Deck 13: Questionnaires and Instruments

Question 1

Distinguish between:
a Direct and indirect questions.
b Open-ended and closed questions.
c Research, investigation, and measurement questions.
d Alternative response strategies.

Answer 1

Direct and indirect questions
Communication based research study can be conducted by using telephone survey, personal interview, emails etc. All survey researches are conducted using questionnaire technique, which is prepared based on the objectives of the research study in order to measure the responses and test the hypothesis.
The questions designed in the communication research can be direct or indirect. Indirect questions are disguised type in which respondent is not revealed about the objectives and sponsor of the research. The purpose of disguised questions is to receive unbiased responses. Direct questions are those which are asked to the research participants about their own actions and behavior and it may provide bias responses from respondents.
For instance: if a hacker is asked whether he do ethical hacking (direct question), the response may not reveal his true feelings as it defines his actions. If this question is asked using projective technique i.e. whether hackers follow ethics while doing it for personal use, then the response involve the respondent's true feelings and opinions. In short, direct questions are asked about respondent's own behavior and indirect questions are asked to respondents to say about the other people's behavior.
Open ended and closed questions
There are three categories of measurement questions in questionnaire: administrative questions, classification questions and target questions. Among these three categories, target questions are used to address the investigative questions of particular research study. These questions can be structured or unstructured.
Structured questions are closed questions, which are presented with fixed options to the respondents. Unstructured questions are open ended questions in which responses are not limited and respondents have choice of free words.
For instance: The closed ended question is asked as follows:
Do you like partying
a. I like
b. sometimes I prefer
c. I don't like.
If the same question is asked in the open ended type, the response can be elaborative that expresses reasons for like or dislike or partially like.
Research, investigative and measurement questions
Research question is an inquiry to the management dilemma or question that must contribute to provide solution to that dilemma. It is the first step in the research study to have an idea on what to be studied.
Investigative questions should be specific and provide detail coverage to the research question. Researcher can get answer to the investigative question by doing survey or other research techniques.
Measurement questions are those questions which are answered by the responded and further these responses are recorded and analyzed to provide answer to the management question.
Alternative response strategies
The response strategy options include closed responses and open responses. Though respondents can express extensively in open responses, but still there can be restrictions in terms of space, choice of words or phrase etc. The categories in the closed responses are multiple choices, ranking, rating, dichotomous etc.
The alternative response strategies can involve practicing the questionnaire draft in as many versions as possible to dramatize the bias problems. Moreover, develop the questions in extreme version rather than just expected version. Numeric based responses such as number of people in family, age, income etc are good to be offered in ranges rather than open response question.

Question 2

Why is the survey technique so popular When is it not appropriate

Answer 2

The survey technique is popular in business and social science research because so many of the research questions concern human attitudes, levels of knowledge, and other types of cognitive or affective information. Much of this information can be secured only by interrogation, or at least can be secured more efficiently by interrogation than by other means. Then, because we have spent our lives conversing with others, the thought of "asking people" comes naturally.

Question 3

What special problems do open-ended questions have How can these be minimized In what situations are open-ended questions most useful

Answer 3

Investigative questions can be designed using structured or unstructured questions. Structured questions are closed questions, which are presented with fixed options to the respondents. Unstructured questions are open ended questions in which responses are not limited and respondents have choice of free words.
In the interviews, the response to the open ended question can be too lengthy and in the questionnaires response is restricted in terms of space or choice of words. In the both the cases, responses are expressed in their own words, which is a significant problem in interpreting and becomes costly in terms of data analysis.
These problems can be minimized by choosing alternative response strategy. Numeric based responses such as age, income etc are good to be offered in ranges rather than open response question.
Open ended questions are more suitable in those situations, when the research study need to focus more on true feelings, attitudes, life style of the respondents. Mostly open ended questions are used in interview technique and all the content is interpreted by doing content analysis.

Question 4

Why might a researcher wish to disguise the objective of a study

Question 5

One of the major reasons why survey research may not be effective is that the survey instruments are less useful than they should be. What would you say are the four possible major faults of survey instrument design

Question 6

Why is it desirable to pretest survey instruments What information can you secure from such a pretest How can you find the best wording for a question on a questionnaire

Question 7

One design problem in the development of survey instruments concerns the sequence of questions. What suggestions would you give to researchers designing their first questionnaire

Question 8

One of the major problems facing the designer of a survey instrument concerns the assumptions made. What are the major "problem assumptions"

Question 9

Below are six questions that might be found on questionnaires. Comment on each as to whether or not it is a good question. If it is not, explain why. (Assume that no lead-inn or screening questions are required. Judge each question on its own merits.)
a. Do you read National Geographic magazine regularly
b. What percentage of your time is spent asking for information from others in your organization
c. When did you first start chewing gum
d. How much discretionary buying power do you have each year
e. Why did you decide to attend Big State University
f. Do you think the president is doing a good job now

Question 10

In a class project, students developed a brief self-administered questionnaire by which they might quickly evaluate a professor. One student submitted the following
Professor Evaluation Form
1. Overall, how would you rate this professor
Good Fair Poor
2. Does this professor
a. Have good class delivery _____
b. Know the subject _____
c. Have a positive attitude toward the subject _____
d. Grade fairly _____
e. Have a sense of humor _____
f. Use audiovisuals, case examples, or other class room aids _____
g. Return exams promptly _____
3. What is the professor's strongest point
4. What is the professor's weakest point
5. What kind of class does the professor teach
6. Is this course required
7. Would you take another course from this professor

Question 11

Assume the American Society of Training Directors is studying its membership in order to enhance member benefits and attract new members. Below is a copy of a cover letter and mail questionnaire received by a member of the society. Please evaluate the usefulness and tone of the letter and the questions and format of the instrument.
Dear ASTD Member,
The ASTD is evaluating the perception of value of membership among its members. Enclosed is a short questionnaire and a return envelope. I hope you will take a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire as soon as possible, as the sooner the information is returned to me, the better.
Sincerely,
Director of Membership
Questionnaire
Directions: Please answer as briefly as possible.
1. With what company did you enter the field of training
________________________________________________________________________
2. How long have you been in the field of training
________________________________________________________________________
3. How long have you been in the training department of the company with which you are presently employed.
________________________________________________________________________
4. How long has the training department in your company been in existence
________________________________________________________________________
5. Is the training department a subset of another department If so, what department
________________________________________________________________________
6. For what functions ( other than training) is your department responsible
________________________________________________________________________
7. How many people, including yourself, are in the training department of your company(local plant or establishment)
________________________________________________________________________
8. What degrees do you hold and from what institutions
________________________________________________________________________
Major _______________________ Minor _______________________
9. Why were you chosen for training What special qualifications prompted your entry into training
________________________________________________________________________
10. What experience would you consider necessary for an individual to enter into the field of training with your company Include both educational requirements and actual experience.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Question 12

Design the introduction of the Albany Outpatient Laser Clinic survey, assuming it will continue to be a self-administered questionnaire.

Question 13

To evaluate whether pre-surgery patient attitudes affect recovery and ultimate patient satisfaction with the Albany Outpatient Laser Clinic, design a question for the self-administered survey. (You may wish to review the opening vignettes in this chapter and Chapter 9.

Question 14

Using Exhibits 13-1, 13-4, and 13-9, develop the flowchart for the Albany Outpatient Laser Clinic study in the opening vignette.

Question 15

Government economic data reveals that young adults, not middle-aged or older adults, are having the most difficult time in today's economy. Although the nation's labor market shows a decline in the unemployment rate, the percentage of young adults, ages 18 to 24, currently employed (54%) is at the lowest level since government data collection began in 1948. If you were working for a national survey organization doing a general public survey of young adults and older adults, what topics and questions would you design into your survey to elaborate on this finding