Asking questions
Which of the following is a general rule of thumb for designing questions?
Always bear in mind your research questions
Never ask a closed question
Always use vignettes rather than open questions
Use ambiguous terms to put respondents at ease
Always bear in mind your research questions
Closed questions are usually at the heart of survey questionnaires, so it might even be a ‘rule of thumb’ to make sure that you have included them in your own questionnaire. There is a choice between vignette-based and open questions from time to time, although both can be used together in a structured interview. The correct answer here is to keep your basic research questions in mind when composing individual questions, of whatever type. Each question should rest on a separate hypothesis that responses to it will tend to produce data for the basic research concepts. If they don’t, they lead nowhere as far as findings are concerned and you have wasted the respondent’s time as well as your own!
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 252
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 252
Always bear in mind your research questions Closed questions are usually at the heart of survey questionnaires, so it might even be a ‘rule of thumb’ to make sure that you have included them in your own questionnaire. There is a choice between vignette-based and open questions from time to time, although both can be used together in a structured interview. The correct answer here is to keep your basic research questions in mind when composing individual questions, of whatever type. Each question should rest on a separate hypothesis that responses to it will tend to produce data for the basic research concepts. If they don’t, they lead nowhere as far as findings are concerned and you have wasted the respondent’s time as well as your own!
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 252
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 252
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You should avoid using double-barrelled questions in a survey because:A. They rely too much on a respondent’s memory
B. They make the questions too long, so respondents lose interest
C. They are too abstract and general in scope
D. They confuse respondents by asking about two different things
Informant factual questions are those that:
A. Enquire about personal details such as age, income and occupation
B. Ask people about the characteristics of a social setting or entity that they know well
C. Seek to find out about people’s attitudes and opinions on a range of topics
D. Try to identify the normative standards and values held by a social group
Which of the following is not an advantage of using closed questions in a survey?
A. It reduces the risk of variability in the way answers are recorded
B. It makes answers easier to process and analyse
C. They prevent respondents from giving spontaneous, unexpected answers
D. Closed questions are quicker and easier for respondents to complete
The UK Data Archive is a useful resource for:
A. Studying the way questions have been successfully used in previous surveys
B. Stealing other people’s questions without their permission
C. Learning more about your topic so that you can devise leading questions
D. Keeping your research questions in a safe place
In order to post-code answers to open questions, it is necessary to:
A. Count the frequency with which each answer has been given
B. Categorize unstructured material and assign a code number to each category
C. Identify the three most commonly cited responses and give them a code
D. Find out where each respondent lives and make a note of their postcode
Leading questions should also be avoided because:
A. They suggest ways of answering and so may bias the results
B. They create a mismatch between the question and its possible answers
C. They involve negative terms and unnecessary jargon
D. They ask about several different things at the same time
An open question is one that:
A. Allows respondents to answer in their own terms
B. Does not suggest or provide a limited range of responses
C. Can help to generate answers for closed questions
D. All of the above
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