12-1 Chapter Twelve INSTRUMENTS OF PARTICIPANT COMMUNICATION

12-2 Instrument Design Process Phase 1: Developing the instrument design strategy Phase 2: Constructing and refining the measurement questions Phase 3: Drafting and refining the instrument

12-3 Management-Research-Investigative- Measurement Question Hierarchy Revisited Management question (Phase I) Research question(s) (Phase I) –Fact-based questions to solve the management question Investigative questions (Phase I) –Specific questions sufficiently covering the research questions Measurement questions (Phase II and III) –Actual questions to be asked to the participants

12-4 Phase I Concerns in Instrument Design Strategy –What type of data among four types? –What communication approach? –Question structure Question types: administrative, classification, and target questions Target questions: structured or unstructured? –Disguised or undisguised objective?

12-5 Phase II – Question Content Appropriate Question Content –Should this question be asked? Purposeful? –Is the question of proper scope and coverage? Focused? And complete? More than one question? Accurate information?

12-6 Phase II – Question Content Continued Appropriate Question Content (continued) –Can the participant adequately answer this question, as asked? Recall and memory decay Knowledgeable? Relevant? –Will the participant willingly answer this question, as asked? How sensitive?

12-7 Phase II – Question Content How to test a respondent’s appropriateness? –Filter questions: to test whether the participant is relevant or knowledgeable to the subsequent questions –Screen questions: to determine whether the participant is a qualified sample unit

12-8 Phase II - Question Wording Question Wording Criteria –Is the question stated in terms of a shared vocabulary? –Does the question contain vocabulary with a single meaning? –Does the question contain unsupported assumptions? –Is the question correctly personalized? –Are adequate alternatives presented within the question?

12-9 Phase II – Response Strategy Types of Response Questions –Free-response –Dichotomous –Multiple-choice –Checklist –Rating –Ranking

12-10 Phase II – Response Strategy What dictates your response strategy? –Characteristics of participants Communication skills, knowledge, motivation –Nature of the topic(s) being studied: objective of the study –Type of data needed –Your analysis plan

12-11 Phase III Components of communication instruments –Introduction –Screening process –Sequence of measurement questions –Conclusion

12-12 Phase III Sequencing measurement questions –Starting with questions to draw interest and motivation –From simple to complex –From general to specific –From impersonal to personal –Smaller number of transition from one topic to another topic

12-13 Phase III Refining the instrument by –Awakening the participant's interest –Using buffer questions as a guide to request sensitive information Buffer questions: neutral questions to establish rapport with the participants –Using the funnel approach to move from general to more specific questions –Using a pretest

12-14 Phase III Pretesting as a way of improving survey results Pretesting is an established practice for discovering errors and useful for training the research team. Pretesting options Researcher pretesting Participant pretesting Collaborative vs. non-collaborative pretesting