Questionnaires

• What are questionnaires used for in sociology?

  To assess attitudes, behaviors, and motivations
• Who are the participants in questionnaire research called?

  Respondents
• What types of social issues can questionnaires measure?

  Opinions, attitudes, tastes, and preferences
• What are some methods of distributing questionnaires?

  Mail, email, and in-person completion
• What is a self-completion questionnaire?

  Completed by respondents at their own time
• What are closed questions in questionnaires?

  Questions with fixed number of responses
• What is a Likert scale?

  A scale measuring agreement with statements
• Why are closed questions useful in questionnaires?

  They can be turned into quantitative data
• What do open questions allow respondents to do?

  Provide their own unique answers
• What is the trend in recent questionnaire design?

  Combining open and closed questions
• What are the advantages of using questionnaires in social research?

  • Relatively cheap and quick to produce
  • Less intrusive than interviews
  • Can reach a large number of respondents
  • Familiarity with the method among respondents
• What are the disadvantages of using questionnaires?

  • Low response rates can be costly
  • Questions may be leading or ambiguous
  • Closed questions limit respondent's voice
  • Open questions are time-consuming to analyze
• What ethical issues can arise from using questionnaires?

  Potential distress from sensitive topics
• What is GDPR in relation to questionnaires?

  Regulations for protecting personal data
• Why is anonymity important in questionnaire research?

  It encourages openness in responses
• What is a potential issue with closed questions regarding validity?

  They may not capture true opinions
• How do positivists and interpretivists differ in their use of questionnaires?

  Positivists prefer quantitative data; interpretivists prefer qualitative
• What is the census?

  A questionnaire distributed every 10 years
• What does the Crime Survey of England and Wales measure?

  Victim reports of crime in the past year
• Who examined cultural capital using questionnaires?

  Alice Sullivan
• What are the theoretical issues with questionnaires?

  • Closed questions have lower validity
  • Open questions may lack reliability
  • Responses may not reflect true opinions