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

ASKING NONTHREATENING QUESTIONS ABOUT BEHAVIOR 59
other types of behaviors, where outside lists are not available, earlier
studies may provide information on the types of behaviors to
include on the list. If such studies are not available, you would
have to conduct a pilot study to obtain the necessary information.
It is usually a mistake for a single researcher or even a group of researchers
to develop a list of behaviors based only on personal
experience. Personal experience is limited, and the inevitable consequence
of relying on it is an incomplete and flawed listing.
If the number of alternatives in a category is too great, your list
may be restricted to a limited number of the most likely alternatives.
Unfortunately, no estimate can then be made of the excluded
behaviors. You could also include an “All Other” category in such
aided-recall questions. Such a category is useful for rapport building
because it gives respondents who otherwise would not have been
able to respond positively an opportunity to answer. However, the
data from this “All Other” category cannot be combined with the
listed data. Moreover, if the list is not exhaustive, you cannot make
an estimate of total behavior—although, by summing up only the
listed behavior, you can make a minimum estimate.
In some cases you can proceed in two stages, asking first about
groups and then about specific cases. A list of all published magazines,
for example, might be almost infinite in length. But you can
group these into a dozen or so categories, giving examples for each
category. For example, you might ask, “Do you regularly read any
news magazines like Time or Newsweek? Any sports publications?
Household or family magazines? Personal health and self-improvement
magazines? Electronics or auto or hobby magazines?” This
may be good enough if you merely want to code specific magazines
into such groups anyway. But you can also ask for the names of particular
magazines read within any or all categories the respondent
reports reading.
When a list becomes large, the order of the list may become
important, especially when the respondent reads the list. Items at
the top or at the bottom of a long list will be read or listened to