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

ASKING PSYCHOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS 257
The final analyses were cross-validated with an independent
sample. People with extreme preferences were found to have much
in common. For example, people with extreme preferences consumed
the same flavor of soup 70 percent of the time. Furthermore,
each soup lover has a blend of different tastes. The typical tomato
soup lover tended to be a book lover, a pet lover, stubborn, and to
possess a strong sense of family; the typical chicken noodle soup
lover tended to be more of a home lover and churchgoer, and a bit
less creative (Wansink and Park, 2000b). These clusters were then
used to determine how the different soups should be differentially
promoted—in what magazines and using what message strategy.
Structuring Psychographic Questions
and Analyzing Answers
One type of psychographic question asks respondents to indicate
the extent to which they agree with various statements about their
personality (such as those noted in Tables 8.1 and 8.2). A common
way to formulate the question is to use an odd-interval, 9-point
scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 9 = strongly agree. Often
the midpoints are not identified, and respondents are left to interpolate
these values.
A second method is to use a more abbreviated scale (such as
done in the VALS example mentioned earlier in the chapter). Here
an even-interval, 4-point (or 6-point) scale is presented with the
points identified as being mostly disagree, somewhat disagree, somewhat
agree, and mostly agree. Although it does not provide a midpoint
or the wide range of the 9-point scale, this format is well
suited for use in many modes—paper-and-pencil, telephone, or
electronic.
Wells (1975) notes that when the sample is large and the responses
well scattered, the simplest way to analyze AIO data is by
ordinary cross-tabulation. But when the sample is small and the
responses are highly skewed, a simple cross-tab will have many