Strengths

• Questionnaires (theory)

  • use of questionnaires are favoured by positivists as such methods generate large amounts of data which findings can be generalised to the wider populations
  • allow for the collection of data in a reliable and objective way
• Strengths Practical

  • completed by respondent not the researcher this makes them inexpensive to carry out relative to the amount of data that can be collected
  • large number of Questionaires can be carried out in a smaller amount of time due to closed questions. Questions are also precoded and close ended, data can be processed quickly by computer
• Ethical Strengths

  • ethical method of research as anonymity and confidentiality are easily maintained by not requiring respondents to give their name
  • postal questionnaires limit any face to face contact , has no knowledge of who is completing it , useful when studying sensitive topics
• Theoretical strength - Representative sample

  • Questionaires attempt to study society as a whole are a sample of people that are representative of the wider population
  • large numbers of surveys can increase likelihood of a representative sample being used
  • for example the census is the biggest survey in the UK and carried using a postal questionaire . Carried out every 10 years is sent to every household , legal obligation to complete and return census and those that fail to do so can get fined £1000 max and a criminal record
• Theoretical Strength Detachment and Objectivity

  • Questionaires are detached and objective form of research where sociologisfs personal involvement with their respondents is kept to a minimum, often completed at a distance and involve little or no personal contact between researchers and respondents, and so the personality, beliefs and values of the researcher does not impact the data collected.
• Theoretical – Reliable method of data collection

  • seen as reliable because its easy for the researcher to standardise and control them , can ensure that each questionnaire uses the same questions, asked in the same order. If every questionnaire is conducted in the exact same way, then if another researcher were to repeat the study, they should get very similar results. 
• Representative Sample (2)

  Because questionnaires are reliable, this means comparisons can be made between different social groups, as well as over time, from place to place, allowing researchers to see the ‘big picture’ of society (macro). The Census, for example, asks the same set of questions every ten years.
• Theoretical Hypothetical Testing

  • Particularly useful for testing hypothesis about cause and effect relationships between different variables . An example is Alice Sullivan wanted to test Bordieus hypothesis that students with greater cultural capital are more likely to suceeed. She used questionaire to conduct a survey found that ones with greatest cultural capital were the children of graduates and were more likely to be successful at GCSE