Questionnaire Design

Question 1

What is the first guideline for constructing questionnaire items?

Answer 1

Make items clear

They should be unambiguous and precise

Question 2

What is the second guideline for constructing questionnaire items?

Answer 2

Avoid presuming questions
E.g. instead of ‘how many cigarettes a day do you smoke?’
Ask whether they smoke first and then ask how many

Question 3

What is the third guideline for constructing questionnaire items?

Answer 3

Use simple language

Keep the intended audience in mind

Question 4

What is the fourth guideline for constructing questionnaire items?

Answer 4

Avoid double-barrelled items

Respondents could agree with one part but disagree with another part

Question 5

What is the fifth guideline for constructing questionnaire items?

Answer 5

Respondents must be competent to answer

Is the respondent likely to possess the knowledge to answer the question?

Question 6

What is the sixth guideline for constructing questionnaire items?

Answer 6

Avoid using “not”

The “not” may be misread or overlooked

Question 7

What is the seventh guideline for constructing questionnaire items?

Answer 7

Avoid using double negatives

Reword the item to avoid confusion

Question 8

What is the eighth guideline for constructing questionnaire items?

Answer 8

Avoid using “biased” items

E.g. most reasonable people would agree…

Question 9

Why are short items best?

Answer 9

Respondents should be able to:

• read an item quickly
• understand its intent
• give an answer without difficulty

Question 10

How can you obtain variability in responses and why?

Answer 10

So that a measure can covary with other measures
Can be done by either:
- having many items
- having numerous response items

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of a 0-100 scale?

Answer 11

Respondents may respond in multiples of 5 or 10, effectively reducing the number of response options
False precision - how meaningful is the difference between 36 and 38?

Question 12

What is an example of the visual analogue scale?

Answer 12

Watching football on TV is..

Boring ————————————— Interesting

Question 13

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the visual analogue scale?

Answer 13

Advantages:
-Very sensitive - useful in studies with minimal intervention to measure before and after responses
-Difficult for respondents to remember previous responses
Disadvantages:
-Same as 0-100 scale

Question 14

What is a disadvantage of a worded response category scale?

Answer 14

Although the response categories are places along some sort of continuum, it is difficult to access the size of the psychological space between the categories

Question 15

What should you avoid in Likert scales?

Answer 15

Very mild or extreme statements that everyone will agree or disagree with, will lead to reduced variance

Question 16

What are semantic differential scales used for?

Answer 16

Often used to measure attitudes, using adjective pairs representing opposite ends of a continuum

Question 17

What is a Thurstone scale?

Answer 17

A scale consisting of a number of items that have been designed to represent differing levels of an attribute, these items have been selected by judges from a large number of items
An agree-disagree format is used and an attitude score is obtained

Question 18

What does a Thurstone scale assume?

Answer 18

That an individual will only agree with items around their scale position, disagreeing with those more extreme on either side

Question 19

What are some advantages of Thurstone scaling?

Answer 19

Very easy for respondents to complete as they only have to indicate agreement/disagreement
Easy to develop alternate forms of the scale

Question 20

What are some disadvantages of Thurstone scaling?

Answer 20

Very labour intensive, have to get 50 or so judges to rate the items
The judge’s ratings may be different from those of potential respondents

Question 21

What are some guidelines for the general format?

Answer 21

Maximise white space

Don’t try and squeeze questions onto a page

Question 22

What are some guidelines for the general instructions?

Answer 22

Who is it from?
Purpose?
Why should they complete it?
How long to complete?
Is it anonymous/confidential?
How to complete it
How to return it

Question 23

What are some guidelines for the question order?

Answer 23

Randomisation of items? (may result in confusing Q)
Leave duller Qs e.g. demographics to the end
Have introductions for each section

Question 24

What are some advantages of online survey tools?

Answer 24

Can collect PP responses automatically - very efficient
Potential for large samples
Can format data in SPSS friendly form

Question 25

What are some disadvantages of online survey tools?

Answer 25

May need a database of email addresses
Low response rates 
- reduced sample size/power
- selective/biased sample
- limits generalisability