What are the advantages and disadvantages of using surveys to conduct research?

What is an example of a loaded question?





In what situations is it appropriate to use focus groups? Why?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using surveys to conduct research?
heres your answer to q1:


it's easy to get biased data either from surveying the wrong population or by designing bad questions, they should be relevant, clear and easy to understand, allowing for all possible answers, not leading, unambigous and remember that people might not answer the questions truthfully.


3 ways of doing a survey:


face to face


questionnaires by post


telephone





face to face advantages


you can ask more complex questions


high response rate


you know the right preson answered the question


you can follow the answer to questions





disadvantages


takes a long time


expensive


interviewees more likely to lie


cant get a geographically spread sample


interviewer may record answers in a biased way
Reply:Advantages - Mass amounts of data. May easily be quantifiable. Quick to get.


Disadvantages - Hard to qualify data. Can't delve deeper into responses. Hard to master the 'art of the questionnaire.'





A loaded question is one where you end up leading the answerer. It can give you a biased result.


For example: "What kind of hobbies do you enjoy? (for example fishing, swimming, hiking...)" is a loaded question. The person answering might think you want outdoors type hobbies or sports.


Another: "How good do you feel when you eat peanut butter?" This is kinda going under the assumption the answerer likes peanut butter to begin with and may skew results.





It's appropriate to use focus groups when you want the participants to be able to draw upon each others answers. They can respond off each other. A lot of times, this will have the person giving it turning into the role of mediator. This can be good when you're not sure where you are going with the questions and let the group keep their own pace while you keep them 'on topic'. It can be bad if you want specific answers and/or perhaps want to delve more deeply into a specific persons answers; you also tend to loose control of where the question/information goes... this can be a good or bad thing.
Reply:The problem with surveys is that they are not all well written, nor well administered.





A loaded question is one that subconsciously directs a person to give a desired response. For example:


Do you think it would be a good idea to ban the sale of cigarettes within a ten block radius of schools, to prevent an increase in smoking addiction among young people?


Who in their right mind is going to give a reply that ensorses encouraging an increase in smoking addiction among young people?


Focus groups can be helpful if the groups can easily get together and if they are drawn from a range of opinions, social strata, races, ethnic groups, economic groups etc. But some focus groups just become a mirror of the researcher, and are predisposed to agree with the study and with each other. A good strong dissenting voice is sometimes difficult to find.
Reply:A loaded question is one that is asked to get the answer you want.





It's appropriate to use a focus group if they have knowledge of a specific topic surveyed.
Reply:An advantage is , you get data. A disadvantage is people may lie on surveys.
Reply:There are lots of veriables to not getting a bias result.

choosing rain roots