Question and Questionnaire Design Essay

Exclusively available on Available only on IvyPanda® Made by Human No AI

Introduction. Cognitive Process and Question Types

  • Four steps: interpretation, information, judgment, response
  • Optimizing behavior: self-expression, self-understanding, altruism, challenge
  • Weak and strong satisficing: arbitral, irrelevant
  • Satisficing factors: task difficulty, respondent ability, motivation
  • Open questions: rich in meaning, time-consuming
  • Closed questions: comprehensive, less reliable

Rating Scale and Its Length

  • Scale length affects validity, reliability, clarity, satisficing
  • Dichotomous scale: clear in meaning and inconsistent
  • Trichotomous scale: clear and not accurate
  • Long scales (101-points): incomprehensible, prone to errors
  • Midpoints lower motivation, improve reliability
  • “7-point scales are optimal in many instances” Krosnick & Presser (2009, p. 283)

Labeling and Order Response

  • Verbal labeling increases respondent’s satisfaction and reliability
  • “Yes/no” questions: practical, promote “acquiescence” Krosnick & Presser (2009, p. 21)
  • Acquiescence reasons: fatigue, politeness, personal characteristics
  • Possible approaches: adjust/exclude answers, “item reversal”
  • Primacy effects: attributable to “weak satisficing”, verbal
  • Recency effects: attributable to short-memory, oral

No-Opinion Answers

  • +“Don’t know” answers help not to appear uninformed
  • + the lack of necessary information and experience
  • +/-Help to escape socially undesirable images
  • -DK options prevent generation of meaningful answers
  • -Do not increase reliability and validity of the survey
  • -Encourage satisficing by providing shortcuts

Response Bias

Reasons: favorable image, reduce punishment, increase rewards

Possible spheres: racial prejudice, political views

Ways of counteraction:

  • “Bogus pipeline technique”
  • “Randomized response”
  • “Item count method” Krosnick and Presser (2009, p. 301)
  • Anonymity: self-administered questionnaire, web surveys

Error Sources

Main sources: “comprehension” and “frailties of memory” Krosnick and Presser (2009, p. 305)

Possible ways to avoid errors:

  • Interviewer’s instructions to the respondent
  • Long, redundant phrases and sentences
  • Explicit instructions about the importance of survey
  • Simplified tasks and wording of items, decomposition

Question Order

  • The main aim is to minimize errors
  • Question order major types: serial, semantic
  • Serial order affects: motivation, fatigue, learning
  • Semantic order affects: coherency, logic
  • “Funnel” order (general and specific items) Krosnick and Presser (2009, p. 313)
  • Reasons for specific order: context, survey focus

Questionnaires Evaluation

Methods without data collection:

  • Expert review (critiques of the questionnaire)
  • The Questionnaire Appraisal System
  • The Question Understanding Aid

Methods with data collection:

  • Behavior coding
  • Response latency

Reference

Krosnick J.A., & Presser S. (2009). Question and questionnaire design. In J.D. Wright & P.V. Marsden (Eds.), Handbook of survey research (pp. 263-314). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

More related papers Related Essay Examples
Cite This paper
You're welcome to use this sample in your assignment. Be sure to cite it correctly

Reference

IvyPanda. (2023, May 7). Question and Questionnaire Design. https://ivypanda.com/essays/question-and-questionnaire-design/

Work Cited

"Question and Questionnaire Design." IvyPanda, 7 May 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/question-and-questionnaire-design/.

References

IvyPanda. (2023) 'Question and Questionnaire Design'. 7 May.

References

IvyPanda. 2023. "Question and Questionnaire Design." May 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/question-and-questionnaire-design/.

1. IvyPanda. "Question and Questionnaire Design." May 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/question-and-questionnaire-design/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "Question and Questionnaire Design." May 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/question-and-questionnaire-design/.

If, for any reason, you believe that this content should not be published on our website, please request its removal.
Updated:
This academic paper example has been carefully picked, checked and refined by our editorial team.
No AI was involved: only quilified experts contributed.
You are free to use it for the following purposes:
  • To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
  • As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
  • As a template for you assignment
1 / 1