What are some of the weaknesses of the survey method ?

(ii) Moreover, since the survey questionnaire is being taken around to respondents by a relative large number of investigators, it becomes difficult to ensure that complicated questions or those requring detailed prompting will be asked of all respondents in exactly the same way.

(iii) Differences in the way questions asked or answers recorded could introduce errors into the survey. This is why the questionnaise for a survey (sometimes called a ‘survey instrument’) has to be designed very carefully - Since it will be handled by persons other than the researchers themselves, there is little chance of corrections or modifications in the course of its use.

(iv) Given that there is no long-term relationship between investigator and respondent and hence no familirily or trust, questions that can be asked in a survey have to be of the kind that can be asked and ansured between strangers. Questions of a personal or sensitive kind cannot be asked, or if asked are likely to be answered ‘safely’ rather than truth-fully. These kinds of problems are sometimes refered to as ‘non-sampling errors,’ that is errors due not to the sampling process but to faults or shortcomings of the research design or the manner in which it was implemented.

(v) Unfortunately, some of these errors are difficult to foresee and guard against, so that it is possible for surveys to go wrong and produce misleading or false estimates of the charactreristics of a population.

(vi) Ultimately, the most important limitation of the survey is that, in order to be sucessful, they must depend on a tightly sturctured inflexible questionnaire.

(vii) Moreover, howsoever well designed the questionnaire might be, its success depends finally on the nature of the interactions between investigators and respondents, and specially on the goodwill and co-operation of the latter.