IM Course Guide

The questionnaire is the most commonly used research tool in the social sciences.

Essentially, it is a list of questions that does not require too much time nor money, and easily maintains the privacy of the respondent.

 Defining the objectives of a questionnaire

What is the goal of your research?  Define the hypothesis and the parameters of your survey.

For example:

1.  Is the data measured going to be qualitative (ex: opinions, assumptions & beliefs) or quantitative (observable, countable & factual)? 

2.  Is the interview going to be anonymous (easy to administer, time efficient & answers not influenced by presence of interviewer) or face-to-face (allows elaboration on answers)?

To determine the sample group it is helpful to ask:

1. Who are the group of interest for your research?

2. What sampling method will you use?

3. How will you contact them?

All questions should reflect back on the main goal of your questionnaire.

How? For each question ask yourself:   “what’s the point?  And, what do I want to know?”

Suggestions:

1. Start with non-invasive questions on demographics. It puts respondents at ease.

2. Ask only questions that are necessary.

3. Order your questions logically, and group themed questions together.

4. Avoid splitting questions across pages.

5. Always number questions.

State the reason for your survey before starting to ask questions. It gives respondents context for their answers and helps them in providing relevant answers.

1. Video: Choose between open-ended and closed questions

Open-ended question	Closed question
What is your gender?	Are you male or female?

Closed questions have clearly defined categories, allowing us to enter and analyse data easily.

In some cases, closed format questions exclude possible answers, like in the question on gender, above. 

2. Avoid leading questions

 Leading questions influence responses through the question itself or through the answer categories.

 

Leading question	Better question
How much do you enjoy the cafeteria food?	Rate the quality of the cafeteria food from 1-5.

 

Leading answer categories	Better answer categories
1 – Excellent 2 – Very good 3 – Good 4 – Enjoyable 5 – Edible	1 – Very good 2 – Good 3 – Neither good nor bad 4 – Bad 5 – Very bad

In this case the answer categories for the leading question are skewed toward having more positive responses. 

 

3. Avoid double-barrelled questions

Video: Double-barrelled questions force a respondent to answer multiple questions with one answer.  Answers to these questions can inaccurately portray respondent opinions, and they may lower respondent trust in the survey!

 

Double-barrelled question	Better question
Do you agree the government should reduce taxes and improve health care?	Should the government: a. Reduce taxes? b. Improve health care?

In this case, the respondent may agree that healthcare should be improved, but not that we should lower taxes; or vice versa. 

 

4.  Using a rating scale

Two commonly used rating scales (there are more!) are linear numeric scales and Likert scales.

Linear numeric scales rate the answer to a question on a numeric scale, often of 1-10.  At least the end points are labelled.  They are used to measure strength of (for example) importance, agreement or likelihood.

Not at all important					Neutral					Extremely important
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

 

Likert scales use an odd-numbered point scale (often 7-pts, but sometimes 5, or 9 or more) to measure strength of agreement. They are often used to gauge attitudes or reactions.

Agree	Somewhat agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Somewhat disagree	Disagree
1	2	3	4	5

 

5.   Avoid hypothetical questions

Hypothetical questions have hypothetical answers. They do not represent real opinions, and often generate hard-to-process data.