RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS 321
If a closed and structured questionnaire is used,
enabling patterns to be observed and comparisons
to be made, then the questionnaire will need to
be piloted and refined so that the final version
contains as full a range of possible responses as
can be reasonably foreseen. Such a questionnaire
is heavy on time early in the research; however,
once the questionnaire has been set up, then the
mode of analysis might be comparatively rapid.
For example, it may take two or three months to
devise a survey questionnaire, pilot it, refine it and
set it out in a format that will enable the data to be
processed and statistics to be calculated. However,
the trade-off from this is that the data analysis can
be undertaken fairly rapidly. We already know the
response categories, the nature of the data and the
statistics to be used; it is simply a matter of processing
the data – often using computer analysis.
It is perhaps misleading to describe a
questionnaire as being ‘unstructured’, as the whole
devising of a questionnaire requires respondents
to adhere to some form of given structure. That
said, between a completely open questionnaire
that is akin to an open invitation to ‘write what
one wants’ and a completely closed, completely
structured questionnaire, there is the powerful tool
of the semi-structured questionnaire. Here a series
of questions, statements or items are presented
and the respondents are asked to answer, respond
to or comment on them in a way that they
think best. There is a clear structure, sequence
and focus, but the format is open-ended, enabling
respondents to reply in their own terms. The semistructured
questionnaire sets the agenda but does
not presuppose the nature of the response.
Types of questionnaire items
Closed and open questions compared
There are several kinds of question and response
modes in questionnaires, including, for example,
dichotomous questions, multiple choice questions,
rating scales, constant sum questions, ratio data
and open-ended questions. These are considered
below (see also Wilson 1996). Closed questions
prescribe the range of responses from which
the respondent may choose. Highly structured,
closed questions are useful in that they can
generate frequencies of response amenable to
statistical treatment and analysis. They also enable
comparisons to be made across groups in the sample
(Oppenheim 1992: 115). They are quicker to code
up and analyse than word-based data (Bailey 1994:
118) and, often, they are directly to the point
and deliberately more focused than open-ended
questions. Indeed it would be almost impossible, as
well as unnecessary, to try to process vast quantities
of word-based data in a short time frame.
If a site-specific case study is required, then
qualitative, less structured, word-based and openended
questionnaires may be more appropriate as
they can capture the specificity of a particular
situation. Where measurement is sought then
aquantitativeapproachisrequired;whererich
and personal data are sought, then a word-based
qualitative approach might be more suitable.
Open-ended questions are useful if the possible
answers are unknown or the questionnaire is
exploratory (Bailey 1994: 120), or if there are so
many possible categories of response that a closed
question would contain an extremely long list of
options. They also enable respondents to answer
as much as they wish, and are particularly suitable
for investigating complex issues, to which simple
answers cannot be provided. Open questions
may be useful for generating items that will
subsequently become the stuff of closed questions
in a subsequent questionnaire (i.e. a pre-pilot).
In general closed questions (dichotomous,
multiple choice, constant sum and rating scales)
are quick to complete and straightforward to
code (e.g. for computer analysis), and do not
discriminate unduly on the basis of how articulate
respondents are (Wilson and McLean 1994: 21).
On the other hand, they do not enable respondents
to add any remarks, qualifications and explanations
to the categories, and there is a risk that the
categories might not be exhaustive and that there
might be bias in them (Oppenheim 1992: 115).
Open questions enable participants to write a
free account in their own terms, to explain and
qualify their responses and avoid the limitations of
pre-set categories of response. On the other hand,
Chapter 15