How To Prepare Questionnaire 721n4k

Questionnaire Design

QUESTIONNAIRES AND OBSERVATION FORMS Standardise data collection for survey and observation, respectively.  Ensure comparability of the data, increase speed and accuracy of recording and facilitate data processing. 

Definition  Formalized set of questions for obtaining information from respondents

OBJECTIVES OF A QUESTIONNAIRE Translate the information needed into a set of specific questions that the respondents can and will answer  To uplift, motivate, and encourage the respondent to become involved in the interview, to cooperate, and to complete the interview  Questionnaires should minimize response error 

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN PROCESS Specify the information needed 

Specify the type of interviewing method 

Determine the content of individual questions 

Design the questions to overcome the respondent’s inability and unwillingness to answer 

Decide on the question structure 

Determine the question wording 

Arrange questions in proper order 

Identify the form and layout 

Reproduce the questionnaire 

Eliminate bugs by pretesting

SPECIFY THE INFORMATION NEEDED 

Consider the constructs [theory, hypotheses/research question developed earlier]



Keep in mind the target population and ask questions appropriately (eg. Children, rural polpulation)

TYPE OF INTERVIEWING METHOD Personal interviews  Lengthy, complex and varied questions Telephone interviews  Short and simple questions

Mail questionnaire  Simple questions, detailed instructions

INDIVIDUAL QUESTION CONTENT Is the question necessary?  Every question should contribute to the information needed or serve some specific purpose. [questions to develop rapport, questions which disguise the purpose or sponsorship of the project, questions may be duplicated for the purpose of assessing reliability or validity]

INDIVIDUAL QUESTION CONTENT CONT. Are several questions needed instead of one?  Avoid ambiguity and double barrel questions. Are you fit and healthy? Do you prefer to patronise a department store close to your home or work?

OVERCOMING INABILITY TO ANSWER Is the respondent informed?  Filter questions are often used to ascertain familiarity, product use and past experience Are you the main grocery buyer in the household? Have you purchased car tyres in the last 3 months?

OVERCOMING INABILITY TO ANSWER CONT. Can the respondent ? Recency effect  The ability to events are influenced by 

the event itself  time elapsed since the event  presence/absence of other events that would help memory

OVERCOMING INABILITY TO ANSWER CONT. Can the respondent articulate?  Respondents may be unable to describe the situation accurately  Inability to articulate may lead to 

respondents ignoring questions  refusing to respond to the rest of the questionnaire

OVERCOMING UNWILLINGNESS TO ANSWER Effort required of the respondent  Unwilling to devote a lot of effort to provide information Context  Unwilling to respond to questions which are considered inappropriate for the given context

OVERCOMING UNWILLINGNESS TO ANSWER CONT. Legitimate Purpose  Unwilling to divulge information which they do not see as serving a legitimate purpose Sensitive information  Unwilling to disclose sensitive information because this may cause embarrassment or threaten the respondent’s prestige/ self-image

INCREASING THE WILLINGNESS OF RESPONDENTS Place sensitive topics at the end of the questionnaire  Preface the question with a statement that the behaviour of interest is common  Ask the question using the 3rd person technique  Provide response categories rather than asking for specific figures 

CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE Unstructured questions  Open-ended questions that respondents answer in their own words  Express general attitude  Interviewer bias is high  Coding is costly and time consuming What were you expecting by attending this event?

CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT. Structured questions  Specify the set of response alternatives and the response format  Types: multiple-choice, dichotomous, or a scale

CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT. Multiple-choice questions  Respondents are asked to select one or more alternative Which of the following people had an influence on your choice of university? None Parents Friends Ex-Uni student Teachers at secondary school Careers teachers at secondary school Colleagues Other please specify………………….

CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT. Dichotomous questions  Only two response alternatives Have you stayed in Bombay? Yes No

CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT. Scale  Can be comparative or non-comparative Do you intend to buy a new computer within the next 6 months? Definitely

Probably

will not buy

will not buy

1

2

Undecided 3

Probably

Definitely

will buy

will buy

4

5

CHOOSING QUESTION STRUCTURE CONT. About structured question  Can be istered quickly  Coding and processing is less costly and less time consuming  Effort required in deg alternatives  May require exploratory research for determining choices  Bias response because people pick alternatives offered

CHOOSING QUESTION WORDING Define the issue  Define the issue by considering 6 Ws

Use ordinary words  Match the vocabulary level of the respondents  Avoid jargon and technical marketing words Avoid ambiguous words  The word should have a single meaning which is known to the respondents

CHOOSING QUESTION WORDING CONT. Avoid leading or biasing questions  Avoid clues which will lead the respondent to answer in a particular way Avoid implicit alternatives  Alternatives should be explicitly stated

CHOOSING QUESTION WORDING CONT. Use dual statements – positive and negative  Avoid bias by altering statements

DETERMINING THE ORDER OF QUESTIONS Opening Questions  Important in gaining confidence and co-operation of respondents  Questions should be interesting and nonthreatening  Could be qualifying question

DETERMINING THE ORDER OF QUESTIONS CONT. Type of Information Basic

Classification

Identification

DETERMINING THE ORDER OF QUESTIONS CONT. Difficult questions  Sensitive, embarrassing, complex or dull questions should be placed late in the sequence Effect on subsequent question  Questions asked early in a sequence can influence the responses to subsequent questions

DETERMINING THE ORDER OF QUESTIONS CONT. Logical order  All questions that deal with a particular issue/topic should be asked before proceeding to a new topic  Use branching questions to direct respondents to other questions

FORM AND LAYOUT Format, spacing and position are important  A questionnaire can be divided into several parts  All questions should be numbered  Questionnaires are sometimes pre-coded where each possible response to a question is associated with a unique number (or letter)  Questionnaire should be serially numbered 

PRE-TESTING Testing the questionnaire on a small sample of respondents to identify and eliminate potential problems with [Question content, wording, sequence, form and layout, question difficulty, instruction]  After each significant revision of the questionnaire, another pre-test should be performed with a different sample  Responses obtained should be coded and analyses 

OBSERVATIONAL FORMS Specify the who, what when, where, why and way of behaviour to be observed  Offers consistency, structure, completeness 