1. How Science Works
Questionnaires

2. What is a questionnaire?
1. gather data by asking people what they think or feel about a certain situation or how they think they might behave
2. include written questions
3. require the Pps to write their answers down or enter them onto a computer
include personal data questions about age, gender and social background so that the researchers can compare responses from different groups of people.
ordered so that more straight forward questions come first, then the more in-depth or qualitative questions later and personal data questions at the end.

3. What is a questionnaire?
6. make use of many different question formats, including closed and open questions which can gather both quantitative and qualitative data
7. usually start with a set of standardised instructions to make sure everyone fills the questionnaire in as intended and in the same way
8. must abide by the BPS ethical guidelines

4. Closed questions also known as fixed response questions
offer the respondent a closed set of responses from which to choose
only useful if you have a thorough understanding of the range of possible responses so that you can appropriately develop the answer choices
Not useful if you want to capture new ideas or thoughts from the respondent.

5. Examples of closed questions
Do you have a driver's license? ( ) Yes ( ) No Which subject do you enjoy the most at school? ( ) Math ( ) Science ( ) English ( ) Foreign Language ( ) History ( ) Government ( ) Art / Music ( ) Other How many hours a day do you spend doing homework? ( ) 0 to 1 hour ( ) 2 to 3 hours ( ) 4 to 5 hours ( ) more than 5 hours

6. Assessing attitudes with closed questions
Likert scales
Developed by Rensis Likert in 1932
Pps has to circle a number to show the extent to which he or she agrees/disagrees with a statement
Odd numbers allow the person to choose middle value
Even numbers force them to show some degree of opinion one way of the other

7. Assessing attitudes with closed questions
Semantic differentials
Developed by Charles Osgood, (1957)
A form of rating scale
Pps has to indicate where his or her position lies, on a scale between two bipolar adjectives , e.g. "Adequate-Inadequate", "Good-Evil" or "Valuable Worthless")

8. What are your memories of the Victory Party Parade?
Open questions
Allow Pps to state their attitudes and opinions, recall their experiences etc in their own words.
These are useful if you want to capture new ideas from your participants.
Enable you to collect qualitative data
Examples:
How did you feel when Harry Redknapp left Portsmouth football club for Southampton? -
What are your memories of the Victory Party Parade?

9. Evaluating Validity
Factors which might affect the validity of the answers:
Length of questionnaire
Promise of confidentiality
Social desirability
Researcher watching them
Poorly designed questions;
Pp’s answer varies from the options available
Ambiguous questions
Ambiguous, overlapping answer options
Leading questions

10. Evaluating reliability
Standardised questions and order mean that questionnaires can be replicated and thus reliability (consistency) can be checked
Important that standardised procedure is used, Pps answer questionnaire in similar environment, same researcher, same time as these situational variables might affect consistency/reliability of findings.
Standardised instructions should also help to improve ease of replication and ensure that results are reliable

11. Generalisability
This term refers to the extent to which the findings can be applied beyond the sample participants and relates more to the sampling technique than the research method in this instance
It may be important to consider ways in which everyone is able to access and answer the questionnaire
Questionnaires may be limited to people who can read and write
Open questions may only be completed by those with more advanced language skills, more time or more motivation, making the results unrepresentative
Pps are free to choose their own answers particularly in qualitative questions and therefore the data collected should not be as artificial as data from a lab experiment.

12. Leading questions
Bad Question: Leading Do you think that the new cafeteria lunch menu offers a better variety of healthy foods than the old one? ( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) No Opinion Good Question: Neutral How do you feel about the new cafeteria lunch menu compared to the old one? ( ) The new menu offers a better variety of healthy foods ( ) The old menu offers a better variety of healthy foods ( ) The selections are similar ( ) No opinion When Harry and the boys brought the cup home, how did you feel? When manager Harry Redknapp and the team returned to Portsmouth with the FA cup, how did you feel?

13. Watch the following video clip
This clip includes offensive racist language and the programme is upsetting and unsettling.
Imagine you are creating a questionnaire to collect some data about the experience of Asian families in Southmead. Write ...
3 ‘good practice ‘closed questions
3 likert scale questions
3 semantic differential questions
3 open questions
2 ‘bad practice’ leading questions
3 personal data questions relevant to the objective
Share questions with another pair and modify the leading questions to make them neutral

14. HW: Create your own questionnaire
Visit survey monkey and create your own questionnaire to find out about the experiences of pupils who are new to PGS; use the tip sheet provided
Use a range of different question formats
Include questions which gather both qualitative and quantitative data
Include some open and some closed questions
Include some personal data questions
You must have only 10 questions
Start with standardised instructions and BPS ethical considerations