passed to a lot of people. Some sociologists tend not to use questionnaires because of their low response rate and lack of validity. Also, some people may give false information so some researchers like to stick to interviews and experiments for increased accuracy. I will explore why sociologists shy away from using questionnaires.

One limitation of using a qualitative design, is the limited number of participants upon which the results are based. Without a large sample size, it is difficult to conclude that the results will be generalized to a larger population size. Another limitation of this study is that the research results will be based on self-reports which limits the reliance on the data. Participants may not truthfully report their behaviors and feelings. Participants may answer the interview questions with socially acceptable answers. Participants may be inclined to change their

“Research in health and social care usually relies on obtaining information from individuals using social research methodologies”. (Whitehouse, M, 2010:428). Questionnaires are suitable for obtaining important information from many individuals in a survey who are answering the questions this is known as ‘respondents’. Questionnaires gives us the opportunity to ask questions of participants but also allows answers to be given according to the options constructed by the researcher using a response frame. A response frame allows a limited choice of different responses. Also there are self-completion questions this allows respondents to fill in the answers themselves. The questionnaire may be delivered to individuals directly by hand or by post or even online the researcher may contact through an email address. They may be asked to complete a customer satisfaction questionnaire. For example at college we are sent online questionnaires through are student email, questionnaires

Although the class has not had input into the methodology used to collect the data for this report it is still important for us to know why these methods were used. Questionnaires can be useful in order to get opinions and views from a large groups of people (McLeod 2014), such like conditions for the research for this reports. This can be useful as this can be an easier way of targeting a larger audience other than in interview purposes. This will also be more time consuming as everyone is answering the same questions.

Two experimental procedure hinged on questioning residents or university students to answer a face-to-face survey (Abdullah et al. 2014; Yang and Wyckoff 2010).

“Problems researched with the use of appropriate methods greatly enhance the value of the research.” (Sekaran, 2003) Data can be collected through interviews, questionnaires, observations, and through other techniques, like projective tests. In even more detail, interviews can be conducted in a variety of different ways such as over the phone, through the computer, interviews through the electronic media, and face-to-face. Questionnaires can be conducted personally or administered electronically. “Interviewing, administering questionnaires, and observing people and phenomena are the three main data collection methods in survey research.” (Sekaran, 2003) As stated before, data can be collected in many different ways; however the value of the research is only greatly enhanced when personal opinions and bias is left out of the collection of data.

This research was conducted with the data distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data within ICPSR. The dataset was named “Public Opinion on the Courts in the United States,” which was collected in 2000 by David Rottman, Randall Hansen, Nicole Mott, and Lynn Grimes. The research design was a cross-sectional survey, which was gathered through random telephone interviews. This study will examine the 1,567 participants who participated in the survey.

It also creates room for an easy comparison of outcomes, is very convenient for the respondents, and eliminates interviewer variability and possible social desirability as a result of the interviewer’s presence (Bryman & Bell, 2015). However, it is not without limitations as the use of self-administered questionnaires leaves no room for probing the respondents’ answers and the respondents also cannot ask questions in case of ambiguity; it also may not be appropriate for some kinds of respondents. However, the use of validated questionnaires enhances some of these

The participants were generally briefed about the information obtained through the questionnaire, but they were informed to read the surveys and answer the questions on their own. Participants answered questions on a fixed scale as well as numerous (find specific number) demographic questions and one open-ended question. The participants were informed that their results would remain anonymous, and they were asked to seal their results in an envelope themselves following the completion of the questionnaires.

In order to effectively answer the research questions, a cross-sectional survey design will be utilized to determine if the Green Valley School District’s teacher in-service program effectively impact teacher’s literacy instruction. The cross-sectional survey design will allow the researcher to examine participants’ attitudes, beliefs, practices, and opinions of teachers participating in Green Valley School District’s teacher in-service program (Creswell, 2012). A cross-sectional survey design will allow for inferences to be made about the population, thus enabling the researcher to determine which teacher in-service programs are most beneficial from the perspective of the participants (Creswell, 2012). Additionally, the cross-sectional survey

One of the process indicators for this evaluation question will look at whether or not the program provide a culturally sensitive practice into the program from looking at whether the needs of service users are being met appropriately. Another process indicator will look at how effective the program is at delivering the services including looking at how often client service users return.

The 2014 U.S. General Social Survey data was used to analyze and support previous research findings regarding education. The results include strong correlations between one’s education level and one’s spouse’s education level (r² = .390) and between one’s parents’ education (r² = .481). The magnitude, or strength of the association is moderate between one’s level of education and father’s level of education as well as one’s level of education and mother’s level of education. There appears to be a weak correlation in the variables of one’s level of education and number of siblings in one’s family (r² = .078). The survey supports previous research that suggest parents’ level of education is likely to influence your level of education and educationally

The strength of questionnaires is it can give an insight into respondent’s thoughts and opinions and also cost efficient as it is inexpensive.

Basically, attitude statements should be clear, relevant, meaningful and interesting including containing one issue only for each statement with employing personalised expressions of feelings. (Oppenheim, 1992). Interestingly, the cognitive and affective components of attitudes have often failed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the attitude statements because inaccuracy of reliability and validity such as unclear or ambiguous questions can produce bias, misunderstanding and various responses from respondents (Crites et al., 1994). Hence, assessors should ensure that all questions are clear and pertinent by using the pilot test to determine face and content validity and reliability of the attitude questionnaire before applying for participants (Kain, 2007). In addition, evaluators should construct a set of attitude statements, not only use a single question to measure attitudes because participants cannot reflect on it adequately so the single-attitude