Using information from item B and elsewhere, examine the usefulness of questionnaires in sociological 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.

One major disadvantage of survey questionnaires is the possibility of low response rates. Low response would most likely be the curse of statistical analysis .I’m sure this can dramatically lower our confidence in the results, however well-designed studies consistently produce high response rates. Another disadvantage of survey methods is the inability to probe responses. Questionnaires are structured instruments. They allow little flexibility to the respondent with respect to response format. In essence, they often lose the "flavor of the response". I think by allowing frequent space for comments, the researcher can partially overcome this disadvantage. Comments

The philosophical justification for survey research is cost containment with a large volume of research. It is also one of the most efficient and quick methods to gather large amounts of information. Data analysis can be completed in a short period of time and generalization is better, particularly when the representative sample is of a population. It also helps elimination of bias in result interpretation as subjects have the ability to remain anonymous.

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.

Some advantages of the self-administered survey are: Low cost. Extensive training is not required to administer the survey. Processing and analysis are usually simpler and cheaper than for other methods. The reduction in bias error. The questionnaire reduces the bias that might result from personal characteristics of interviewers and/or their interviewing skills. Greater anonymity, absence of an interviewer provides greater anonymity for the respondent. This is especially helpful when the survey deals with sensitive issues such as questions about involvement in a gang, because respondents are more likely to respond to sensitive questions when they are not face to face with an interviewer.

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.

This style of research makes it easy to target large populations of people. Another pro is that the survey can be as specific or general as you like, dependent upon the questions you wish to ask. You can ask open questions which will give you detailed responses, or closed questions which are quick to interpret data from and you will get fast results. By using this method you can repeatedly use the same survey over a period of time to assess any changes that may be taking place.

The demographics questionnaire was designed specifically for this research. The following nine items were included:

At the same , I found a lot of advantages of doing a questionnaire survey.For example, practical and large amounts of information can be collected from a large number of people in a short period of time and in a relatively cost effective way, ant it can be carried out by the researcher or by any number of people with limited effect to its validity and reliability.

According to www.uc.ie/resources (025/02/08) ‘‘argued that questionnaires give the researcher feedback from the point of view of the user’’.

Methodological differences between questionnaire & interviews are seen as having differing & possibility complementary strengths & weaknesses. While questionnaires are usually views as a more objective research tool that can produce

The use of semi-structured questionnaires has many advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include the flexibility of the interviewer allowing them to follow up on any unexpected responses and to seek clarification on any answers. It also provides a depth of information as well as a breadth of information. The disadvantages of using semi-structured interviews are the analysis of data obtained is often complicated and time consuming and the data may contain irrelevant information.

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

In survey method research, participants answer questions administered through interviews or questionnaires. After participants answer the questions, researchers describe the responses given. In order for the survey to be both reliable and valid it is important that the questions are constructed properly. Questions should be written so they are clear and easy to comprehend.

2. Compare this research design with a survey research design. What advantages, if any, did this research design have over a survey?