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

GLOSSARY 359
the respondent may be located in column 10 of deck 1. This assignment
would be indicated on the questionnaire for ease in keypunching.
(See also deck.)
probability samples Samples of the population from which the
sample is drawn (for example, households or individuals) that
have a known probability of being included in the sample. In
equal-probability samples, each member of the population has
an equal probability of selection; in unequal-probability samples,
certain types of members of the population are oversampled or
undersampled, that is, are given a greater or lesser chance of
falling into the sample than their proportion in the population
would determine.
probes Questions or statements such as “What do you mean?” or
“In what way?” or “Could you explain that a little?” made by the
interviewer to the respondent to obtain additional information to
a question when the initial answer appears incomplete. Researchers
sometimes specify when to use probes and what to say, but use of
probes is often left to interviewers’ judgment. A key problem for
interviewers is to avoid leading probes that put words into the
respondents’ mouths. Leading probes may start with a phrase such
as “Do you mean . . . ?” or “Are you saying . . . ?”
projective questions Questions that attempt to determine indirectly
what respondents think by asking their views of what others
think. An example of a projective question would be “Do you think
people around here would be upset if asked about their sexual activities?”
Such questions are intended to reduce the response effect on
threatening questions. If the respondent is in a position to know
what others think, the projective question becomes a knowledge
question. Many answers are combinations of knowledge and projection
by the respondent. (See also response effect, threatening and
nonthreatening questions.)
proxy respondent An individual who provides complete information
about another person when the person is unavailable