Asking questions
The value of piloting a questionnaire is that it helps you to:
Test out your questions on some of the people who will be in the final sample
Identify and amend any problems in the question wording, order and format
Find out what a trained pilot would think of the subject matter
All of the above
Identify and amend any problems in the question wording, order and format
You must not test out your questions on people who will be in the final sample because they will give biased answers later. Finding out what an expert in the field would think of your questions tends to help with face validity and is clearly a good idea, so if your research concerns air travel, perhaps answer (c) might indicate a useful course of action. A pilot study for a questionnaire, though, will help with bringing to light those questions that are defective for a variety of reasons and with their sequencing and even with the instructions to respondents and interviewers. Most experienced researchers believe it to be an essential step in the research process.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 260,261
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 260,261
Identify and amend any problems in the question wording, order and format You must not test out your questions on people who will be in the final sample because they will give biased answers later. Finding out what an expert in the field would think of your questions tends to help with face validity and is clearly a good idea, so if your research concerns air travel, perhaps answer (c) might indicate a useful course of action. A pilot study for a questionnaire, though, will help with bringing to light those questions that are defective for a variety of reasons and with their sequencing and even with the instructions to respondents and interviewers. Most experienced researchers believe it to be an essential step in the research process.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 260,261
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 260,261
Related posts
Which of the following is a general rule of thumb for designing questions?A. Always bear in mind your research questions
B. Never ask a closed question
C. Always use vignettes rather than open questions
D. Use ambiguous terms to put respondents at ease
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
Leave a Reply