1. Developing a Questionnaire
Chapter 4

2. Types of Questions Open-ended Closed-ended
high validity, low manipulative quality
Closed-ended
low validity, high manipulative quality

3. Open-ended
An open-ended question is one in which you do not provide any standard answers to choose from.
How old are you? ______ years.
What do you like best about your job?

4. Closed-ended
A closed-ended question is one in which you provide the response categories, and the respondent just chooses one:
What do you like best about your job? (a) The people (b) The diversity of skills you need to do it (c) The pay and/or benefits (d) Other: ______________________________

5. Dichotomous Questions
Dichotomous Question: a question that has two possible responses
Could be
Yes/No
True/False
Agree/Disagree

6. Questions based on Level of Measurement
Use a nominal question to measure a variable
Assign a number next to each response that has no meaning; simply a placeholder.
Use an ordinal question to measure a variable
Rank order preferences
More than 5 – 10 items is difficult
Does not measure intensity

7. Interval Level Attempt to measure on an interval level
Likert response scale: ask an opinion question on a 1-to-5, 1-to-7, etc. bipolar scale
Bipolar: has a neutral point and scale ends are at opposite positions of the opinion
Semantic differential: an object is assessed by the respondent on a set of bipolar adjective pairs
Guttman scale: respondent checks each item with which they agree; constructed as cumulative, so if you agree to one, you probably agree to all of the ones above it in the list

8. Filter/Contingency Questions
To determine if a respondent is ‘qualified’ to answer questions, might need a filter or contingency question (also known as knowledge)
Limit # of jumps
If only two levels, use graphic to jump
If you can't fit the response to a filter on a single page, it's probably best to be send them to a page, rather than a question #

9. How many steps in the response scale?
Statistical reliability of the data increases sharply with the number of scale steps up to about 7 steps
After 7, it increases slowly, leveling off around 11
After 20, it decreases sharply

10. Should there be a middle category?
Does it make sense to offer it?
Should not be used as the “don’t know or no opinion” option.
The middle option is usually placed between the positive and negative responses.
Sometimes it’s last in an interview.

11. Direct Magnitude Scaling
Method of obtaining ratio-scaled data
Idea is to give respondents an anchor point, and then ask them to answer questions relative to that
Example:
Suppose you are interested in the severity of crimes.
Begin by assigning a number to one crime and then have respondents assign numbers to the others based upon a ratio.

12. Filtering "Don't Know" Standard format Quasi filter Full filter
No "don't know" option is presented to the respondent, but is recorded if the respondent volunteers it.
Quasi filter
A "don't know" option is included among the possible responses.
Full filter
First the respondent is asked if they have an opinion. If yes, the question is asked.

13. Question Placement
It's a good idea to put difficult, embarrassing or threatening questions towards the end
More likely to answer.
If they get mad and quit, at least you've gotten most of your questions asked!
Put related questions together to avoid giving the impression of lack of meticulousness
Watch out for questions that influence the answers to other questions.

14. Wording of Questions Direction of Statements Always and never Language
Response bias
Socially desirable
Always and never
Avoid this
Better to phrase as ‘most’, ‘infrequently’
Language
Reflect educational level and reading ability
Need for various languages

15. Frequency and Quantity
Consider both frequency and quantity
Consider number of times
Consider duration of times

16. Mutually Exclusive and Exhaustive
Mutually exclusive: not possible to select more than one category/value
Exhaustive: providing all possible categories/values

17. Forced Choice Choose between 2 choices Might not be relevant
Other choices exist (or at least possible)
Lesser of two evils

18. Recalling Behavior Can be difficult to remember
Ask questions that can be answered
Choose time frames that are reasonable
Pilot test for time frame issues

19. Response Bias Exaggerating the truth Socially desirable answers
Consider using ‘trap’ questions
Possibly fictional choice

20. Sensitive Items More comfortable answering in categories
Minimize missing data
Might loose statistical power

22. Evaluating Questions Pre-testing Cognitive interviewing
Behavior coding
Peer review
Peer review has shown to be the best method but it’s the least used. 

23. Validity and Reliability Questions
Evaluative strategies:
Analysis of data to evaluate the strength of predictable relationships among answers and with other characteristics of respondents.
Comparisons of data from alternatively worded questions asked of comparable samples.
Comparison of answers against records.
Measuring the consistency of answers of the same respondents at two points in time.

24. Coding the Questionnaire
Create a codebook: reference guide for the data set
Code: assigning a value to a response category
Often numeric code
Pre-coding makes it easier
Content analysis on open-ended items
Yes/No often coded as present or not (0 or 1)

25. Missing Responses Why blank? To code or not Missed them
Refusal to answer
Didn’t feel it applied
Didn’t know the answer
To code or not
Analyze the difference
If know why, might consider

26. Piloting the Questionnaire
Test it on yourself
Possibly other experts
Test on people similar to sample
Don’t reuse (some exceptions)
Discuss the survey with individuals
During completion or After

27. Finding Respondents Best Methods of Selection
Even with a good survey, poorly chosen sample leads to poor results