Asking Questions - The Definitive Guide To Questionnaire Design ...

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142 ASKING QUESTIONS Research shows that including a middle alternative does in fact increase the size of that category but does not affect the ratio of “pro” to “con” responses or the size of the “don’t know” category. As has generally been believed, those who do not feel very strongly about the issues are most susceptible to the effect of a middle alternative. On the whole, the inclusion of the middle category does not change the relationship between responses to the items and background characteristics such as the respondent’s educational level. In some instances, however, the wording changes affect the intercorrelation among different opinion items that were supposed to measure the same underlying attitude. Although it is impossible to make any hard and fast rule, our advice is contrary to contemporary general practice. We recommend including a middle category unless there are persuasive reasons not to. The addition of the middle category does not usually change the ratio of support to opposition, and the inclusion of the middle category will give as much information about the ratio of general favorableness to unfavorableness as will a question that omits the middle category. The size of the response to the middle category can give extra information about the intensity of attitudes—information that might be absent in a forced-choice situation. In general, we feel that middle-of-the-road or indifferent respondents should not be forced to express opinions. Avoiding Double-Barreled and One-and-a-Half-Barreled Questions One of the first things a researcher learns in questionnaire construction is to avoid double-barreled questions, that is, questions in which opinions about two objects are joined together so that respondents must answer two questions with one answer. Even a novice survey researcher would wince at a question like “In the coming presidential election, do you support Senator Pace and peace, or do you support Governor Guerra and war?”
ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS 143 Less blatant examples may slip by the inexperienced question formulator. Consider the following question. “Are you in favor of building more nuclear power plants so that we can have enough electricity to meet the country’s needs, or are you opposed to more nuclear power plants even though this would mean less electricity?” Combined in this one sentence are two questions about two different attitude objects: nuclear power plants and the supply of electricity. The sentence contains an assumption that nuclear power plants are the only way to increase the supply of electricity. Making such an assumption could load a question in favor of one particular kind of response. For example, if the first part of the question (about nuclear power plants) had a 50-50 opinion split in the population and the second part of the question (about having enough electricity) had a 90-10 opinion split, the conjoining of the two would suggest greater support for nuclear power plants than actually exists. The size of the effect would depend on the relative strength of the opinion regarding the first issue. For issues about which opinions are very strongly held, the effect of the second barrel of the question might be reduced. Respondents with strongly held opinions might not pay any attention to the second part of the question. Correspondingly, the effect probably would be stronger for issues that are less strongly held or for respondents who hold less strong opinions on every issue. Questions need not be double-barreled in order to contain bias. Even with highly correlated opinions, many respondents will not respond the same way to both barrels of a question. A less obvious version of a double-barreled question is one that attributes an attitude or a behavior to a well-known person or organization, such as the President of the United States or the United States Supreme Court. Even careful professional pollsters occasionally use such questions in an effort to make the question more specific. Some might argue that certain issues are so closely related to individuals or organizations that it is unrealistic to separate them. We believe, however, that it is usually better to separate issues from sources, if at all possible. This is especially true for issues that are not
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Asking Questions The Definitive Gui
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Norman M. Bradburn Seymour Sudman B
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Copyright © 2004 by John Wiley & S
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viii CONTENTS 12. Asking Questions
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Preface This book is a revised and
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PREFACE xiii trate some of the subt
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The Authors Norman M. Bradburn (Ph.
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Asking Questions
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Chapter One The Social Context of Q
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THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF QUESTION ASKI
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Chapter Two Asking Nonthreatening Q
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ASKING NONTHREATENING QUESTIONS ABO
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Figure 2.4. Household Health Diary.
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Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census,
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80 ASKING QUESTIONS e. The Sealed B
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82 ASKING QUESTIONS asking about te
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84 ASKING QUESTIONS Figure 3.2. Que
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86 ASKING QUESTIONS into a car, mig
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88 ASKING QUESTIONS relationship be
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90 ASKING QUESTIONS from 55 percent
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192 ASKING QUESTIONS Resident Infor
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194 ASKING QUESTIONS It must be rec
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196 ASKING QUESTIONS Figure 6.10. Q
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198 ASKING QUESTIONS Figure 6.11. S
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200 ASKING QUESTIONS Figure 6.11. S
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202 ASKING QUESTIONS question indic
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204 ASKING QUESTIONS state or count
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206 ASKING QUESTIONS respondents wi
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208 ASKING QUESTIONS answers, most
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210 ASKING QUESTIONS on the Web sin
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Chapter Seven Asking Questions that
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ASKING QUESTIONS THAT EVALUATE PERF
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• Depends heavily on employee’s
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244 ASKING QUESTIONS make a particu
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246 ASKING QUESTIONS on demographic
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248 ASKING QUESTIONS Table 8.1. Eig
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250 ASKING QUESTIONS domain and rel
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252 ASKING QUESTIONS Seven Steps to
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254 ASKING QUESTIONS the frequency
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256 ASKING QUESTIONS The fourth ste
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258 ASKING QUESTIONS empty cells. I
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Chapter Nine Asking Standard Demogr
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ASKING STANDARD DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIO
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Chapter Ten Organizing and Designin
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ORGANIZING AND DESIGNING QUESTIONNA
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Fill- Ins Easily done with a Possib
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Chapter Eleven Questionnaires from
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QUESTIONNAIRES FROM START TO FINISH
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Chapter Twelve Asking Questions FAQ
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ASKING QUESTIONS FAQS 325 tain you
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Do you own an IBM-type of PC? Yes
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ASKING QUESTIONS FAQS 329 Ranking q
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ASKING QUESTIONS FAQS 331 guish bet
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ASKING QUESTIONS FAQS 333 activitie
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336 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RECOMMENDED RE
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348 GLOSSARY object. The term belie
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350 GLOSSARY are entered directly i
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352 GLOSSARY the sex of the respond
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354 GLOSSARY of an IBM card is a on
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356 GLOSSARY individual difference
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358 GLOSSARY overreporting, underre
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360 GLOSSARY because of illness or
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362 GLOSSARY response effect A gene
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364 GLOSSARY questionnaires list th
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Index A Ability, measuring, 197-202
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INDEX 369 Denver, 86; Community che
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INDEX 371 Library card ownership, 8
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INDEX 373 preferences, 167-168; thr
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Appendix A List of Academic and Not
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APPENDIX A 377 Phoenix, AZ 85003-17
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APPENDIX A 379 Fax: 310-206-4453 E-
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APPENDIX A 381 800 Florida Ave., N.
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APPENDIX A 383 E-mail: jbason@arche
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APPENDIX A 385 Phone: 312-996-5300
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APPENDIX A 387 Phone: 785-532-5510
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APPENDIX A 389 Center for the Study
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APPENDIX A 391 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-
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APPENDIX A 393 731 Oldfather Hall L
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APPENDIX A 395 New York Marist Coll
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APPENDIX A 397 Cornell University I
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APPENDIX A 399 225 South Main St. A
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APPENDIX A 401 121 University Pl. P
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APPENDIX A 403 South Dakota Busines
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APPENDIX A 405 Public Policy Resear
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APPENDIX A 407 E-mail: sesrc@wsu.ed
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APPENDIX A 409 England National Cen
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412 APPENDIX B PLEASE CIRCLE ONE CO
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414 APPENDIX B 14. Who purchased th
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416 APPENDIX B 23. What racial/ethn
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Faculty Retention Survey December 2
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2. Professional Life Important to y
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4. Environment Important to you Imp
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Appendix D Kinko’s: Open-ended Se
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