Questionnaire

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A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development
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A critical component of survey research involves
constructing a questionnaire.
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DEFINITION OF QUESTIONNAIRE
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A 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
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PRELIMINARY 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
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FIRST
precisely the information desired and endeavor to
write as few questions as possible to obtain it
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SECOND
obtain feedback from a small but representative
sample of potential responders
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THIRD
everyone or nearly everyone may be in the same
answer category for some questions, thus making
them unnecessary
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A. PERSONALLY ADMINISTERED

• Time
• Questions can be clarified
• Motivate respondents for honest answers

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B. MAIL QUESTIONNAIRES

• wide geographical area can be covered
• questions cannot be clarified
• use follow up letters

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C. ELECTRONIC QUESTIONNAIRES

• network, e-mail
• who answered the questionnaire?

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REMARKS
The questions asked should be relevant to the
research problem.
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REMARKS
It should answer the objectives of the research
by defining the concept and categorizing these
into measurable elements.
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REMARKS
Respondents rate people whom they like or respect
high on all scales, regardless of the persons
actual performance.
HALO EFFECT
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REMARKS
When evaluating things, especially products,
people will pick up subtle cues and respond more
negatively than they might.
PINCHFORK EFFECT
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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
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Writing 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."
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Writing 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.
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Writing 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?
_____
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Writing 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
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OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
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Operationalizing 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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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Determine the info needs

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Determine the info needs

1. Identifiers
2. Classification variables
3. Topic Variables

DETAILS
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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Determine the info needs
2. Determine method of data collection (census
   against survey)

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

• 2. Determine method of data collection (census
  against survey)

• Population or samples
• Sampling Design

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

• Determine the info needs
• Determine method of data collection (census
  against survey)
• Decide on question type

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

• 3. Decide on question type

• Open ended
• Close ended

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

• Determine the info needs
• Determine method of data collection (census
  against survey)
• Decide on question type
• Decide on question wording

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

• 4. Decide on question wording

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• WORDINGS

• Content and purpose of the question
• Subjective
• Objective

• 2. Language and Wording
• Level of understanding of the respondents

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• WORDINGS

• 3. Double Barreled Questions
• Lends itself to different possible answers to its
  subparts

• 4. Ambiguous Questions
• Up to what extent?

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• WORDINGS

• 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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• WORDINGS

• 7. Loaded Questions
• Questions occurs when they are phrased in an
  emotionally charged manner

• 8. Length of Questions
• Should not exceed 20 words

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PROCEDURES 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

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TYPES OF SCALES

1. Nominal
2. Rank / Ordinal
3. Interval Scale
4. Ratio

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DEVELOPING SCALES

1. Semantic Differential (Interval-Like Rank Scale)
2. Likert Scale (Interval-Like Rank Scale)

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DEVELOPING 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
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DEVELOPING SCALES
4. Graphing Rating Scale (Rank / Ordinal)
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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

• Decide on questionnaire layout

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

• Decide on questionnaire layout

• Funnel approach

• Negative and Positively worded

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

• Decide on questionnaire layout
• Conduct questionnaire pretest

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PROCEDURES FOR DESIGNING A QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Decide on questionnaire layout
2. Conduct questionnaire pretest
3. Develop final questionnaire

1. 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
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A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development