Construction of Questions for Interviews and Surveys

Kinds of Questions for Interviews and Surveys

• Fact: gender, years, interests• Opinion

- What do you think?- What do you believe?

• Attitude - How do you feel about ...?

• Behavior - Do you go to the library every week?- How many TV programs did you watch over the

weekend?

Different ways of asking “the same” question

• Pros and Cons

• Different data

Example 11) Do you smoke? Yes or No

If yes, how often? ___________________________

2) How often do you smoke pot? – Every day – Once a week – Once a month – Never

Guidelines/Thoughts• The wording in #1 makes it easy to answer no and severely limit

the kind of information you receive.

• The wording in #2, "How often" provides a range of information.

Example 2

• Do you mow and trim your lawn regularly? Yes No

• Do you mow and trim your lawn once a week? Yes No

Same content… three ways of constructing the question

Do you like to go to study hall? Yes or No

How well do you like to go to study hall? 1 = Not At ALL 3 = Pretty Much2 = Somewhat 4 = Very Much

How well do you like to go to study hall? 1 = Not At ALL 3= Pretty Much 2= Somewhat 4 = Very Much

Please explain your answer.

More on qualitative questions…

What are your reactions to going to study hall?Or

Describe your feelings and beliefs about going to study hall?

Either question provides you with qualitative data or descriptive information.

Unstructured Questions

Example: What were the most important reasons you had for coming back to High School after you dropped out?

• Is open-ended and encourages the respondent to respond freely.

Pros and Cons to open questions

Pros :+ range of responses+ it can be a good place to start+ can create categories for potential structured questions+ tremendous amount of informationCons:- potentially unwieldy responses- the data take up a lot of space- maybe too much information

Structured Questions

Example: Using the behavior management program, do you think Sue is doing -- an excellent job, good job, fair job, or poor job attending in class?

• Provide respondents with a limited number of choices.

• Force respondents to choose from a list of choices provided by the survey developer.

Pros and Cons of Structured Questions

Pros:+ easy to answer+ manageable data+ direct the answers

Cons:- sacrifice personal flavor- restrict possibilities

General Guidelines of survey construction

• Appreciate respondent’s time• 2-3 questions per topic• Easy to hard• Include an introduction

• Demographic information is important BUT only ask if you are going to use it.

Cautionary Acts

• Keep wording simple• Use complete sentences• Be precise• Pilot the instrument