Questionnaire construction

Questionnaire construction refers to the design of a questionnaire to gather statistically useful information about a given topic. When properly constructed and responsibly administered, questionnaires can provide valuable data about any given subject. Questionnaire Questionnaires are frequently used in quantitative marketing research and social research. They are a valuable method of collecting a wide range of information from a large number of individuals, often referred to as respondents. What is often referred to as "adequate questionnaire construction" is critical to the success of a survey. Inappropriate questions, incorrect ordering of questions, incorrect scaling, or a bad questionnaire format can make the survey results valueless, as they may not accurately reflect the views and opinions of the participants. Different methods can be useful for checking a questionnaire and making sure it is accurately capturing the intended information. Initial advice may include: consulting subject-matter experts using questionnaire construction guidelines to inform drafts, such as the Tailored Design Method, or those produced by National Statistical Organisations. Empirical tests also provide insight into the quality of the questionnaire. This can be done by: conducting cognitive interviewing. By asking a sample of potential-respondents about their interpretation of the questions and use of the questionnaire, a researcher can carrying out a small pretest of the questionnaire, using a small subset of target respondents. Results can inform a researcher of errors such as missing questions, or logical and procedural errors. estimating the measurement quality of the questions. This can be done for instance using test-retest, quasi-simplex, or mutlitrait-multimethod models. predicting the measurement quality of the question. This can be done using the software Survey Quality Predictor (SQP). Closed-ended questions – Respondents' answers are limited to a fixed set of responses. Yes/no questions – The respondent answers with a "yes" or a "no".