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

GLOSSARY 363
should increase in the future. Note that the form is considered to be
self-administered even if an interviewer is present to hand it out, to
collect it, and to answer questions. (See also personal interviews.)
skip instructions Instructions given to the interviewer (and, less
commonly, on self-administered forms to respondents) indicating
what question to ask or answer next, based on the answers to the
question just asked. Skip instructions make it possible to use a single
questionnaire for many different types of respondents and to ask
only those questions that are relevant. Respondents cannot be
expected to follow complex skip instructions accurately. Skip instructions
are not required on CATI systems where the skipping is
programmed into the computer. (See also CATI.)
social desirability, social undesirability The perception by respondents
that their answer to a question will enhance or hurt their
image in the eyes of the interviewer or the researcher. Desirability
is closely related to the sociological term mores—the ways of thinking
or acting that have ethical significance in a social group and,
thus, have the force of law, even if the law is unwritten. Examples
of socially desirable behavior are being a good citizen, being well
informed, and fulfilling moral and social responsibilities. Examples
of socially undesirable behavior include using alcohol and drugs,
participating in deviant sexual practices, and violating traffic regulations.
split ballot The use of an experimental design to determine effects
of question wording or placement. Alternate forms or placements
of questions are randomly assigned to portions of the sample. Usually
each half of the sample gets one of two forms or placements of
the split questions, but the technique can be expanded to accommodate
a larger number of experimental treatments, where each
form or placement of the question is considered a treatment.
structured and unstructured questionnaires Structured questionnaires,
used in survey research, specify the wording of the
questions and the order in which they are asked. Unstructured