Designing Questionnaire Surveys

Question 1

Why use a questionnaire?

Answer 1

Allows you to collect data from large numbers

Time efficient and cost effective

Allows you to collect information directly from people in a systematic and standardised way - easy to apply statistical analyses to describe and interpret your data

Question 2

Why use a questionnaire continued:

Answer 2

Surveys are useful when your research questions are best answered by the people themselves

Enables you to generalise beyond your sample to describe the behaviour of your population of interest

Question 3

What the different kinds of surveys?

Answer 3

Postal, face to face, telephone, online, or a combination of these
May be at a single or multiple points
May collect quantitative or qualitative data or both

Question 4

What are,different response options?

Answer 4

Open vs closed
Likerts scale
Visual analogue scale
Graphic rating scale

Question 5

What are examples of measurement of wellbeing surveys from positive psychology?

Answer 5

Eurobarometer
European social survey
World values social survey
World database of happiness

Question 6

What surveys measure personality?

Answer 6

Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory

Personality assessment inventory

Question 7

What are personality assessments used for?

Answer 7

Refine clinical diagnosis

Structure and inform psychological interventions

Increase the accuracy of behavioural prediction in a variety of contexts and settings e.g. Clinical, forensic, organisational, educational

Question 8

What representations of illness do the health psychology questionnaires measure?

Answer 8

Timeline acute/chronic
Timeline cyclical
Consequences
Personal control
Treatment control
Emotional representation 
Coherence

Question 9

What is coping in relation to illness representations?

Answer 9

Coping is ‘cognitive, behavioural and emotional ways that people manage stressful situations’
Approach orientated coping, problem solving
Avoidance strategies

Question 10

Why now for precision behaviour-change interventions?

Answer 10

Health behaviours explain the most in individual health variations
Digital health technologies are persuasive, personal, and potentially powerful

Question 11

What are the 6 stages of doing a survey?

Answer 11

Planning and survey design
Data collection
Data preparation and management
Data analysis
Reporting
Dissemination

Question 12

What questions do you ask when designing a questionnaire survey?

Answer 12

What kind of questions do you want to ask?
Is there an existing (valid and reliable measure)?
Who do you want to respond to your survey? And how will you acces these people?
How will you maximise your response rate?

Question 13

It is best to use an existing measure but where would you find these measures for your survey?

Answer 13

The UK Data Service Variable and question bank contains over 450,000 variables, with over 250,000 containing text/responses (1971-2011)
Covers most of the recent major UK surveys and longitudinal studies

Question 14

Where else can I find a measure?

Answer 14

Scientific papers published in academic journals

Databases of questionnaires

Question 15

What options can you choose for your response options for your survey? And what is the most used?

Answer 15

Visual analogue
Graphic scales
Likert scales - most popular

Question 16

How do you ask good questions?

Answer 16

Good questions;
Make sense to the participants
Use conventional, easy to understand, language
Are appropriate in length
Use loaded words cautiously

Question 17

What should you avoid when writing questionnaire questions?

Answer 17

Being vague
Asking complex questions
Asking double negative questions
Using appreciations acronyms or jargon
Asking objectionable or value laden questions
Ask leading questions
Asking open ended questions unless necessary
Asking double barrelled questions

Question 18

What are the three main things to remember when writing a questionnaire?

Answer 18

Keep it focused
Brief
Clear

Question 19

How do you choose your sample?

Answer 19

Who or what is the focus of your study?
How might you identify them?
What are their characteristics?

Question 20

What are some problems to watch out for? And how would you solve the problem?

Answer 20

Response bias - also called response/acquiescence set (vary items content or response options, include some negatively worded items)
Social desirability bias - avoid leading questions, use neutral language, don’t give participants information sheet with the research question clearly stated

Question 21

What are some further problems that could occur?

Answer 21

Non-response error (bias)

Answers of respondents differ from the potential answers of those who did not answer

Question 22

What are strengths of questionnaire surveys?

Answer 22

Allows you to collect data from large number of people
Time efficient and cost effective
Allows you to collect information directly from people I’m a systematic and standardised way
Enables you to generalise beyond your sample to describe the behaviour of your population of interest

Question 23

What are some limitations?

Answer 23

Something’s cannot be so easily measured