Chapter Ten

1
Chapter Ten

• Designing the Questionnaire

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Designing the Questionnaire

• Logical Steps to Develop a Good Questionnaire
• Plan what to measure
• Formulate questions
• Order and wording of questions and the layout of
  the questionnaire
• Test for omissions and ambiguity
• Correct the problems (pretest again, if necessary)

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Planning what to measure

• What was the objective of the research study
  again?
• Exploratory research will suggest more variables
• Pre-testing with a small sample
• Ask yourself the question How will this
  information be used

4
Designing the Questionnaire

• Formulating the Question
• Degree of freedom of response to be given to
  respondents
• Alternatives
• Open ended with no classification
• E.g. Tell us what you know about mutual funds?
• Open ended with pre-coded classifications used to
  record the response
• E.g. Do you think mutual funds are a worthwhile
  investment?
• Close ended or structured format with responses
  to be considered
• E.g. I think mutual funds are worthwhile
  investments
• Strongly Agree12345Strongly Disagree

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Questions must meet 4 requirements

• ? You must ask the right questions
• ? Respondents must understand the questions
• ? Respondents must know the answers
• ? Respondents must be willing to tell you those
  answers.

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Types of Questions

• 1. Open-response question
• People look for different things in a job. What
  would you prefer most in a job?
• 2. Closed-response question
• People look for different things in a job. What
  would you prefer most in a job?
• Work that pays well
• Work that gives a sense of accomplishment
• Work where you make most decisions by yourself
• Work that is steady with little chance of being
  laid off.

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Open Ended Questions

• Advantages
• Gain insight into the problem
• Too many options to list
• When verbatim responses are desired to give the
  flavor of the problem
• When behavior to be measured is sensitive or
  disapproved
• Interviewer / questionnaire structure influence
  can be minimal
• Diasdvantages
• Inarticulate respondents
• Interviewers skill in recording quickly and
  summarizing accurately
• Time consuming, subjective judgments while
  tabulating, adds to cost

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Closed-response Questions

• Two Basic Formats for Closed Ended or Structured
  Questions
• Choice from a list of responses
• Appropriate single-choice rating on a scale

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Closed-response Questions

• What type of fast-food restaurant do you visit
  most often?
• ?Burger ?Mexican
• ?Chicken ?Pizza
• ?Seafood ?Chinese
• ?Dont know ?Other (please specify)

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Closed-response Questions

• What is your overall satisfaction with McDonalds
  Hamburgers?
• Very satisfied Quite Satisfied Somewhat
  satisfied Not at all satisfied
• ? ? ?
  ?
• Very satisfied 7 6 5
  4 3 2 1 Not at all
  satisfied

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Closed-response Questions

• Advantages
• Easy to understand, quick responses possible
• Micro-differences in responses can be captured
• Easier tabulation and analysis
• Answers are directly comparable from respondent
  to respondent
• Disadvantages
• Neutral category may attract more responses than
  warranted
• Information between categories may be lost
  (extreme case dichotomous categories)

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Issues in Questionnaire Design

• Mutually exclusive choices
• How many long-distance calls do you make in a
  week?
• ? less than 5
• ? 5-10
• ? More than 10.
• Number of response categories 5 to 7 is ideal

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Issues in Questionnaire Design

• Order of response categories
• What factor influences your fast-food restaurant
  choice most ?
• ? Convenient location
• ? Quality of food
• ? Menu selection
• ? Fast service
• ? Reasonable prices
• ? Brand name
• ? Cleanliness

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Issues in Questionnaire Design

• Range of response categories
• How many long-distance calls do you make in a
  week?
• ? less than 5 ? less than 10
• ? 5-10 or ? 10-20
• ? More than 10. ? More than 20.

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Issues in Questionnaire Design

• Respondent uncertainty
• Should respondents be provided with aDont know
  or No opinion option?
• When it is important to differentiate between
  ambivalence and ignorance, both options should be
  provided

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Issues in Questionnaire Design

• Question Wording - Vocabulary
• Simple, easy to understand, commonly used
  language
• Avoid technical words and jargon (unless sample
  is technically qualified)
• Words meaning something else in different
  languages and cultures (e.g. Nova meaning no go
  in Spanish mist stick meaning manure in
  German, etc.)

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Question Wording

• Ambiguity
• How many times per month do you visit a fast-food
  restaurant?
• ? Never
• ? Occasionally
• ? Sometimes
• ? Often

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Question Wording

• Are any questions "double-barreled?
• Are you satisfied with the price and the service
  of Taco Bell?

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Question Wording

• Are any questions loaded or leading?
• 1) Dont you think, because its so greasy,
  fast-food is one of the worst types of food?
  leading question
• 2) Do you prefer a hamburger that is grilled on a
  hot stainless-steel grill or cooked by passing
  the raw meat through an open gas flame?...loaded
  question
• Both skew responses in the desired direction
• Questions which threaten respondent self-esteem
  e.g. occupation question produces more
  executives

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Issues in Questionnaire Design

• Question Wording
• vocabulary
• double-barreled questions
• leading or loaded questions
• Instructions
• Complicated or lengthy instructions confuse and
  bias respondents

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Question Wording

• Is the question applicable to all respondents?
• Why do you like fast-food?
• Assumes respondents like fast foods
• Better strategy would be to ask a filter question
  first.

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Question Wording

• Question length
• Should be short
• Longer questions confuse and fatigue respondents
• Sensitive questions
• Questions on information perceived to be
  embarrassing, like personal income, criminal
  activities, alcoholism, smoking, drugs habits,
  social desirability issues, etc.
• Creativity rules (assurances of confidentiality,
  anonymity, slipping it in sideways, open-ended
  questions, asking in third person, etc.)

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Sequence And Layout Decisions

• Opening questions easy and non-threatening
• Flow smooth and logical avoid jumps
• Broad to specific
• Critical questions placed in the middle
• Appealing and interesting
• Order bias the possibility that subsequent
  responses are influenced by preceding responses
  e.g. fewer people will say that their taxes are
  too high after being asked whether govt. spending
  should be increased in certain areas.
• Quality of paper

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Organization of a Typical Questionnaire
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Pretesting and Correcting Problems

• Pretesting Specific Questions For
• Meaning
• Task difficulty
• Respondent interest and attention
• Pretesting the overall Questionnaire
• Flow of the questionnaire
• Skip patterns
• Length
• Put yourself in the respondents shoes and answer
  the questionnaire.

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Examples spot the problems in the questions

• Why did you purchase a Sony Walkman?
• ? Great self-expressive benefits
• ? High quality
• ? Good service
• ? Great bass to treble ratio
• ? Better warranty
• ? Looks good

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Examples spot the problems in the questions

• Dont you think Budweiser makes the best
  commercials Yes No
• Which of the following restaurants do you visit
  frequently?
• ? Burger King
• ? Pizza Hut
• Subway
• KFC
• McDonalds

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Examples

• Do you agree that, since fast-food restaurants
  produce a disproportionate amount of waste, they
  should be subject to an additional environmental
  tax?
• ? Yes
• No
• What is your annual income

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Examples

• How often do you eat fast food?
• ? Daily
• ? Every second day
• ? Once a week
• ? Every two weeks