Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths and weaknesses of different methods[1]

Strengths and Weaknesses of Questionnaires

A questionnaire is a list of written questions that can be completed in one of two basic ways. Firstly, respondents could be asked to complete the questionnaire with the researcher not present. This

is a postal questionnaire and (loosely) refers to any questionnaire that a respondent completes without

the aid of the researcher. Secondly, respondents could be asked to complete the questionnaire by verbally responding to questions in the presence of the researcher. This variation is called a structured interview.

Although the two variations are similar (a postal questionnaire and a structured interview could contain

exactly the same questions), the difference between them is important. If, for example, we are concerned

with protecting the respondent’s anonymity then it might be more appropriate to use a postal

questionnaire than a structured interview.

Questionnaires are restricted to two basic types of question:

Closed-ended (or “closed question”) is a question for which a researcher provides a suitable list of

responses (e.g. Yes / No). This produces mainly quantitative data.

Open-ended (or “open question”) is a question where the researcher doesn’t provide the respondent with

a set answer from which to choose. Rather, the respondent is asked to answer "in their own words". This

produces mainly qualitative data.

Strengths:

Good for measuring attitudes and eliciting other content from research participants Inexpensive (especially mail questionnaires and group-administered questionnaires)

Can administer to probability samples

Quick turnaround

Can be administered to groups

Perceived anonymity by respondents possibly high

Moderately high measurement validity for well-constructed and well-tested questionnaires

Low dross rate for closed-ended questionnaires

Ease of data analysis for closed-ended items

Weaknesses:

Need validation

Must be kept short

Might have missing...