Questionnaire

Techniques involved in designing a questionnaire validation administration

Method of translation

Name of the scholar:D. KavithaPh.D scholarGuide: Dr Anjalakshi Chandrasekar

HOD (OG),Ph.DCo-Guide:Dr.Venkatraman ,Asst.Professor

SRM University

Definition

• A questionnaire is a means of eliciting the feelings, beliefs, experiences, perceptions, or attitudes of some sample of individuals.

• As a data collecting instrument, it could be structured or unstructured.

Factors affecting questionnaires

• Length of the questionnaire.• Reputation of the sponsoring agency.• Complexity of the questions asked.• Relative importance of the study as determined

by the potential respondent.• Extent to which the respondent believes that his

responses are important.• Quality and design of the questionnaire.• Time of year the questionnaires are sent out.

Types of questionnaires

• Open or unrestricted form - calls for free response from the respondent

• There is predetermined set of response• They provide true, insightful and unexpected

suggestions • Allows for greater depth of response; is difficult to

interpret, tabulate, and summarize.• An ideal questionnaire contains open ended questions

toward end of all questions

Closed or restricted form of questionnaire

Offers respondents a number of alternative replies, from which the subjects must choose the one that most likely matches the appropriate answer.

• Characteristic of questionnaireFacilitates easy statistical calculationProvides easy preliminary analysisCan be asked to different groups at different

intervalsFacilitates efficient tracking of opinion.

Types of closed form of questionnaire

• Dichotomous questions: respondent to make a choice between two responses such as yes/ no or male/ female

• Multiple choice question: respondents to make a choice between more than two response alternatives

• Cafeteria questions :respondents to select a response that most closely corresponds to their view.

• Rank order questions – Respondents to rank their responses from most favorable to least favorable

• Contingency questions: A question that is asked further only if the respondent gives a particular response to previous question.

• Rating questions: Respondent is asked to rate a particular issue on a scale that ranges from poor to good

• Likert questions: helps know how strongly the respondent agrees with a particular statement.

• Bipolar questions: These questions have two extreme answers his/ her response between two opposite ends of the scale.

• Matrix questions: it includes multiple questions and identical categories are assigned .questions are placed along the top and list of questions down the side

Characteristics of a good questionnaire

• Deals with a significant topic• Seeks only that information which cannot be obtained from

other sources such as census data• As short as possible, only long enough to get the essential data. • Attractive in appearance, neatly arranged, and clearly

duplicated or printed.• Directions are clear and complete. Questions are objective,

with no leading suggestions to the desired response• Questions are presented in good psychological order,

proceeding from general to more specific responses. • To easy tabulate and interpret.

Guidelines for preparing questionnaire

o Prepared according with study objectiveo Concise, precise and brief o Criticism from faculty and class memberso Trailing the questionnaire with friendso Respondents selected carefullyo As par as possible open ended questions should be avoidedo Controversial and ambiguous questions should be avoidedo Getting permission in organization before administering questionnaireo Try to get the aid of sponsorshipo Mailed questionnaire should have introduction, purpose and

directions to fill the questionso Abrupt ending of the questions and questionnaire should be avoided.

Sequence of questions

• Arranged in logical sequence• Answer to questions not influenced by

previous questions• Questions should flow from general to more

specific • Questions should flow least to more sensitive

Question construction

The sample -- who are you going to askThe method--- how are you going to ask themThe questionnaire– what are you going to ask

themThe result – what will you do with informationThe cost – how much do you want to pay for

answerThe time scale– By them do you need

information

Construction of questionnaireProblem definition

Search for relevant secondary data for problem

Exploratory interviews with subject expertise and review personal experience with colleques

Writing of specific research objectives

Listing of hypothesis to be tested

Development of questions for questionnaire

Method of administration of questionnaire

POSTALLowcost

Not in labour intensive

PHONEHigh speed

Rapport with respondent

High respondent

rate

ELECTRONIClow cost, high

speed, not labour intensive

PERSONALLY ADMINISTERED

detailed questions ,

high response rate

•Cost effective•Easy to analyse•Less time and energy need to administer•Reduce bias as interviewer is not present•Used for large sample size•Less instructive\ than face to face interview

Advantages of questionnaire

Disadvantages

of questionnaire

•Not suitable for all•Low response rate•Mailed questions may filled by some one•Provides superficial information•Chances of misinterpretation•People can lie and answer the questions vaguely.

Validity of Research tool

• Validity of an instrument refers to the degree to which an instrument measures what it is supposed to be measuring

• Types of validity • 1.Face validity: overlook of instrument regarding its

appropriateness to measure a particular attribute or phenomenon

• 2.Content validity: Scope of coverage of the content are to be measured

• 3.Criterion validity: Relationship between measurements of the instruments with some other external criteria

• Predictive validity: degree of fore casting judgment

• Concurrent validity: it is the degree of the measures at present.

• 4.construct validity: Gives more importance to testing relationship predicted on theoretical measurement.

Reliability of

the tool

•Degree of consistency and accuracy with which an instrument measures the attribute for which it is designed to measure

Test –Retest method• Administration of a research instrument to a sample of subjects on two different

occasions

• Scores of the tool administered at two different occasions is compared and calculated by using following formula of correlation coefficient

• The correlation coefficient reveals the magnitude and directions of relationships between scores generated by research instrument at two separate occasions.

• Interpretation of results– the results of the correlation coefficient ranges between -1.00 through 0.0 and +1.00, and the results are interrelated as follows

• +1,00 score---- perfect reliability• 0.00 score ---- no reliability• Above 7 indicates --- acceptable reliability

Split of method

• Divide items of a research instrument in two equal parts through grouping either in odd number question and even number question /first half and second half item groups

• Administer two subparts of the tool simultaneously, score them independently and compute the correlation co-effcient on the two separate scores

Method of Translation

• Team approaches generate more translation options and provide sounder and less idiosyncratic translation review and evaluation

• Team based approach based on the multi-stage translation frameworks

Steps in translation

• Translation• Review• Initial adjudication• Cognitive Interview pretesting• Final review and adjudication.

• References • Barbara H. Forsy et.al; Methods for Translating

Survey Questionnaires Paper presented to American Association for Public Opinion research, Montreal, Canada, May, 2006.

• Kothari C.K; Research Methodology Methods and ‐Techniques , New Age International, New Delhi;2004

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