Questionnaire development basics for survey based research

1. Questionnaire development and data
analysis

2. Questionnaire meaning
A set of printed or written questions with a choice of answers,
devised for the purposes of a survey or statistical study.

3. Steps in Questionnaire development
• 1. Decide the information required.
• 2. Define the target respondents.
• 3. Choose the method(s) of reaching your target respondents.
• 4. Decide on question content.
• 5. Develop the question wording.
• 6. Put questions into a meaningful order and format.
• 7. Check the length of the questionnaire.
• 8. Pre-test the questionnaire.
• 9. Develop the final survey form.

4. Decide the information required
• Decide 'what are the things one needs to know from the
respondent in order to meet the survey's objectives?‘
• Additional help from secondary data and exploratory research.
• Get aware of what work has been done on the same or similar
problems in the past.
• Factors not yet been examined,
• How the present survey questionnaire can build on what has
already been discovered.
• Preliminary informal interviews

5. Define the target respondents
• population about which he/she wishes to generalise from the
sample data to be collected.
• Draw up a sampling frame.
• Take into account factors such as the age, education, etc. of the
target respondents

6. Choose the method(s) of reaching target
respondents
The method of reaching the intended respondents will influence not only
the questions the researcher is able to ask, but the phrasing of those
questions.
The main methods available in survey research are:
• personal interviews
• group or focus interviews
• mailed questionnaires
• telephone interviews.
“A general rule is that the more sensitive or personal the information, the
more personal the form of data collection should be.”

7. Decide on question content
• "Is this question really needed?"
• Resist the temptation to include questions without critically evaluating their contribution towards
the achievement of the research objectives.
• No question should be included unless the data it gives rise to is directly of use in testing one or
more of the hypotheses established during the research design.
• “Redundant" questions might be included:
1. When opening questions are easy to answer and which are not perceived as being "threatening",
or
2. When questions are perceived as being interesting, can greatly assist in gaining the respondent's
involvement in the survey and help to establish a rapport.
3. "Dummy" questions can disguise the purpose of the survey and/or the sponsorship of a study.

8. Develop the question wording
• Simple wordings, common understanding
• Watch for “and” alert
• Vary wording to produce variation in replies
• Avoid difficult tasks
• Use existing wording if comparative study
• Take edge off sensitive questions
• No speculation on hypothesis
Survey questions can be classified into three forms, i.E. Closed, open-
ended and open response-option questions.

9. Multiple choice questionnaire
• The respondent selects one of the alternative possible answers put to him,
whereas in the latter he has to supply the answer in his own words.
• Advantages:
1. Ease of handling, simple to answer, quick and relatively inexpensive to
analyse.
2. They are most amenable to statistical analysis.
3. helps to make clear the meaning of the question.
Disadvantage:
1. it requires the researcher to have a good prior knowledge of the subject in
order to generate realistic/likely response options

11. Closed questions
• Respondent selects one of the two alternative possible
answers put to him- either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
• Advantages:
1. It provides the respondent with an easy method of indicating his answer
2. The respondents does not have to think about how to articulate his answer.
3. Rely less on memory in answering a question.
4. Responses can be easily classified, making analysis very straightforward.
Disadvantages:
• They do not allow the respondent the opportunity to give a different response
to
• They 'suggest' answers that respondents may not have considered before.

12. Q. Have you ever had contact with handicapped in any of these
groups? (Circle to indicate "yes" or "no" for each group.)
Yes No
Community 1 0
Family 1 0
Relatives 1 0
Elementary school class 1 0
Junior high school class 1 0
Senior high school class 1 0
University class 1 0
As co-worker 1 0

13. Open-ended questions
• Open-ended questions which are designed to permit a free response from the
respondent rather than one limited to certain stated alternatives are considered
appropriate.
• Advantages:
1. Such questions give the respondent considerable latitude in phrasing a reply.
2. Complete picture of the respondent’s feelings and attitudes.
Disadvantages:
1. Difficult from an analytical point of view
2. Issue in raising problems of interpretation, comparability and interviewer bias.
3. may not give a full answer simply because they may forget to mention important
points.

14. Open-ended Questions
20. Approximately, what was your average in your final year of
high school?
%
21. What is (or was) your father's occupation? (e.g., foreman,
railway machine shop...supervises work of about 25 people.)
Job -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brief Job Description ---------------------------------------------------

15. Open-ended Questions
22. In what year were you born? 1 9 .
23. What is the one thing that you would like to see changed at the
university health and counseling center?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

16. Use open-ended when...
• Too many response categories (yr. of birth)
• you don’t wish to impose categories on respondent
• “really” consulting respondent
• qualitative--source of quotations
• determining appropriate categorization
• change-in-pace for respondent

17. Rank ordering questions
31. Rank order the three most important things you want in your nursing job? (Place a 1 beside the most
important one; a 2 beside the next important one; and a 3 beside the next most important one.)
High salary------------------- _____
Satisfaction------------------ ____
Continued interest----------- _____
Power------------------------- _____
Prestige---------------------- _____
Excitement-------------------- _____

18. Single Choice Question
Single choice questions provide only one possible entry type
E.g.
The population of the place I considered my
hometown when growing up was:
Rural area --------------------1
town under 5,000 --------------2
5,000 to 19,999 ---------------3
20,000 to 99,999 --------------4
100,000 to 999,999 ------------5
1,000,000 or over -------------6

19. • Drop box questions
• 5 point choice questions
• List radio questions
• List with comments
http://acps.aub.edu.lb/mod/book/view.php?id=667&chapterid=1049

20. Likert style questions
In the following items, circle a number to indicate the extent
to which you agree or disagree with each statement.
Q. I would quit my present job if I won $1,000,000 through
a lottery.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Strongly Agree
Q. I would be satisfied if my child followed the same type of career as I have.
Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Strongly Agree

22. Tips for Likert Style Questions
• “and” alert: avoid multidimentional
• “strongly agree” always on right side
• avoid double negatives--use direct negative statements
• vary “strength of wording” to produce variation in response
• make all respondents feel comfortable

23. Confusing questions
• "How many members are there in your family?“
• What did you dislike about the product you have just tried?“
• "How much does your husband earn?”
• What improvements would you want to see in food preparation
equipment?
• What is your income?'

24. Question yourself
• "Is this question sufficient to generate the required information?“
• "Can the respondent answer the question correctly?“
• "Are there any external events that might bias response to the
question?“
• "Do the words have the same meaning to all respondents?“
• "Are any of the words or phrases loaded or leading in any way?“
• "Are there any implied alternatives within the question?“
• "Are any words or phrases vague?"

25. Putting in order
• Opening question – easy, simple to understand.
• Question flow - one leads easily and naturally to the next.
Group together questions on same topic
• Question variety – avoid respondent boredom
use images or graphs.

26. Sequence of the questions
• Questions that are of special importance should, if possible, be
included in the earlier part of the questionnaire.
• Respondent may lose patience/interest at the end of the
questionnaire.
• Pay particular attention to the presentation and layout of the
interview form itself.
• Prescribed definitions and explanations should be provided.

27. Good questionnaire design

28. Physical appearance
• Best for a questionnaire to be as short as possible.
• Ill-designed questionnaires – poor impression of complexity,
medium and too big a time commitment.
• Data quality can also be affected - unnecessarily confusing layouts
making it more difficult for interviewers, or respondents in the
case of self-completion questionnaires, to complete this task
accurately.
• Attention to just a few basic details can have a disproportionately
advantageous impact on the data obtained

29. Piloting the questionnaires
• Whether the questions as they are worded will achieve the desired
results
• Whether the questions have been placed in the best order
• Whether the questions are understood by all classes of respondent
• Whether additional or specifying questions are needed or whether
some questions should be eliminated
• Whether the instructions to interviewers are adequate.

30. Searching for questionnaire/ scale
Search for research paper on Google scholar/ other sources
Check the measurement or the scale section
Check the reference given
Take the questionnaire
Modify, if required.

33. What you are supposed to do
• Prepare questionnaire for each of your variables.
• Try to add valuable and needed questions only
• In total three set of questionnaire should be there- one for
independent variable, one for dependent and one for mediator.
• Then enter the data in SPSS.
• Analyse the said statistical tests
• Report in your paper.

34. Data analysis
• Mean
• Standard deviation
• Correlation
• Reliability of measures used – Cronbach Alpha reliability test
• Hierarchical regression analysis
• USE PROPER REFERENCE FOR EACH TEST
• TOOLS: SPSS

35. Reliability -A test is considered reliable if we get
the same result repeatedly.

40. Validity-
the extent to which a concept, conclusion or measurement is well-
founded and corresponds accurately to the real world
that measures
that should be
related are in
reality related.

42. Validity-
the extent to which a concept, conclusion or measurement is well-
founded and corresponds accurately to the real world
.
that measures that
should not be
related are in
reality not related.

45. Thank you