Contents

162 PART II: Descriptive MethodsKey Conceptself-report scales. Although there is no substitute for experience when it comesto preparing a good questionnaire, there are a few general principles of questionnaireconstruction with which you should be familiar. We describe six basicsteps in preparing a questionnaire and then offer specific guidelines for writingand administering individual questions.Questionnaires as Instruments• Most survey research relies on the use of questionnaires to measurevariables.• Demographic variables describe the characteristics of people who aresurveyed.• The accuracy and precision of questionnaires requires expertise and care intheir construction.• Self-report scales are used to assess people’s preferences or attitudes.The value of survey research (and any research) ultimately depends onthe quality of the measurements that researchers make. The quality of thesemeasurements, in turn, depends on the quality of the instruments used tomake the measurements. The primary research instrument in survey researchis the questionnaire. On the surface, a questionnaire may not look like thehigh-tech instruments used in much modern scientific research; but, when constructedand used properly, a questionnaire is a powerful scientific instrumentfor measuring different variables.Demographic Variables Demographic variables are an important type of variablefrequently measured in survey research. Demographic variables are usedto describe the characteristics of the people who are surveyed. Measures suchas race, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status are examples of demographicvariables. Whether we decide to measure these variables depends on the goals ofour study, as well as on other considerations. For example, Entwisle and Astone(1994) noted that “the ethnic and racial diversity of the U.S. population is nowprojected to increase through the middle of this 21st century, so that by then themajority of the U.S. population will be persons whose ethnicity would now beclassified as ‘nonwhite’” (p. 1522). By asking respondents to identify their raceand ethnicity, we are able to document the mix of our sample and, if related toour research questions, compare groups according to race and ethnicity.Measuring a demographic variable such as race may at first seem very easy.One straightforward method is simply to ask respondents to identify their racein an open-ended question: What is your race?Such an approachmay be straightforward, but the resulting measurement of race may not besatisfactory. For example, some respondents may mistakenly confuse “race”and “ethnicity.” Important distinctions in identifying ethnic groups may gounrecognized by respondents and researchers. For instance, Hispanic doesnot identify a race; Hispanic designates all those whose country of origin isSpanish speaking. So, a person born in Spain would be classified as Hispanic.Latino is a term that is sometimes used interchangeably with Hispanic, butLatino designates people whose origin is from the countries of North and