THE WELL TEMPERED QUESTION

1
THE WELL TEMPERED QUESTION

• Clear questions, ambiguous questions, offensive
  questions, leading questions, loaded questions,
  confusing questions.

2
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE, LOGICALLY EXHAUSTIVE

• Discuss how and why to construct such questions
  as the workhorses of your interview.

3
DESIGNING GOOD OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS

• What is the goal?
• Exploratory vs confirmatory
• Have a coding scheme and a collapsed coding
  scheme already prepared even if the results
  require them to be altered

4
ORDER EFFECTS

• Class discussion how much effect does the
  ordering of the responses have on the answers
  given to multiple choice questions?
• Is this problematic only on certain types of
  questions?

5
THE DIFFERENCE A WORD COULD MAKE, SHOULD MAKE,
MIGHT MAKE

• SHOULD COULD MIGHT
• Should anything be done to improve the system of
  payment for medical care? 82
• Could anything be done to improve the system of
  payment for medical care? 77
• Might anything be done to improve the system of
  payment for medical care? 63

6
ACCOUNTING FOR THESE DIFFERENCES

• The word should connotes to many people a more
  imperative independent of whether anything can
  practically be done about the problem.
• The word could connotes the possibility that
  something practically can be done about the
  problem
• The word might, to many people, connotes the
  probability that anything actually will get done
  about the problem

7
LEADING QUESTIONS

• Do you think that Bushs environmental program is
  leading to ecological disaster for the planet?
• Do you think that smoking is going to kill you?
• In your opinion, to cool kids ever engage in
  unprotected sexual intercourse?

8
LOADED QUESTIONS

• A specific type of leading question. More
  indirect cues
• Use of terms like patriotic, moral, cool,
  intellectual, reactionary, lower class
• illegal aliens vs undocumented guest workers
• right to an abortion vs right to choice

9
THREATENING QUESTIONS

• Income is always a threatening question
• Questions about sex, politics, religion, criminal
  activity can easily become threatening although
  they dont necessarily have to be perceived so.
• Context can make a question threatening
  independent of its wording. Where are you going
  with this? Whats it going to be used for? Is
  there going to be an intervention if I admit drug
  use or suicidal thoughts?

10
THE SHIFTING TARGET OF INOFFENSIVENESS

• Sexist questions Do you agree or disagree that a
  boss should not be able to fire a worker unless
  he has good cause that a teacher should not be
  allowed to keep a child after school unless she
  is finding him to be a disruption to the other
  students?
• Racist classist questions Will the construction
  of a new polo field attract the right kinds of
  people into the community?
• Religious bias How important is it for a new
  community to have room for adequate numbers of
  schools, hospitals, and churches?

11
AMBIGUITY OF LANGUAGE

• Is you the individual you or the collective you?
• Few means 2 or 3 to some but it means 6 or 7 to
  others
• Much, near, some have a whole range of subjective
  meanings
• Today or now can mean right now or the
  ethnographic present