questionnaires allow a degree of anonymity for the respondent - important for questionnaires carried out on delicate topics such as the National survey on Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles is more likely to be completed if anonymous
Questionnaires low response rate
Shere Hite
had only a 4.5% of the 100,000 questionnaires were returned on her study of 'Love and Passion in Emotional Violence'
Questionnaires low validity
Cicourel
argue data from questionnaires lack validity and do not give a true picture of what is being studied - argues we can only gain valid picture by using methods that allow us to get close to our subjects so we can share their meaning - so we can understand (Verstehen - Weber )
Questionnaires pruning and bending
Shipman
argues when a researcher's categories are not the respondents categories, 'pruning and bending' of data will occur
this can distort respondents meaning and undermine validity
Questionnaires
Rutter
used questionnaires to collect large quantities of data from 12 inner city London secondary schools - he was able to correlate achievement , attendance and behaviour with variables such as class/school size and number of staff
this data provided correlation between variables but not explanations
