Questionnaires

This is about the research method Questionnaires for Topic D - Phobias. Questionnaires are a series of questions asking for a person's opinion/data/information. You will need to learn about different kinds of questions.

Question types
Closed questions: They are questions with one answer only. Yes/No answers is a good example.

Open-ended questions: Questions that can be answered in more detail. It gives more information. People can describe their feelings, opinions or actions.

Rank style questions: Asks the participant to say how much 'more' or 'less' things are. A good example is : "Give each animal below a number from 1 (most scary) to 4 (least scary)

Likert-type scales: A special kind of question. Participants are asked to judge how much they agree with a statement. This can be used to measure people's attitudes. For example: "Snakes move suddenly: Strongly agree, Agree, Neither agree or disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree"

Evaluating questionnaires
Strengths: 

Can use standardised instructions, so all participants get the same questions unlike an interview. This means that all the answers can be directly compared. Lots of questionnaires can be sent out, so the results of the phobia survey are more likely to be reliable.

There are no ethical concerns because informed consent needs to be gained. This is important as the subject such as phobias or aggression may be distressing. An experiment would not be appropriate in such cause as it may cause a bad response, so a questionnaire is more ethical.

Questionnaires can ask direct questions about attitudes and opinions, which cannot be gained by observations. It would be difficult and unethical to experiment on phobias as it can cause distress. Observing a fear response does not gain the qualitative data that is able to be gathered using a survey.

Weaknesses:

Response bias: When participants fill in a questionnaire they sometimes fall into patterns of answering, called response bias. If you think TV is damaging you might keep giving answers expressing this view. Sometimes participants may give answers they think the researcher wants.

Social desirability bias: Participants might not be truthful when answering a questionnaire, they might answer it in a way that makes them look good, even if they do it unconsciously. This can make them give socially acceptable answers rather than what they really do/believe.

Hiding the aims: Sometimes the researchers need to void participants knowing the aims of the study as this might bias their responses. This is an ethical problem as they are not giving fully informed consent.

Standardised Instructions
Questionnaires need to have standardised instructions.

Instructions should have specific reference to procedure/aim/type of questions and a check of understanding or a good outline of ethics and refer to phobias/fears.