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

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56 ASKING QUESTIONS Many behavioral questions, however, are not at all threatening, or are only mildly threatening. Of the questions given in the previous examples, only a few (those dealing with childrearing in Figure 2.5) might be considered threatening, and even here the threat may not be serious. In some ways, social changes over the past several decades have made the survey researcher’s task easier. It is now possible to ask questions about cancer, drug use, and sexual behavior that could not have been asked earlier. Only a few respondents will refuse to answer these questions. Unfortunately, this does not mean that such questions are no longer threatening. Not all respondents will find a particular question threatening. Thus, a question about smoking marijuana will not be threatening to those who have never smoked or to those who feel that there is absolutely nothing wrong with smoking marijuana. It will be threatening, however, to respondents who smoke but are afraid that the interviewer will disapprove of them if they admit it. If you are in doubt about whether a question is potentially threatening, the best approach is to use previous experience with the same or similar questions. If no previous experience is available, a small pilot test can be informative. (See the discussion in Chapter Eleven. If the question is threatening or possibly threatening, see Chapter Three.) Eight Ways to Make Behavioral Questions Easier to Answer In the past decade we have gained a better understanding of the methods respondents use to answer questions about behavioral frequencies and numerical quantities, such as “How many times have you done (behavior) in the past two weeks?” or “How many aunts, uncles, and cousins do you have?” It is now well recognized that for many such questions respondents do not attempt to answer by counting individual episodes or units. Instead they often simply
ASKING NONTHREATENING QUESTIONS ABOUT BEHAVIOR 57 make an estimate based on rates that are either stored in memory as schema or computed on the spot from a sample of available data. A general finding is that as the number of experiences of an event increases above five, respondents are more likely to estimate than to count (Blair and Burton, 1987). When behaviors are regular and similar, such as brushing one’s teeth or eating breakfast, estimation will result in more accurate responses than counting (Menon, 1997). The selection of the time period influences whether respondents count or estimate. Data users unfamiliar with cognitive processes often believe they can obtain much more information by increasing the length of the time period that a question covers, but this belief is illusory. If the behavior is frequent, irregular, and relatively unimportant, such as making a telephone call or buying gasoline for one’s car, respondents asked about a short time period will simply count and report the number of events retrieved. Respondents asked about a longer time period, will typically count for a short time period and then compute an answer based on this rate. Not only does the longer time period not provide additional information, it may increase the possibility of a computation error when the respondent is required to extrapolate. If the behavior is regular, respondents will already have a rate stored in memory and will simply retrieve this rate and apply it to whatever time period is specified. It is obvious that increasing the time period for regular behaviors has no effect on the amount of data obtained. For example, if respondents are asked how many times they brush their teeth in a given period of time, they would simply multiple their daily rate by the number of days in the time period they are asked to report. Only for infrequent, irregular behavior, such as buying consumer durables or going to the doctor, does increasing the length of the time period increase the amount of information retrieved. There are eight proven methods for improving the quality of reporting if respondents count.
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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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Page 63 and 64: Figure 2.4. Household Health Diary.
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106 ASKING QUESTIONS When some resp
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108 ASKING QUESTIONS drinking quest
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110 ASKING QUESTIONS them less thre
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112 ASKING QUESTIONS Determining th
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114 ASKING QUESTIONS carefully for
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Chapter Four Asking Questions About
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ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT ATTITUDES AN
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Chapter Five Asking and Recording O
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ASKING AND RECORDING QUESTIONS 153
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180 ASKING QUESTIONS 2. Consider wh
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182 ASKING QUESTIONS Figure 6.2. Qu
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184 ASKING QUESTIONS Specific knowl
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186 ASKING QUESTIONS question. Anot
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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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