Title: Questionnaire
1A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development
2A critical component of survey research involves
constructing a questionnaire.
3DEFINITION OF QUESTIONNAIRE
4A questionnaire is a pre-formulated written set
of questions to which respondents record their
answers usually within rather
closely defined alternatives.
respondents
closely defined alternatives
suggesting choices of answers for the respondents
5PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
incorporated all of the questions generated
tend to yield very long questionnaires
resent the time it takes to answer
are likely to feel their responses are
unimportant if many of the questions are
inapplicable
6FIRST
precisely the information desired and endeavor to
write as few questions as possible to obtain it
7SECOND
obtain feedback from a small but representative
sample of potential responders
8THIRD
everyone or nearly everyone may be in the same
answer category for some questions, thus making
them unnecessary
9A. PERSONALLY ADMINISTERED
- Time
- Questions can be clarified
- Motivate respondents for honest answers
10B. MAIL QUESTIONNAIRES
- wide geographical area can be covered
- questions cannot be clarified
- use follow up letters
11C. ELECTRONIC QUESTIONNAIRES
- network, e-mail
- who answered the questionnaire?
12REMARKS
The questions asked should be relevant to the
research problem.
13REMARKS
It should answer the objectives of the research
by defining the concept and categorizing these
into measurable elements.
14REMARKS
Respondents rate people whom they like or respect
high on all scales, regardless of the persons
actual performance.
HALO EFFECT
15REMARKS
When evaluating things, especially products,
people will pick up subtle cues and respond more
negatively than they might.
PINCHFORK EFFECT
16Writing the Questionnaire Items
Open-Ended Questions
While these seem easy to write, in most cases
they should be avoided
flexibility in category determination becomes
possible
questions concerning age, state of residence, or
credit-hours earned may be more easily answered
by filling in blanks
17Writing the Questionnaire Items
Objective Questions
Other" should be avoided as a response option,
especially when it occurs at the end of a long
list of fairly lengthy choices
decision not to offer the option "other" should
be made only after a careful determination of the
categories needed to classify nearly all of the
potential responses
18Writing the Questionnaire Items
Objective Questions
the foregoing advice is any case in which the
categories are clear-cut, few in number, and such
that some responders might feel uncomfortable in
the absence of an applicable response
Race 1) Black 2) White 3)
Other Source of automobile 1) Purchased
new 2) Purchased used
3) Other
19Writing the Questionnaire Items
Category Proliferation
Marital status 1) Single (never married)
4) Divorced 2) Married
5) Separated
3) Widowed
Unless the research in question were deeply
concerned with conjugal relationships, it is
inconceivable that the distinctions among all of
these categories could be useful
20Writing the Questionnaire Items
Category Proliferation
Marital status 1) Married and living with
spouse 2) Other
this has the advantage of not appearing to pry so
strongly into personal matters
21Writing the Questionnaire Items
Scale Point Proliferation
1) Never 2) Rarely 3) Occasionally 4) Fairly
often 5) Often 6) Very often 7) Almost
always 8) Always
psychometric research has shown that most
subjects cannot reliably distinguish more than
six or seven levels of response
four to five scale points is usually quite
sufficient
22Writing the Questionnaire Items
Order of Categories
1) Never 2) Seldom 3) Occasionally 4)
Frequently
it is usually better to list them from the lower
level to the higher in left-to-right order
23Writing the Questionnaire Items
Combining Categories
1) Seldom or never 2) Occasionally 3) Frequently
Combining "seldom" with "never" might be
desirable if responders would be very unlikely to
mark "never
24Writing the Questionnaire Items
Responses at the Scale Midpoint
The instructor's verbal facility is 1)
Much below average 4) Above average
2) Below average 5) Much above
average 3) Average
The instructor grades fairly. 1) Agree
4) Tend to disagree 2) Tend to agree
5) Disagree 3) Undecided
25Writing the Questionnaire Items
Responses at the Scale Midpoint
response positions are so prevalent on
questionnaires
There is no assurance whatsoever that a subject
choosing the middle scale position harbors a
neutral opinion
In the absence of a neutral position, responders
sometimes tend to resist making a choice in one
direction or the other
26Writing the Questionnaire Items
Responses at the Scale Midpoint
Include options explaining inability to respond,
such as "not applicable," "no basis for
judgment," "prefer not to answer."
27Writing the Questionnaire Items
Responses at the Scale Midpoint
there are some items that virtually require a
neutral position
How much time do you spend on this job now?
1) Less than before 2) About the same 3) More
time The amount of homework for this course
was 1) too little. 2) reasonable. 3)
too great.
28Writing the Questionnaire Items
Ranking Questions
Responders cannot be reasonably expected to rank
more than about six things at a time
Following are three colors for office walls
1) Beige 2) Ivory 3) Light green
Which color do you like best? _____
Which color do you like second best?
_____ Which color do you like least?
_____
29Writing the Questionnaire Items
The "Apple Pie" Problem
strategy for reducing the tendency to mark every
item at the same end of the scale is to ask
responders to rate both positive and negative
stimuli
My immediate supervisor handles employee
problems well. 1) Agree 2) Disagree
works with us to get the job done. 1) Agree 2)
Disagree embarrasses those who make
mistakes. 1) Agree 2) Disagree is a good
listener 1) Agree 2)
Disagree often gives unclear instructions
1) Agree 2) Disagree
30OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
31Operationalizing or operationally defining a
concept so that it becomes measurable, is
achieved by looking at the behavioral dimensions,
properties denoted by the concept, and
categorizing these into observable and measurable
elements.
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33PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Determine the info needs
34PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Determine the info needs
- Identifiers
- Classification variables
- Topic Variables
DETAILS
35PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Determine the info needs
- Determine method of data collection (census
against survey)
36PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- 2. Determine method of data collection (census
against survey)
- Population or samples
- Sampling Design
37PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Determine the info needs
- Determine method of data collection (census
against survey) - Decide on question type
38PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- 3. Decide on question type
39PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Determine the info needs
- Determine method of data collection (census
against survey) - Decide on question type
- Decide on question wording
40PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- 4. Decide on question wording
41- Content and purpose of the question
- Subjective
- Objective
- 2. Language and Wording
- Level of understanding of the respondents
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43- 3. Double Barreled Questions
- Lends itself to different possible answers to its
subparts
- 4. Ambiguous Questions
- Up to what extent?
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46- 5. Recall dependent questions
- Answers may be bias
- 6. Leading Questions
- Lead the respondent to give the responses that
the researcher would like to or may come across
as wanting to elicit
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48- 7. Loaded Questions
- Questions occurs when they are phrased in an
emotionally charged manner
- 8. Length of Questions
- Should not exceed 20 words
49PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Determine the info needs
- Determine method of data collection (census
against survey) - Decide on question type
- Decide on question wording
- 5. Decide how variables will be categorized,
scaled and coded
50TYPES OF SCALES
- Nominal
- Rank / Ordinal
- Interval Scale
- Ratio
51DEVELOPING SCALES
- Semantic Differential (Interval-Like Rank Scale)
- Likert Scale (Interval-Like Rank Scale)
52DEVELOPING SCALES
3. Itemized Rating Scale
Number of Pre-School Children (under 5 years of
age) 0 None 1 One 2 Two or more
Present Work shift 1 First 2 Second 3 Third
53DEVELOPING SCALES
4. Graphing Rating Scale (Rank / Ordinal)
54PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Decide on questionnaire layout
55PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Decide on questionnaire layout
- Negative and Positively worded
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57PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Decide on questionnaire layout
- Conduct questionnaire pretest
58PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE
- Decide on questionnaire layout
- Conduct questionnaire pretest
- Develop final questionnaire
- Good Introduction
an attractive, clearly printed and well laid out
questionnaire will engender better response than
one that is not
b. Organizing Questions
c. Giving Instructions
d. Guidance and good alignment
59A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development