The Survey: Polls, Questionnaires, and Interviews

^{Task 2} Read the following extract and answer the questions:

1) What kind of data can a sociologist get from the respondents with the help of a questionnaire?

2) What is the difference between an open- and a closed-ended questionnaire?

Whether in the form of a questionnaire, interview, or telephone poll, surveys are among the most commonly used tools of sociological research. Typically, a questionnaire will get data about the respondent, such as income, occupation, educational level, age race, and gender, coupled to questions that throw light on a particular research subject. In a closed-ended questionnaire, people must reply from a list of possible answers, such as a multiple-choice test: open-ended questionnaires allow the respondents to elaborate on their own answer.

^{Task 3} How would you say in English:

- чаще всего используемые инструменты;

- получать информацию от респондента;

- проливать свет (=давать информацию о ч-л);

-тест множественного выбора (из ограниченного спектра предложенных вариантов);

- дать свой ответ.

^{Task 4} Have you ever filled in questionnaires? What type of questionnaires were they? What are the advantages or disadvantages of every of these types (for the respondent; for the sociologist)? Read the next passage to check your ideas.

Questionnaire are usually distributed to large groups of people. The return rate is the percentage of questionnaires returned out of all those distributed. A low return rate introduces possible bias because the small number of responses may not be representative of the whole group,

Like questionnaires, interviews provide a structured way to ask people questions. They may be conducted face-to-face, by phone, even by electronic mail. Interview questions may be open-ended, though the open-ended form is particularly accommodating if respondents wish to elaborate.

^{As a research tool, surveys make it possible to ask specific questions about a large number of topics and then to perform sophisticated analysis to find patterns and relationships among variables. The disadvantages of surveys arise from their rigidity. Responses may not accurately capture the opinions of the respondent or fail to capture nuances in people’s behaviour and attitudes. Also, what people say and what they do are not always the same. Respondents may disguise their true opinion if it is not the most socially acceptable answer.}

^{Task 5} Mark true or false:

1) A low return rate determines the representative evidence.

2) Interview should be conducted only face-to-face.

3) The open-ended type of the interview is preferable in all the cases.

4) One of the disadvantages of surveys is their formality.

5) Surveys help sociologists to capture all the nuances of people’s bahaviour.

Participant observation

A unique and interesting way for sociologists to collect data and study society is to actually become part of the group they are studying. This is the method of participant observation. Tow roles are played at the same time: subjective participant and objective observer. Usually, the group is aware that the sociologist is studying them, but not always. The group being studied might be a youth gang, a religious cult, or people hanging out in a corner bar. Participant observation is something called filed research, a term from the filed of anthropology.

There are a few built-in weaknesses to participant observation as a research technique. First, participant observation is very time-consuming. Participant observers have to collect data from a big number of notes. Such studies usually focus on fairly small groups posing problems of generalization. Observers may also lose their objectivity by becoming too much a part of what they study.

Controlled experiments are highly focused ways of collecting data and are especially useful for determining a pattern of cause and effect. To conduct a controlled experiment, two groups are created, an experimental group, which is exposed to the factor a researcher is examining, and the control group, which is not.

Among its advantages, a controlled experiment can establish causation, and it can zero in on a single independent variable. On the downside, controlled experiment can be artificial. They are for the most part done in a laboratory setting, and they tend to eliminate many real-life effects.