Toolkit 3

Question 1

What are the influences on your approach?

Answer 1

• what do you intend to achieve
• sample size
• when and where
• how you intend to process
• time and resources

Question 2

Aims of a good questionnaire

Answer 2

• valid
• reliable
• unbiased

Question 3

What are the 5 types of questionnaire

Answer 3

• face to face
• street survey
• telephone survey
• postal survey
• depth, or semi structured

Question 4

Face to face interview?

Answer 4

• direct encounter
• interviewer asks questions from a schedule
• records responses

Question 5

Street survey

Answer 5

• face to face
• brief encounter
• interviewer asks questions and records responses

Question 6

Telephone survey

Answer 6

• contact by phone
• pre determined schedule
• few simple questions

Question 7

Postal surveys

Answer 7

• no interviewers
• questionnaires sent by post
• cover letter explains completion and return details

Question 8

What are benefits of postal survey?

Answer 8

• large specific groupings to be targeted
• the cheaper method of gathering data
• feel less pressurised
• eliminates interviewer bias
• enables supporting documentary evidence to be consulted

Question 9

What are limitations of postal survey?

Answer 9

• slow response times
• ambiguous
• poor responses rates

Question 10

Email survey

Answer 10

• medium of electronic mail
• care required in selecting target group
• response rates can be poor

Question 11

Characteristics of good questionnaire

Answer 11

• must be understood
• clear instruction for use
• show consideration for respondent
• provide desired data
• in a form that can be effectively and quickly analysed

Question 12

What are the three types of questions and describe them?

Answer 12

• factual: eg age, education, occupation. Relatively easy to design
• opinion: difficult to design, subjective, attitudes, emotions
• closed: limited to a simple response, eg tick box

Question 13

What are open questions?

Answer 13

• much more freedom to express his/her own thoughts

- much more difficult to code and analyse

Question 14

DO’s of a questionnaire

Answer 14

• explain purpose
• simple and to the point
• no jargon or slang words

Question 15

What must you do if you include sensitive questions?

Answer 15

• place towards end of survey

- tick box categories

Question 16

How to improve response rates

Answer 16

• format and appearance
• pre-notification
• postage (you pay for return)
• advertising (local paper)
• incentives (copy of results)

Question 17

Importance of a covering letter

Answer 17

• should be designed to maximise response rates
• not patronising
• brief explanation of research
• emphasise the value of their input, apologise for burden on their time

Question 18

What is random sampling advantages?

Answer 18

• chances of everyone being included

- guaranteed to be representative so unbiased sample

Question 19

Random sampling disadvantages

Answer 19

• other methods have control

- big distances to respondents- travel time

Question 20

What is systematic sampling?

Answer 20

• systematically through a sampling frame (eg every 100th person or 10th household)

Question 21

What is stratified sampling advantages

Answer 21

• same as simple random sampling

- easy to use in the field

Question 22

What is multistage sampling?

Answer 22

• involves dividing population into groups or clusters

Question 23

What is stratified sampling?

Answer 23

• STRATA- internally homogenous groups, similar within but different between. Stratify according to characteristics.
• METHOD- determine the strata and then sample from the strata in proportion to its size

Question 24

Snowball sampling

Answer 24

Find one respondent and ask for more names. Eg. Drug users

Question 25

Quota sampling

Answer 25

Sample made representative by imposing quota controls linked to the topic (age, gender, marital status)

Question 26

Spatial sampling

Answer 26

• sample locations from a map/field/lake
• 3 basic methods
  ; point samples
  ; line samples (traverses)
  ; area sample (quadrats)

Question 27

What must a strategy be?

Answer 27

• fit with aims and objectives
• is it piratical, achievable, measurable
• have I got the resources