Closed Questionnaires Disadvantages In Research

Questionnaires are “a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful information about a given topic” (Bryant, L, 2014). There are different types of questionnaires that include face to face, phone, post and online.

Questionnaires are commonly used used in Health and social care services,How do you know that they are? in order to gain insight into the views of the services delivered. The use of questionnaires,in some aspects could be of great use, service users will all be answering the same questions, which will make it easier when it comes to analyse the responses given. Although a problem with this is that a service users perception of what quality is, may be completely different to what the perception of quality is to the frontline manager, other professionals and the wider community. Questionnaires are are Repeated Word good way for people to be able to give honest and truthful answers about their experiences of care. However, this is not always the case especially where people are asked to identify themselves. Service users may feel that they have to answer a question in a certain way, or feel that they must say things that are not how they feel in case that it affected the delivery of their care package. In order for this to be avoided, the questionnaire could be in a way that it can be answered with the service users own views without being misleading, and the service user could remain anonymous Poor Grammar without fear of reprisals. For a questionnaire to be of use, it must be in a

A valid method is one that give a true picture of the peoples meaning and experiences, yet interpretivists argue that questionnaires are more likely to impose the researchers own meanings than to reveal those of the respondent. When a researcher chooses a question he automatically has decided that that is an important question and what is not. If researchers use close-ended questions, respondents cant include all the data they have to offer and have to fit their views into the question asked, if they use open ended questions the respondents have a chance to put all their meanings down, this could be more time consuming for collecting the date after. Shipman says when the researchers categories are not the respondents categories ‘pruning and bending’ is inevitable. He determines questionnaires as straitjackets and undermines the validity of the data. Another way of getting a true picture of the respondent is through triangulation- the use of 3 or more methods to achieve the same or similar results, it can be achieved through quantitative and qualitative data which makes it more reliable, questionnaires can be used adequately.

A questionnaire is research which involves a number of different questions to gather information from the people who are filling it in. Questionnaires are designed as a way to find out what people are thinking. An advantage of questionnaires is that it is very practical because it is quick to collect information from the people filling out the questionnaire. Another advantage of questionnaires is that the same questions is asked to everyone filling the questionnaire out so easy to sum up. The final advantage to questionnaires is that large information can be collected. There are also some disadvantages to questionnaires which is that there is no way of telling how much though someone who is filling the questionnaire out has put it. Another disadvantage is that the person filling it out may forget what has happened to fill it out so it won’t be reliable. The final disadvantage to questionnaires is that there is no way to tell how truthful a respondent is being.

“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

Forty surveys were completed successfully which resulted in very conclusive answers. Before conducting the survey all ethical guidelines were followed: a disclaimer was placed at the start of the survey informing participants that all information will remain confidential; the participants privacy will be respected; there will be no lasting harm and the participants will know this is entirely voluntary as the participant has the freedom to refuse or withdraw at any time without

The questionnaire or survey can be a written document that is completed by the person being surveyed, an online questionnaire, a face-to-face interview, or a telephone

The participants may not have been willing to answer the questions. They might not wish to reveal the information or they might think that they will not benefit from responding perhaps even be penalised by giving their real opinion. Students should be told why the information is being collected and how the results will be beneficial. Some advantages of the methods would be that information can be collected from a large portion of a group.

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.

“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.

The procedure used to collect information for the research study is a survey and the techniques used were interview and questionnaire. An interview is when questions are posed to an individual to obtain information (What Is Survey Research? - Definition, Methods & Types, n.d.). A questionnaire is a series of written questions a participant answers (What Is Survey Research? - Definition, Methods & Types, n.d.). Follow- up questionnaires were administered to participant face- to- face and participants who were living long distance were interviewed by telephone.

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.

Whereas a structured interview follows a standardised format, in an unstructured interview the interviewer has complete freedom to vary the interview. Supporters argue that this brings a number of important advantages. Such as, rapport and sensitivity, the interviewee's views are clearer, the ability to check understanding, flexibility and the ability for the interviewer to explore unfamiliar topics. However, there are multiple disadvantages to using unstructured interviews in sociological research. Such as, practical problems, which include, time and sample size, training, and interpersonal skills, there are also issues with representativeness, reliability, quantification and validity.

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

Open-ended questions allow for a greater variety of responses from participants but are difficult to analyze statistically because the data must be coded or reduced in some manner. Closed-ended questions are easy to analyze statistically, but they seriously limit the responses that participants can give. Many researchers prefer to use a Likert-type scale because it’s very easy to analyze statistically. (Jackson, 2009, p. 89)