5 - Asking Questions Flashcards
Advantages of open questions
respondents can answer in their own terms
allows unusual answers
allows tapping into participant’s knowledge
good for exploring new areas
disadvantages of open questions
time consuming to record/code
length may put respondents off
inaccuracies in transcription of spoken answers
coding, and the types of coding
deriving themes/categories of behaviour. researcher usually assigns number to code
allows information to be coded quantitatively
–> pre coding and post coding
post coding
going back to info to look for incidences of theme or category, may be unreliable because of inconsistencies in judgement from different coders
pre coding
when researcher designs coding grame before administering the survey
3 basic principles of coding
categories are mutually exclusive
categories are exhaustive (including “other”)
clear rules regarding how codes are applied (ensuring consistency)
advantages of closed questions
easy to process easy to compare set of answers help clarify the meaning of the question quick and easy to complete reduces risk of bias from recorder
disadvantages of closed questions
answers lack authenticity/spontaneity
care needs to be taken to prevent overlap in categories
difficult to make answers exhaustive
irritates respondents when answer categories aren’t relatable
reduces conversation/rapport in interviews
types of questions
- personal factual questions (age, occupation, how often do you go to the movies? etc. often have to rely on memory to answer)
- factual questions about entity or event (good when info isn’t available elsewhere, leads to problems because people aren’t careful/systematic observers)
- questions about beliefs (should Canada maintain military presence abroad?)
- questions about attitudes (common in structured interviews/questionaires, Likert scale is common)
- questions about knowledge (who was Canada’s first prime minister?)
general rules for designing questions
- keep research question in mind (reduces risk of asking irrelevant questions)
- being specific (what exactly do you need to know?
- recognize ambiguity (how would you answer it?)
what does it mean to avoid ambiguity?
- avoid “often” and “regularly” as measures of frequency
- clarify words that mean different things to different people (ex: dinner)
what does it mean to avoid long questions?
-long questions may be nice for questions asking about behaviour, the longer they take to answer, the more it may facilitate memory recall
what does it mean to avoid double-barrelled questions?
ex: how frequently do you cook and clean? respondent may cook but never clean
what does it mean to avoid general questions?
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what does it mean to avoid leading questions?
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