Questionnaire Designing

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BUSINESS RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

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Transcript of Questionnaire Designing

Page 1: Questionnaire Designing

BUSINESS RESEARCH

QUESTIONNAIRE

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QUESTIONNAIRE

• A set of questions on a topic or group of topics designed to be answered by a respondent

• A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.

• Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case.

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QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGNING PROCESSSpecify the information needed.

Specify the type of interviewing method.

Determine the content of individual questions.

Design the question to overcome the respondent’s inability and unwillingness to answer.

Decide on the question structure.

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QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGNING PROCESSDetermine the question wording.

Arrange the questions in proper order.

Identify the form and layout.

Reproduce the questionnaire.

Eliminate bugs by pretesting.

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TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRES

• Structure/ Standardise questionnaire• Unstructured questionnaire

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TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRES

• Unstructured questionnaire• Open-ended questions that respondents answer

in their own words.• E.g. What is your occupation? • They are good as first questions on a topic. They

enable the respondents to express general attitudes and opinions that can help the researcher interpret their responses to structured questions.

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TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRES

• Structured questionnaire• Specify the set of response alternatives and the

response format.• (i) Multiple-Choice Questions – Researcher provides a

choice of answers and respondents are asked to select one or more of the alternatives given.

• (ii) Dichotomous Questions – Has only two response alternatives: yes or no, agree or disagree, and so on.

• (iii) Scales –Scale can be used as :Do you intend to buy a new car within the next six months?

Definitely will buy

Probably will buy Undecided Probably will

not buy

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TYPES OF QUESTIONS

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TYPES OF QUESTIONS

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DESIGNING QUESTIONS

• Effect of a given word• Balance in question wording• Don’t know answers – offered or volunteered?• Using scales• Question order• Pre-testing

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11%13%

33%

70%

21%

5% 3%

43%

To have a hotline For government to set up a hotline

The Effect of One WordHow important do you think it isto have a hotline telephone number people can call to get help when they have problems with their health plan?

How important do you think it is for the GOVERNMENT to set up a hotline telephone number people can call to get help when they have problems with their health plan?

Very Important

Somewhat Important

Not too important

Not at all important

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What’s wrong with these questions?• Do you support the India taking military action

against Pakistan?

• If you heard that Candidate X supported stricter reservation laws, would that make you more likely to vote for her?

• Did you happen to vote in the presidential election in 2000?

BALANCE IN QUESTION WORDING

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Bad questions, improved:• Do you support or oppose the India taking military

action against Pakistan?

• If you heard that Candidate X supported stricter reservation laws, would that make you more likely to vote for her, less likely to vote for her, or wouldn’t it make much difference?

• Did you happen to vote in the presidential election in 2000, or not?

BALANCE IN QUESTION WORDING

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4%

54%

42%

Do you favor or oppose the government offering parents money or "vouchers" to send their children to private or religious schools, or public schools outside their district?

Do you favor or oppose the government offering parents money or "vouchers" to send their children to private or religious schools, or public schools outside their district, or haven’t you heard enough about that to have an opinion?

31%

36%

33%

Favor

Oppose

No opinion

Favor

Oppose

No opinion

DON’T KNOW ANSWERS – OFFERED OR VOLUNTEERED?

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Making Medicare more financially sound for future generations

Increasing the number of people covered by health insurance

Helping states with the cost of Medical aid

Taking steps to lower medical malpractices

Percent saying “very important”

Helping people age 65 and over pay for prescription medicines

When forced to choose…

Which of the following issues you say are very important do you think is most important?*

11%

8%

27%

19%

27%

*Also includes those who named only one issue as “very important”

USING SCALES

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Now, I’m going to read you some different health care issues. As I read each one, please tell me how important you think it is for the Government to deal with this issue – very important, somewhat important, not too important, or not important at all.

53%

64%

74%

81%

81%

Making Medicare more financially sound for future generations

Increasing the number of people covered by health insurance

Helping states with the cost of Medical aid

Taking steps to lower medical malpractices

Percent saying “very important”

Helping people age 65 and over pay for prescription medicines

USING SCALES

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HOW QUESTIONS CAN AFFECT ONE ANOTHER

• Ask general questions before specific priority questions in order to obtain unbiased responses

• Pay attention to how one question might influence answers to future questions:

Rank the following diseases in terms of their severity – HIV/AIDS, Polio, Leukemia, Cervical Cancer

In considering whether or not to vote for a political candidate, how important is the candidate’s position on HIV/AIDS in making your choice?

What do you think is the most important health care issues for the government to address?

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TESTING THE QUESTIONNAIRE

• Pre-testing• The last step in questionnaire design is to test a

questionnaire with a small number of interviews before conducting your main interviews. Ideally, you should test the survey on the same kinds of people you will include in the main study. This kind of test run can reveal unanticipated problems with question wording, instructions to skip questions, etc. It can help see if the interviewees understand your questions and giving useful answers.

• If you change any questions after a pre-test, you should not combine the results from the pre-test with the results of post-test interviews.

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IMPROVING THE RESPONSE RATE IN A MAIL SURVEY

• Quality printing• Covering letter• Advance information• Incentives• Follow-up-contacts• Larger sample size

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DISTINCTION B/W SCHEDULES & QUESTIONNAIRES

• Questionnaires are mailed to the respondent whereas schedules are carried by the investigator himself.

• Questionnaires can be filled by the respondent only if he is able to understand the language in which it is written and he is supposed to be a literate. This problem can be overcome in case of schedule since the investigator himself carries the schedules and the respondent’s response is accordingly taken.

• A questionnaire is filled by the respondent himself whereas the schedule is filled by the investigator.

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QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION

• Question types• Usually, a questionnaire consists of a number of

questions that the respondent has to answer in a set format.

• An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his own answer, whereas a closed-ended question has the respondent pick an answer from a given number of options.

• The response options for a closed-ended question should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive.

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OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS

• Advantages:• Freedom and spontaneity of the answers• Opportunity to probe• Useful for testing hypothesis about ideas• Disadvantages:• Time-consuming• Coding: very costly and slow to process• Demand more effort from the respondents

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CLOSE ENDED QUESTIONS

• Advantages:• No extended writing• Easy to process• Useful for testing specific hypothesis• Disadvantages:• Loss of spontaneous response• Bias in answer categories• May irritate respondents

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CLOSE ENDED QUESTIONS

• Four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are distinguished:

• Dichotomous, where the respondent has two options… E.g.: True/False questions; Yes/No questions

• Nominal-polytomous, where the respondent has more than two unordered options

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CLOSE ENDED QUESTIONS

• Four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are distinguished:

• Ordinal-polytomous, where the respondent has more than two ordered options

• (bounded)Continuous, where the respondent is presented with a continuous scale

• A respondent's answer to an open-ended question is coded into a response scale afterwards.

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RULES FOR DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE

• Do’s• Establish rapport with respondent. For this:• Reveal your identity and purpose of study

• Give visiting card to the respondent• Show Authorization letter to the respondent

• Indicate that respondent’s answers to questions are valuable to you

• Assure respondent that his responses will be kept confidential

• Go in formal dress• Have eye contact with respondent

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START OF QUESTIONNAIRE

• Good morning/afternoon/evening. I am Mr./Ms. ___________ from __________. We are conducting a survey on ___________. I would be grateful if you can spare about ____ minutes for answering few questions. Your feedback is valuable to us. We will keep your feedback confidential.

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RULES FOR DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE

• Do’s• If possible, convince him about benefits that he will

derive by answering questions• Promise to reveal the identity of the sponsored

company (company for whom research is conducted), if necessary, after the interview is over and reveal it.

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RULES FOR DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE

• Do’s• Place filter questions at the beginning:

• If the survey contains commercially sensitive material, ask a "security" question to find whether the respondent or any member of his family works in the industry being surveyed. If so, terminate the interview

• Similarly, it is best to eliminate people in:• advertising, market research or media companies since

they may work for competing companies.

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RULES FOR DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE

• Do’s• Ask easy questions at the beginning• Sequence questions from general information to

specific information• Put questions asking ultimate opinion/decision at

the end• Place demographic questions at the end• Use switching statements. For e.g.

• Now I will ask you about your family’s details

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RULES FOR DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE

• Do’s• For sensitive questions:• Start such questions with ‘I know’. For e.g.:

• ‘I know this might appear a bit blunt, but ….’• ‘I know this may sound like an odd question, but…’

• Ask permission. For e.g.:• ‘Do you mind if I ask you to tell me…’• ‘Do you mind if I ask you a question about…’• ‘I hope you won’t object to telling me about …’

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RULES FOR DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE

• Do’s• Use categories for sensitive data. E.g. age, income• Include all relevant answers to a close ended

question:• Use ‘Not Applicable, ‘Do not know’ or ‘Any other’

options• Give mutually exclusive options to a question:

• Less than 10000• 10001 to 20000…..

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RULES FOR DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE

• Do’s• Write instructions to interviewer at the beginning of

the question• Use capital letters for instructions• Give full form of abbreviation before it is used• Rotate the order of the statements in Likert scale,

attributes in semantic differential scale to avoid halo effect

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RULES FOR DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE

• Do’s• Use checkboxes for recording answers• Use numbers to options given:• 1. Yes 2. No • Provide ‘other comments’ box at the end of

questionnaire• Use conversational language in writing questions• Each questionnaire should have unique serial

number and interviewer’s code no.

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MEASUREMENT ERROR

• Error that occurs when the measurement we obtain is not an accurate portrayal of what we tried to measure

• The giving of inaccurate answers to the questions• Measurement error may also be affected by

• question wording• respondent’s level of knowledge on the topic• whether or not the respondent has an opinion about

the topic• respondent having an accurate memory• respondent wanting to present a good image

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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

• Response rate• The percentage of the sample contacted that

actually participates in a study • Response rate is affected by

• The number of people who cannot be reached for the study (noncontacts)

• The number who choose not to participate (refusals)

• The number who are incapable of performing the tasks required of them • For example, due to illness or language barriers

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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

• Nonresponse error • Results from differences between non-

responders and responders to a survey

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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

• When participants and nonparticipants differ in social characteristics, opinions, attitudes, values, or behavior – then generalization to a larger population is much more difficult

• Some researchers have questioned whether higher rates of refusal automatically means more bias

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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

• Stop and Think• Have you ever been asked to complete a

questionnaire or an interview?• What factors did you consider when deciding

whether or not to participate?• Think about what you would do if you were on

the other side. What would you do to try and convince someone to participate in a survey?

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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

• Participation in studies can best be understood within a social exchange context.

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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

• Respondents are asked to give up their time, engage in interactions controlled by the interviewer, think about issues or topics that might cause discomfort, and take the risk of being asked to reveal embarrassing information.

• Potential participants might worry about privacy and lack of control over the information

• Conversely, participants might want to participate because of an interest in a topic, a desire to share their views, or knowledge that their information will be useful to science and society

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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

• Possible ways to increase participant rates• Advance mailings• Incentives

• Giving small gifts• Token cash payments

• Focusing on the interesting aspects of participation

• Re-contacting participants to encourage participation

• Minimize the costs of participation• For example, time and possible embarrassment

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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

• Self-Administered Questionnaires• Group-Administered Questionnaires

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PARTICIPANTS INVOLVEMENT

• How to ask questions• Keep the questionnaire or interview as short as

possible• Only the necessary questions planned for data

analysis should be asked • A preliminary draft or pilot test should be used

with a small sample• A pilot test is a preliminary draft of a set of

questions that is tested before the actual data collection.

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PARTICIPANTS INVOLVEMENT

• How to ask questions• Avoid loaded words – words that trigger an

emotional response or strong association by their use

• Avoid ambiguous words – words that can be interpreted in more than one way

• Don’t use double negative questions – questions that can ask people to disagree with a negative question

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PARTICIPANTS INVOLVEMENT

• How to ask questions• Don’t use leading questions – questions that

encourage the respondent to answer in a certain way, typically by indicating which is the “right” or “correct” answer

• Avoid threatening questions, or questions that make respondents afraid or embarrassed to give an honest answer

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PARTICIPANTS INVOLVEMENT

• How to ask questions• Don’t use double-barreled or compound

questions – questions that ask two or more questions in one

• Ask question in the language of your respondents, using the idioms and language appropriate to the sample’s level of education, vocabulary of the region, etc.

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PARTICIPANTS INVOLVEMENT

• How to ask questions• Question order & context• Consider a logical order that makes

participation easy• To encourage participation start with

interesting, no threatening questions, and save questions about sensitive topics for the middle or end

• Conclude with “cool down” to minimize discomfort of participant