Here is a list of dos and don’ts when designing questionnaires DO... DON’T... Give clear instructions and explanations on how to complete the questions. Make your questionnaire too long. Have a clear layout to follow and record answers. Have too few categories available. … [Read more...]
Designing Surveys
In pairs, work through the first few stages of designing a survey - choose a topic, formulate a hypothesis and then design ten questions to test that hypothesis. Use mainly closed-ended questions, but include a couple of open-ended ones. Now carry out a pilot study – give out at least four or five questionnaires to other students. How good were your questions? Did your respondents … [Read more...]
Investigating Crime
In pairs, write a short questionnaire to assess people’s attitudes towards street crime and white collar crime. How would you operationalise your measure of the extent to which behaviour is socially acceptable/ non-acceptable? … [Read more...]
Something to Think About : Questionnaires
Question 1: Why is non-response such a problem for sociologists? Question 2: Not all questionnaires are sent through the post. Sometimes questionnaires are given out to a group of people to fill in themselves and then collected in by the researcher afterwards. What advantages could there be in using this method? Might there be any disadvantages? (Consider response rate, expense, size of … [Read more...]
Questionnaires A2 : Answers to QuickCheck Questions
The researcher prepares a limited range of possible answers from which the respondent chooses. They provide a clear focus to questions and can be easily analysed and fed into a computer. They are carried out at one moment in time, so are unable to show any change over time. Because there is usually no face-to-face contact and respondents may remain anonymous. They are easy to … [Read more...]