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Week 3
1. WEEK 2: SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES,
AND APPEARANCE MEASUREMENT: SCALING,
RELIABILITY, VALIDITY
Quantitative Research Methods
2. AGENDA
• Week 2 Recap (previous week)
• Days 1+2 – Week 3:
• Fink Chapter 3: Getting it Together: Some Practical Concerns
• S&B Chapter 8: Data collection methods: Observation
• Next week assignment and readings…
3. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
1. Overview and Length Counts
2. Getting the Survey in Order
3. Questionnaire Format: Aesthetics and Other Concerns
4. Branching Questions, or the Infamous ¨Skip¨ Pattern
5. Administration: Who Gives What to Whom?
6. Reliability and Validity: The Quality of Your Survey
7. Selecting and Adapting Surveys
8. Finding Surveys on the Web
9. The Survey is Put on Trail: Guidelines for Pilot Testing
10. A Far-Reaching World: Surveys, Language, and Culture
4. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Overview and Length Counts
How long should a survey be? The length of a survey depends on what
you need to know and how many questions are necessary so that the resulting
answers are credible. How much time do they have available, and will they pay
attention to the survey?
5. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Getting the Survey in Order
All surveys should be preceded by an introduction and the first set of
questions should be related to the topic described in it.
6. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Example: An Introduction to a Telephone Survey and its First Question.
Hello, I am calling from the California University. We are surveying people why live in student housing to find out whether it is a
satisfactory place to live. Your name was selected at random from the housing registry, a directory of students who have
voluntary listed their telephone numbers. Our questionnaires will take no more than 4 minutes. You can interrupt me at any time.
May I ask you the questions?
[If YES, continue. If NO, say thank you, express concern for bothering the person, and hang up.]
[Continue here.]
The first question asks you about your overall satisfaction with the apartment. Do you consider it [read choices]
Definitely Satisfactory
Probably Satisfactory
Probably not Satisfactory
Definitely not Satisfactory
[Do NOT SAY] no opinion or don´t know/wrong answer
7. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Checklist to Guide Question Order
• For any given topic, ask relatively objective questions before the subjective ones.
• Move from the most familiar to the least.
• Follow the natural sequence of time.
• See to it that all questions are independent.
• Relatively easy-to-answer questions (including demographic questions such as age
or occupation) should be asked at the end.
• Avoid many items that look alike.
• Sensitive questions should be placed well after the start of the survey but also well
before its conclusion.
• Questions should be in logical order.
8. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Questionnaire Format: Aesthetics and Other Concerns
A questionnaire´s appearance is vitally important. A written self-
administered questionnaire that is hard to read can confuse or irritate
respondents.
Do: put just one question on a line. Leave plenty of space for responses.
Don´t: squeeze several questions together. Do not abbreviate questions.
9. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Branching Questions, or the Infamous ¨Skip¨ Pattern
If you want to ask about a topic that you know in advance will not be
relevant to everyone in the survey, you might design a form such as the one in
the following example:
3. Do you participate in sports?
a. No (GO TO QUESTION 4)
b. Yes
IF YES, which sports do you perform?
Yes No
Soccer 1 2
Track and Field 1 2
Other, Please name:
10. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Administration: Who Gives What to Whom?
Self-administered questionnaires require a great deal of preparation and
monitoring to get a reasonable response rate.
11. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Administration: Who Gives What to Whom?
Checklist for using self-administered questionnaires
• Send respondents an advance letter via regular mail or email telling them the purpose of
your questionnaire
• Prepare a short, formal explanation to accompany the questionnaire form.
• Consider sending respondents a summary of the findings.
• If you ask questions that may be construed as personal – such a gender, etc. – explain why
the questions are necessary.
• Keep the questionnaire procedures simple.
• Keep questionnaires short.
• Consider incentives.
• Be prepared to follow up or send reminders.
• If you are doing an online survey: have a hardcopy, instructions, all in one, etc.
12. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Reliability and Validity: The Quality of Your Survey
Survey reliability: test-retest reliability (survey same group twice)
equivalency reliability (2 different forms – A & B)
internally consistent (Cronbach Alpha)
13. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Selecting and Adapting Surveys
There are many surveys and survey questions that you can get online for
free. Not always appropriate for your research. You do not know if the free
questions have been tried out or analyzed, if so to whom.
14. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
Finding Surveys on the Web
Gallup Organizations: http://www.gallup.com
General Social Survey: http://www.norc.org/Research/Projects/Pages/general-
social-survey.aspx
National Opinion Research Center: http://norc.uchicago.edu/homepage.htm
The Pew Charitable Trusts: http://www.pewtrusts.org
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality:
http://www.ahrq.gov/data/datasources.htm
The U.S. Census http://www.census.gov
The Institute of Education Sciences through the National Center for Education
Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/datatools/index.asp?DataToolSectionmID=3
15. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
The Survey is Put on Trail: Guidelines for Pilot Testing
Guidelines for Pilot Testing
1. Try to anticipate the actual circumstances in which the survey will be conducted and make
plans to handle them.
2. You can start by trying out selected portions of the survey in an informal fashion.
3. Choose respondents similar to the ones who will eventually complete the survey.
4. Enlist as many people in the pilot as seems reasonable without wasting your resources.
5. For reliability, focus on the clarity of the questions and the general format of the survey.
6. To help bolster validity, you should ensure that all relevant topics have been included in the
survey (given your resources)
7. Test your ability to get a range of responses. If people truly differ in their views or feelings,
will the survey capture those differences.
16. CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY FORM: QUESTIONS, SCALES, AND
APPEARANCE.
HOW TO CONDUCT SURVEYS – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE (FINK)
A Far-Reaching World: Surveys, Language, and Culture
Many surveys are translated into different languages. If you plan on
translating your survey, do not assume that you can automatically reqord each
question into the new language.
