Week 3 Reading de Vauss (1999): Structured Questionnaires and Interviews Flashcards
Descriptive research questions
= answer the ‘what’ questions:
- charecteristics of a population
- levels of a phenomenon
Questions to refine focus of descriptive research questions
5
- Over what time period is description required? Current trends vs past vs over time?
- What is the geographical location of my interest?
- Do i want to describe pattenrs seperately for different sub-groups?
- What aspect of the topic am I interested in?
- How abstract is my interest?
Explanatory research questions
= explain why things are the way they are, causes and consequeneces of a phenomenon
Four main forms of explanatory research
- Searching for causes
- Searching for consequences
- Testing a simple proposition
- Testing more complex ideas
questions to ask for explanatory research
4
- What am I seeking to explain?
- What are the possible causes (or consequences)?
- Which causes (or consequences) will I explore?
- What are the possible mechanisms?
Characteristics of good questions for questionnaires (6)
- Validity
- Reliability
- Discrimination (sensitive to measuring real and meaningful differences in a sample)
- Eliciting igh response rate (minimising non-response)
- Same meaning for all respondents
(minimising misinterpretation,
maximising clarity and avoiding
ambiguity) - Relevance
drivers (no ‘i’)
Factors that contribute to non-response (4) of a questionnaire
- question content
- question construction
- method of administration
- questionnaire length
questions to ask to ensure a question is relevant enough for inclusion in a questionnaire (3)
- Does it measure a concept that the research is addressing?
- Do other questions measure the concept adequately?
- How will it be used in analysis
Five main types of question content
- behaviour: what ppl do
- beliefs: what ppl believe to be true or false
- attitudes: what ppl think is desirable
- knowledge: whether ppl have info on a topic
- attributes: ppl’s characteristics
Three different aspects of measurement when investigating attitudes and beliefs
- direction: for or against
- intensity: how strongly/deeply
- extremity: how extreme it is
Open-ended question
= asks a question and respondent formulates own response
Closed-ended question
= respondent chooses from set of predetermined responses
Open-ended question advantages
2
- useful for
explaining reasoning behind answers in as
much detail as needed - don’t force opinions to conform to a pre-set list
Open-ended question disadvantages (3)
- harder to analyse
- opportunities for bias against less talkative and articulate respondents
- high rate of non-response
Closed-ended question advantages (6)
- less physical effort and time
- less mental effort, as the possible answers act as prompts
- lower rate of non-response
- easier to code for
data analysis - no discrimination against
respondents who are less talkative or articulate - questions are answered within the correct frame of reference.
Closed-ended question disadvantages (2)
- create false opinions via providing only a narrow range
of alternatives or prompting acceptable
answers - lack the why
Types of open-ended questions
6
- the opener
- suggestion questions
- follow-up questions
- the why question
- knowledge or memory tests
- information-based
The opener
- non-directive, general, non-specific
- gets respondent thinking
Suggestion questions
= asks for suggestions about a topic or for ways of improving a situation
Follow-up questions
= ask for more detail regarding a previous answer
The why question
= ask why they answered a previous question the way they did