Questionnaire Design

What is a questionnaire?  Formalized schedule for collecting data from respondents Outlines information to be gathered Key criteria of a good questionnaire  Relevance to the problem at hand  Accuracy in terms of its measures

Questionnaire Design Components of a Questionnaire  ID data  Request for cooperation  Instructions  Information sought  Classification data

Questionnaire Design Procedure for developing a questionnaire  More of an art than a science Specify the information to be sought Determine the type of questionnaire and method of administration Determine content of individual questions Determine response form to each question Determine specific wording of each question

Questionnaire Design Procedure for developing a questionnaire  Determine question sequence  Determine physical characteristics of the questionnaire  Re-examine the above steps and revise (if necessary)  Pretest questionnaire and revise

Questionnaire Design Information sought  Guided by the problem definition and the hypotheses  Be careful to focus on the problem at hand and the necessary hypotheses “Interesting” information will only make the questionnaire longer which will likely contribute to non-sampling error

Questionnaire Design Type of questionnaire and method of administration  Depends on the problem at hand Structured versus unstructured depends on the problem definition

Questionnaire Design Determine content of individual questions  Is a question necessary?  Are several questions necessary, or just one?  Do typical respondents have the necessary information to answer the question? Example -- Opinion Metallic Metals Act of 1947  If they don’t they will still answer it

Questionnaire Design Determine content of individual questions (cont’d)  Will respondents provide the information? Options for sensitive questions  Hide the question  State the question using terms that suggest the behavior or attitude in question is not unusual  Phase the questions in terms of others  State the question with response categories (easy to check a response box)  Randomized Response Model

Questionnaire Design Questions that respondents may not answer accurately (i.e., sensitive questions)  Avoid?  Use Randomized Response Model Example: Issue to be known – Have you ever been convicted of a felony? Sensitive Question (SQ): Have you ever been convicted of a felony? _____ Yes _____ No Innocuous Question (IQ): (But must know probability of the answer) Is your birthday in January? _____ Yes _____ No

Questionnaire Design Randomized Response Model  Procedure At random, respondent receives questionnaire containing either SQ or IQ We know the probability of “Yes” answer to IQ is 1/12 or.08 Use the following formula to calculate the true percentage “Yes” answers to either SQ or IQ Example – Assume number of “Yes” answers to both the IQ and SQ was.20

Questionnaire Design Form of the response  Open-ended  Fixed alternative Dichotomous  Yes/No Multichotomous  Strongly Agree  Agree  Disagree  Strongly Disagree

Questionnaire Design Question wording  Simple words  Avoid ambiguous words  Avoid leading questions  Avoid implicit alternatives  Avoid estimates  Avoid double-barreled questions

Questionnaire Design Question Sequence  Simple & interesting opening questions  Funnel approach Start broad and get narrow  Difficult or sensitive questions late  Classification information last

Questionnaire Design Determine physical characteristics  Securing response – this is most important  Facilitate handling and control Re-examination and revision Pretests

Questionnaire Design International markets  Double Translation (single is not enough)