Self Reporting Data: Questionnaire design

Question 1

what are the three main components in questionnaires ?

Answer 1

1) respondents record their own answers
2) the questions are predetermined and are provided in written form
3) there is no face-to-face contact with another person

Question 2

what are the three main positives of questionnaires ?

Answer 2

1) self-report methods allow researcher to find out what people think and feel (can’t be done with other methods)
2) can be easily repeated - can be collected from large groups of people quickly (as it can be done simultaneously)
3) respondents may be more truthful and reveal more confidential information, as they feel anonymous

Question 3

what are the two negatives of questionnaires ?

Answer 3

1) people don’t always tell the truth - may not be truthful on a topic as to not look foolish (social desirability) or they simply don’t know and make something up
2) sample may be biased because only certain kinds of people fill in questionnaires (literate people, willing to spend their time filling them in)

Question 4

what is a closed question ?

Answer 4

a question that has a fixed number of possible answers - they provide quantitative data.

Question 5

what are two negatives of closed questions ?

Answer 5

1) may not permit people to express their precise feelings because researcher determined the choice off answers (data likely low in internal validity and uncovers no new insights)
2) oversimplifies reality and human experience because it suggests that are simple answers - people may think several answers reflect their view.

Question 6

what is an open question ?

Answer 6

a question that invites respondents to provide their own answers. open questions tend to produce qualitative data.

Question 7

what are two positives of open questions ?

Answer 7

1) provides rich details of how people behave - they are given free range to express themselves instead of being restricted by the researcher’s preconceived answers
2) as ppts give their own answers - the researcher may collect unexpected data

Question 8

what are two negatives of open questions ?

Answer 8

1) more difficult to draw conclusions because there are likely to be a wide range of responses (researchers may looks for patterns instead of using descriptive analysis)

Question 9

what are two negative of open questions ?

Answer 9

1) more difficult to draw conclusions because there are likely to be a wide range of responses (researchers may looks for patterns instead of using descriptive analysis)
2) interpreting peoples’ answers is likely to be subjective (each researcher may have different views on the meaning of a response)

Question 10

what are two positives of ranked scale questions ?

Answer 10

1) reasonably objective way to represent feelings and attitudes related to the topic being researched
2) produces quantitative data which is easier to analyse or represent in graphs - easy to draw straightforward conclusions

Question 11

what are two negatives of ranked scale questions ?

Answer 11

1) ppts may respond the same way to every question (e.g. circling the middle number in the scale each time) - it’s good to switch the positive and negative sides of the scale every few questions, to prevent this
2) social desirability bias may be an issue in terms of the validity of response given.