WJEC Eduqas GCSE Sociology Revision Guide

Questionnaires Chapter 6 Sociological enquiry and research methods 102 Design a short questionnaire with around five questions on a sociological topic. For example, ‘Is crime getting worse?’ or ‘’Why are girls achieving better exam results than boys?’. Think about the considerations on this page when designing your questions. AO2 Apply Take it further Identify the problems with these questions. • What problems did you have when you were growing up in your family? • Have you started drinking alcohol yet? • How often have you lived in poverty? • Have you experienced people being prejudiced towards you? • What do you think of the prime minister? Questionnaires Questionnaires are one of the most well-known and popular research methods used by sociologists. Questionnaires include a list of pre-set questions answered by a respondent. Sometimes questionnaires are completed by hand, sometimes online. They can be self-completion or completed by an interviewer. Questionnaires may include both open and closed questions. Closed questions have fixed responses which allow the collection of statistics. They may use multiple-choice style responses. This helps sociologists see patterns in the data collected. They also allow large amounts of data to be collected from a large sample of people. Open questions can allow more detailed responses. Self-completion questionnaires make research very quick and cheap. Interviewers can help overcome some of the problems with questionnaires. For instance, people may not understand the questions being asked and an interviewer can clarify the meaning of questions. Unfortunately, an interviewer adds to the cost of the research. Interviewers require pay and training. Postal questionnaires were used a lot in the past but are now seen as quite a costly method. Technology has allowed the use of online questionnaires. These allow speedy collation of results and reduce workload dramatically. They are especially useful for closed questions and also allow the presentation of data in the form of graphs and percentage tables. Considerations when using questionnaires Questionnaire design is highly skilled and there are many pitfalls to avoid. One problemmay be the use of loaded or leading questions. The use of certain words in the question may prompt the person responding to answer in a certain way. For instance, ‘Why do you think that crime is rising?’assumes that the person thinks that crime is going up. Neutral language will also help this issue. Questionnaires must be very clear and easy for the respondent to complete, especially if is self- completion. The design should also consider ethical issues such as informed consent. The respondent should understand the purpose of the research and what it will be used for. Will the results be published, and will they have anonymity? It is often hard for the researcher designing the questions to anticipate the different ways that questions are interpreted. Sometimes the answers may not tell the researcher what they hoped. A pilot study is the best way to overcome problems in question design. The researcher will pick up problems and be able to revise the questions for the actual study. Language should be chosen carefully to ensure that all those answering will understand the responses. Questions should also be short and to the point. Too many questions may put respondents off from completing it. Questions should not be offensive to any person completing the questionnaire. Link to textbook pp 242–243: How useful are questionnaires in social research? Spec spotlight 4.2 Methods of research: questionnaires, the value, practical application and strength of different methods in terms of validity, reliability, ethics, representativeness Closed questions on questionnaires can limit the responses. This may lower the validity of those responses.