HOW TO DESIGN A QUESTIONNAIRE

Four aspects of the questionnaire. For explanatory research Measures of the dependent variable(s): clarify what it is you are trying to explain and develop questions to this Measures of the independent variable(s): .... Wording questions: Is the language simple? Can the question be shortened?

HOW TO DESIGN A QUESTIONNAIRE Dr Kim D Nguyen Institute for Educational Research Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam Four aspects of the questionnaire For explanatory research 1) Measures of the dependent variable(s): clarify what it is you are trying to explain and develop questions to this 2) Measures of the independent variable(s): Make sure you have questions to tap each of the causal variables Four aspects of the questionnaire For explanatory research (cont.) 3) Measures of test variable(s): These are variables which help clarify the nature of the links between independent and dependent variables 4) Background measures: Questions about characteristics such as age, sex, religion, education, occupation, marital status, stage in Question content There are four types of questions: Behavior, beliefs, attitudes and attributes (Dillman, 1978) BEHAVIOR: Questions to establish what people BELIEFS: What people believe is true or false Question content (cont.) ATTITUDES: Questions try to establish what they think is desirable ATTRIBUTE: Questions are designed to obtain information about the respondent’s characteristics Wording questions 1) Is the language simple? 2) Can the question be shortened? 3) Is the question double-barrelled? – Is she rich and intelligent? 4expl 4) Is the question leading? 5) Is the question negative? 6) Is the respondent likely to have the necessary knowledge? Wording questions (cont.) 7) Will the words have the same meaning for everyone? 8) Is there a prestige bias? 9) Is the question ambiguous? 10) Do you need a direct or indirect question? Wording questions (cont.) 11) Is the frame of reference for the question sufficiently clear? 12) Does the question artificially create opinions? 13) Is personal or impersonal wording preferable? 14) Is the question wording unnecessarily detailed or objectionable? Wording questions (cont.) 15) Does the question have dangling alternatives? 16) Is the question likely to produce a response set? Avoid making certain answers appear normal or unusual Open and closed format questions (cont.) Disadvantages: - Create false opinions - Give an insufficient range of alternatives - It’s necessary to put s lot of thought into developing alternative responses The range must be exhaustive: a thorough range of responses must be listed to avoid biasing responses Open or closed questions? Depends on how many factor such as the question content, respondent motivation, method of administration, type of respondents, access to skilled coders to code open-ended questions and the amount of time available to develop a good set of unbiased responses Open or closed questions? Gallup (1947): - A closed question to see if the respondent has thought about or is aware of the issue - An open question to get at general feelings on the matter - A closed question to get at specific aspects of the issues Open or closed questions? (cont.) Gallup (1947): - Open or closed questions to find out respondents’ reasons for their opinions - Close question to find out how strongly the opinion is held Types of forced-choice response formats 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Likert-style formats Semantic differential formats Checklists Ranking formats Attitude choices rather than agreedisagree statements 6) Direction, extremely and intensity of attitudes [...]... on how many factor such as the question content, respondent motivation, method of administration, type of respondents, access to skilled coders to code open-ended questions and the amount of time available to develop a good set of unbiased responses Open or closed questions? Gallup (1947): - A closed question to see if the respondent has thought about or is aware of the issue - An open question to. .. to get at general feelings on the matter - A closed question to get at specific aspects of the issues Open or closed questions? (cont.) Gallup (1947): - Open or closed questions to find out respondents’ reasons for their opinions - Close question to find out how strongly the opinion is held Types of forced-choice response formats 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Likert-style formats Semantic differential formats Checklists... strongly the opinion is held Types of forced-choice response formats 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Likert-style formats Semantic differential formats Checklists Ranking formats Attitude choices rather than agreedisagree statements 6) Direction, extremely and intensity of attitudes