CHAPTER 8 - PRINCIPLES OF QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION

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CHAPTER 8 - PRINCIPLES OF QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION

Principle 8. Determine whether an open-ended or a closed-endedquestion is needed.

An open-ended question enables participants to respond in any way that theyplease. Open-ended questions take you into the natural language and worlds of yourresearch participants, and, therefore, open-ended questions provide primarilyqualitative data. Closed-ended questions provide primarily quantitative data.

Principle 7. Avoid double negatives.

When participants are asked for their agreement with a statement, doublenegatives can easily occur. For example,Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?Teachers should not be required to supervise their students during library time.If you disagree with the statement, you must construct a double negative (asentence construction that includes two negatives).

Principle 6. Avoid double-barreled questions.

Double-barrel question A question that combines two or more questions or attitude objects Because it is impossible to know which part of the question the participant addressed or whether it addressed the union of the two, it is a good rule to avoid double-barrel questions. As a general rule, if the word y appears in a question or statement, you should check whether it is double-rowed or, rather, whether the question is reaching a very specific situation.

Principle 5. Do not use “leading” or “loaded” questions.

A loaded question is one that contains emotionally loaded words (words that create a positive or negative reaction). A trick question is one that is formulated in such a way as to suggest a certain answer.

Principle 4. Write items that are clear, precise, and relativelyshort.

Each item on your questionnaire should be understandable to you (theresearcher) and to the participants (the people filling out the questionnaire).Because each item is measuring something, it is important for it to be clear andprecise.pic

Principle 3. Use natural and familiar language.

You should use language that is understandable to the people who are going to fill in your questionnaire. Try to avoid using technical terms. You should know enough about the participants to use language that is familiar to them. Take into account the age of the participants, their educational level and any relevant cultural characteristics when deciding on the type of language to use.

Principle 2. Understand your research participants.

A key to effective questionnaire construction is understanding the participants in the research. A very important strategy is to develop an empathetic understanding or the ability to "think like" your potential research participants. If the questionnaire does not "make sense" to your participants, it will not work.

Principle 1. Make sure the questionnaire items match yourresearch objectives.

To conduct an exploratory research study, the questionnaire does not have to be so detailed and specific that it must be broad in its questions so as not to miss an important concept that your research participants consider relevant. In both exploratory and confirmatory research, you should carefully examine the existing research literature.

Principle 9. Use mutually exclusive and exhaustive responsecategories for closed-ended questions.

The principle of mutually exclusive categories applies because none of thecategories overlap. The principle of exhaustive categories applies because acategory is available for every possible age.

Principle 10. Consider the different types of response categoriesavailable for closed-ended questionnaire items.

Researchers often obtain data from research participants by providing questionsor statements (the item stem) and rating scales (the response choices) withinstructions to make judgments about each item stem using the rating scale that isprovided.

Anchor A written descriptor for a point on a rating scale

Numerical rating scale A rating scale that includes a set of numbers withanchored endpoints

Rating scale A continuum of response choices

Principle 11. Use multiple items to measure abstract constructs.

Multiple items designed to measure a single construct are used to increase thereliability and validity of the measure. Perhaps the most commonly used procedurefor the measurement of abstract constructs is a summated rating scale (also calleda Likert scale).

Likert scale A type of summated rating scale invented by Rensis Likert

Summated rating scale A multi-item scale that has the responses for eachperson summed into a single score

Principle 12. Consider using multiple methods when measuringabstract constructs.

This principle follows from the long-standing maxim in social research that ourmeasurements are partially an artifact of our method of measurement. In fact, if youuse one method of measurement for all of your variables, it is possible that yourvariables are correlated simply because you used the same measurement procedure(Cronbach & Meehl, 1955)

Principle 13. Use caution if you reverse the wording in some of theitems to prevent response sets in multi-item scales.

One technique used to help prevent response sets (especially the acquiescenceresponse set) is to reverse the wording (and scoring) in some of the items. Thistechnique is intended to encourage participants to read each item on thequestionnaire more carefully. Furthermore, it isimportant for you to examine your data to try to “catch” when a response set occursand eliminate those responses. Finally, do not use a reverse-worded item if itresults in a double negative.

Principle 14. Develop a questionnaire that is properly organizedand easy for the participant to use.

The questionnaire should also not be overly long for the types of people inyour target population. Otherwise, they might not fill out the questionnaire properly,or they might refuse to complete the entire questionnaire.

Principle 15. Always pilot test your questionnaire.

It is a cardinal rule in research that you must “try out,” or pilot test, yourquestionnaire to determine whether it operates properly before using it in aresearch study. You should conduct your pilot test with a minimum of 5 to 10people. You may want to start with colleagues or friends, asking them to fill out thequestionnaire and note any points of confusion. Then you will need to pilot test thequestionnaire with several individuals similar to those who will be in yourresearch study.

WHAT IS A QUESTIONNAIRE?

Researchers measure many different types of characteristics using questionnaires; feelings, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions, personality and behavioural intentions of research participants.

A questionnaire is a self-report data-collection instrument that each researchparticipant fills out as part of a research study.