Are Questionnaires a Good Form of Research?

Questionnaires are usually a type of quantitative research that is used for reaching large amounts of people. They usually consist of closed questions – a favorite method for positivist sociologists. They are often sent out to a widely dispersed group of people and anonymously completed; which is useful for asking embarrassing questions or about illegal acts.

Advantages of questionnaires are that they can gain large quantities of data if sent out by post. They also can reach widely dispersed groups as particular samples can easily be worked out. Self-completion questionnaires are also less time consuming for researchers as they do not have to meet people in face to face and conduct interviews. Questionnaires are also quick and cheap as once the questions are written, the questionnaires only have to be printed and handed/posted out to the correct people. Many questionnaires are also anonymous and this helps the researcher to gain answers to embarrassing questions such as sexual acts or illegal activities. People are more likely to tell the truth if they can do so anonymously than if they have to tell an interviewer face to face. They can also be useful for collecting sensitive data, such as topics on diseases or family, as some people would be uncomfortable with telling an interviewer in person.

Questionnaires also have many problems though such as, some people cannot be bothered to reply to them especially if it is of no benefit to them. This is why many people offering questionnaires also produce a prize draw if you complete it. This is a serious drawback of questionnaires as it can change the sample being used and make the data received unreliable. Questionnaires also have a low response rate (the proportion of people who reply) which can make the survey useless and unrepresentative of the people sent it. It is often difficult to go into detail in questionnaires as the questions need to be as clear and simple as possible to make sure that the people will understand them. In Item B the view of a person who was sent a questionnaire on drugs is shown. It shows the problem of people not understanding the questions and simply not answering it truthfully. You can also never be sure that the right person answers the questionnaire. If it is sent to a household of 4 how do you know that the right person has completed it? Lying is also very common: many people just don’t tell the truth. The only thing that researchers can do is put in “check questions” – questions that ask for the same information but are phrased differently.

Although questionnaires are very good for collecting data, as they can make samples representative of the place or country, they also have a lot of problems including; people misinterpreting the questions or answering it in the way that they think the researcher wants, and so this makes them not very useful.