Chapter 9 - Surveys, questionnaires, and polls. After reading this chapter, you should be able to: Design a survey or questionnaire to answer a research question or test a hypothesis, select the survey format (face-to-face, telephone, self-report, web, email) that will best serve the purpose of the survey, select existing or design appropriate questionnaire items and response sets,. | Chapter 9 Surveys, Questionnaires, and Polls Most commonly used quantitative method Used for obtaining information about what people do, and respondents’ attitudes or characteristics In experimental, quasi-experimental, and descriptive research designs What is a Survey? System for collecting comparable information across many people Paper-and-pencil self-administered or self-reports Face-to-face Telephone Mail Computer-assisted Designing a Survey Develop the research design Evaluate existing questionnaires/surveys Recommended over creating your own Has undergone extensive testing and revision Minor changes are okay; substantial changes will require that you pretest or pilot test the questionnaire Writing Your Own Questionnaire Start with literature review Designing survey items Straightforward One complete thought written in sentence or question format Respondent should know how to answer Avoid abbreviations and slang expressions Shorter items are better than long ones | Chapter 9 Surveys, Questionnaires, and Polls Most commonly used quantitative method Used for obtaining information about what people do, and respondents’ attitudes or characteristics In experimental, quasi-experimental, and descriptive research designs What is a Survey? System for collecting comparable information across many people Paper-and-pencil self-administered or self-reports Face-to-face Telephone Mail Computer-assisted Designing a Survey Develop the research design Evaluate existing questionnaires/surveys Recommended over creating your own Has undergone extensive testing and revision Minor changes are okay; substantial changes will require that you pretest or pilot test the questionnaire Writing Your Own Questionnaire Start with literature review Designing survey items Straightforward One complete thought written in sentence or question format Respondent should know how to answer Avoid abbreviations and slang expressions Shorter items are better than long ones Open Questions Respondents use their own words to respond Makes data less comparable and more difficult to interpret Consider what constitutes an adequate answer Build that request into the question Use a recall cue to draw participants’ attention to issue, topic, or timeframe Record everything participant says Code responses after all data are collected Closed Questions Respondents given a question or statement and given a set of responses to select from All responses must be known in advance Creates easily comparable responses Use a recall cue or stimulus statement to draw participants’ attention to issue, topic, or timeframe Response Sets for Closed Questions Nominal or categorical responses Exhaustive Mutually exclusive Equivalent Likert-type scales 5- or 7-point scale Includes middle or neutral response Semantic differential scales Bipolar adjectives anchor 7-point scale Examples of Response Sets for Likert-Type Scales Very often Fairly often Occasionally Rarely .
