How do sociologists use questionnaires and interviews, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
Survey methods in sociology: questionnaires and the main types of interview (structured, unstructured and semi-structured), with their strengths and weaknesses for reliability, validity and representativeness.
An SQA Higher Sociology answer on survey methods. Covers questionnaires and the main types of interview, structured, unstructured and semi-structured, the kinds of data each produces, and their strengths and weaknesses for reliability, validity, representativeness and ethics.
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What this dot point is asking
The SQA wants you to explain and evaluate survey methods: questionnaires and the main types of interview. Because Higher Sociology asks you to evaluate research methods, you must know how each method works, the data it produces, and its strengths and weaknesses for reliability, validity and representativeness.
The answer
Questionnaires
Types of interview
Interviewer effect and validity
Linking methods to perspectives
Sociologists who want measurable patterns and reliability often prefer questionnaires and structured interviews, while those who want to understand meaning prefer unstructured interviews. This connects survey methods back to the structural-versus-social-action divide in Human Society.
Examples in context
A study of attitudes to work shows these methods at work. A questionnaire sent to 1,000 employees gives a quick, cheap, quantitative picture of how many are satisfied, and because it can be repeated it is reliable, though the response rate may be low and the answers shallow. To understand why people feel as they do, the researcher might follow up with unstructured interviews, hearing employees describe their experiences in depth, which raises validity but is harder to compare and to repeat. A semi-structured interview, with some set questions and room to probe, offers a middle path. Recognising that each method trades breadth against depth, and reliability against validity, is exactly the balanced judgement an evaluation question rewards.
Try this
Q1. Describe one strength and one weakness of using questionnaires. [4 marks]
- Cue. Strength: reaches large numbers cheaply and is easy to repeat. Weakness: lacks depth and often has a low response rate.
Q2. Explain why an unstructured interview can give more valid data than a questionnaire. [4 marks]
- Cue. The interviewer can probe and follow up, so respondents explain meanings in their own words, giving a fuller, truer picture.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of SQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
SQA Higher specimen8 marksEvaluate the use of questionnaires in sociological research.Show worked answer →
An -mark "evaluate" question. Markers want strengths and weaknesses weighed, not just listed.
Strengths: questionnaires can reach large numbers cheaply and quickly, are easy to repeat (so reliable), produce data that is easy to compare and quantify, and protect anonymity. Weaknesses: they can lack depth, response rates are often low (which harms representativeness), respondents may misunderstand questions or give untruthful answers, and closed questions limit what people can say.
Evaluation marks come from judging the overall usefulness, for example that questionnaires suit large-scale, quantitative studies but are weak where depth and meaning matter. A clear judgement is the discriminator.
SQA Higher 20198 marksExplain the difference between structured and unstructured interviews.Show worked answer →
An -mark "explain" question. Markers want a clear contrast developed with the data each produces.
A structured interview uses the same fixed set of questions in the same order for every respondent, like a spoken questionnaire; it is reliable and easy to compare but limits depth. An unstructured interview is more like a guided conversation with no fixed questions, allowing the interviewer to follow up and probe.
Develop the contrast through the data: structured interviews tend to produce quantitative, comparable data, while unstructured interviews produce qualitative data with depth and insight but are harder to repeat and compare. This earns the developed marks.
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Sources & how we know this
- SQA Higher Sociology Course Specification (C868 76) — SQA (2019)