Putting together a Survey Flashcards
question wording
many problems stem from difficulty understanding the question
4 types of problematic questions
- leading questions
- loaded questions
- double-barreled questions
- double negatives
leading questions
involve some sort of non-neutral wording that will lead participants to answer that question in a certain way, usually in a way which you want them to answer
how to avoid leading questions
- use neutral words
- pre-test them
loaded questions
force participants to give an answer that might not accurately reflect their opinion
- this is because they assume people know things from the start
how to avoid loaded questions
don’t assume anything
pretest
double-barreled questions
asks two questions in one item but one answer is expected
problem with double barreled questions
people could be responding to one or the other, or both and you don’t know what they are responding to
how to fix double barreled questions
split them into two questions
why are double negatives a problem
very confusing, take up a lot of cognitive capacity
- participants get confused and often respond in a way they are not intending to
order effects
situation in which the order in which you expose people to the items has an impact on how they answer it
how to avoid order effects
pretest
- could use filler items to distract participants from two questions
caveat for pre-existing surveys
if you change an existing survey in any way you need to be able to justify why and it has to maintain validity
4 choices for administering your survey
- paper and pencil
- internet
- face to face
- telephone
paper and pencil
- you have to guarantee anonymity/confidentiality
- easy to make data entry errors
