Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick, and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of information from a large sample of people.
Data can be collected relatively quickly because the researcher would not need to be present when completing the questionnaires. This is useful for large populations when interviews would be impractical.
However, a problem with questionnaires is that respondents may lie due to social desirability. Most people want to present a positive image of themselves, and may lie or bend the truth to look good, e.g., pupils exaggerate revision duration.
Questionnaires can effectively measure relatively large subjects’ behavior, attitudes, preferences, opinions, and intentions more cheaply and quickly than other methods.
Often, a questionnaire uses both open and closed questions to collect data. This is beneficial as it means both quantitative and qualitative data can be obtained.
Closed Questions
A closed-ended question requires a specific, limited response, often “yes” or “no” or a choice that fit into pre-decided categories.
Data that can be placed into a category is called nominal data. The category can be restricted to as few as two options, i.e., dichotomous (e.g., “yes” or “no,” “male” or “female”), or include quite complex lists of alternatives from which the respondent can choose (e.g., polytomous).
Closed questions can also provide ordinal data (which can be ranked). This often involves using a continuous rating scale to measure the strength of attitudes or emotions.
For example, strongly agree / agree / neutral / disagree / strongly disagree / unable to answer.
Closed questions have been used to research type A personality (e.g., Friedman & Rosenman, 1974) and also to assess life events that may cause stress (Holmes & Rahe, 1967) and attachment (Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000).
Strengths
- They can be economical. This means they can provide large amounts of research data for relatively low costs. Therefore, a large sample size can be obtained, which should represent the population from which a researcher can then generalize.
- The respondent provides information that can be easily converted into quantitative data (e.g., count the number of “yes” or “no” answers), allowing statistical analysis of the responses.
- The questions are standardized. All respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order. This means a questionnaire can be replicated easily to check for reliability. Therefore, a second researcher can use the questionnaire to confirm consistent results.
Limitations
- They lack detail. Because the responses are fixed, there is less scope for respondents to supply answers that reflect their true feelings on a topic.
Open Questions
Open questions allow for expansive, varied answers without preset options or limitations.
Open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words. Open-ended questions enable the respondent to answer in as much detail as they like in their own words. For example: “can you tell me how happy you feel right now?”
Open questions will work better if you want to gather more in-depth answers from your respondents. These give no pre-set answer options and instead, allow the respondents to put down exactly what they like in their own words.
Open questions are often used for complex questions that cannot be answered in a few simple categories but require more detail and discussion.
Lawrence Kohlberg presented his participants with moral dilemmas. One of the most famous concerns a character called Heinz, who is faced with the choice between watching his wife die of cancer or stealing the only drug that could help her.
Participants were asked whether Heinz should steal the drug or not and, more importantly, for their reasons why upholding or breaking the law is right.
Strengths
- Rich qualitative data is obtained as open questions allow respondents to elaborate on their answers. This means the research can determine why a person holds a certain attitude.
Limitations
- Time-consuming to collect the data. It takes longer for the respondent to complete open questions. This is a problem as a smaller sample size may be obtained.
- Time-consuming to analyze the data. It takes longer for the researcher to analyze qualitative data as they have to read the answers and try to put them into categories by coding, which is often subjective and difficult. However, Smith (1992) has devoted an entire book to the issues of thematic content analysis that includes 14 different scoring systems for open-ended questions.
- Not suitable for less educated respondents as open questions require superior writing skills and a better ability to express one’s feelings verbally.
Questionnaire Design
With some questionnaires suffering from a response rate as low as 5%, a questionnaire must be well designed.
There are several important factors in questionnaire design.
Aims
Length
Pilot Study
Question Order
Questions should progress logically from the least sensitive to the most sensitive, from the factual and behavioral to the cognitive, and from the more general to the more specific.
The researcher should ensure that previous questions do not influence the answer to a question.
Question order effects
- Question order effects occur when responses to an earlier question affect responses to a later question in a survey. They can arise at different stages of the survey response process – interpretation, information retrieval, judgment/estimation, and reporting.
- Types of question order effects include: unconditional (subsequent answers affected by prior question topic), conditional (subsequent answers depend on the response to the prior question), and associational (correlation between two questions changes based on order).
- Question order effects have been found across different survey topics like social and political attitudes, health and safety studies, vignette research, etc. Effects may be moderated by respondent factors like age, education level, knowledge and attitudes about the topic.
- To minimize question order effects, recommendations include avoiding judgmental dependencies between questions, separating potentially reactive questions, randomizing questions, following good survey design principles, considering respondent characteristics, and intentionally examining question context and order.
Terminology
- There should be a minimum of technical jargon. Questions should be simple, to the point, and easy to understand. The language of a questionnaire should be appropriate to the vocabulary of the group of people being studied.
- Use statements that are interpreted in the same way by members of different subpopulations of the population of interest.
- For example, the researcher must change the language of questions to match the social background of the respondent’s age / educational level / social class/ethnicity, etc.
Presentation
Ethical Issues
- The researcher must ensure that the information provided by the respondent is kept confidential, e.g., name, address, etc.
- This means questionnaires are good for researching sensitive topics as respondents will be more honest when they cannot be identified.
- Keeping the questionnaire confidential should also reduce the likelihood of psychological harm, such as embarrassment.
- Participants must provide informed consent before completing the questionnaire and must be aware that they have the right to withdraw their information at any time during the survey/ study.
Problems with Postal Questionnaires
At first sight, the postal questionnaire seems to offer the opportunity to get around the problem of interview bias by reducing the personal involvement of the researcher. Its other practical advantages are that it is cheaper than face-to-face interviews and can quickly contact many respondents scattered over a wide area.
However, these advantages must be weighed against the practical problems of conducting research by post. A lack of involvement by the researcher means there is little control over the information-gathering process.
The data might not be valid (i.e., truthful) as we can never be sure that the questionnaire was completed by the person to whom it was addressed.
That, of course, assumes there is a reply in the first place, and one of the most intractable problems of mailed questionnaires is a low response rate. This diminishes the reliability of the data
Also, postal questionnaires may not represent the population they are studying. This may be because:
- Some questionnaires may be lost in the post, reducing the sample size.
- The questionnaire may be completed by someone not a member of the research population.
- Those with strong views on the questionnaire’s subject are more likely to complete it than those without interest.
Benefits of a Pilot Study
A pilot study is a practice / small-scale study conducted before the main study.
It allows the researcher to try out the study with a few participants so that adjustments can be made before the main study, saving time and money.
It is important to conduct a questionnaire pilot study for the following reasons:
- Check that respondents understand the terminology used in the questionnaire.
- Check that emotive questions are not used, as they make people defensive and could invalidate their answers.
- Check that leading questions have not been used as they could bias the respondent’s answer.
- Ensure the questionnaire can be completed in an appropriate time frame (i.e., it’s not too long).
Frequently Asked Questions
How do psychological researchers analyze the data collected from questionnaires?
Psychological researchers analyze questionnaire data by looking for patterns and trends in people’s responses. They use numbers and charts to summarize the information.
They calculate things like averages and percentages to see what most people think or feel. They also compare different groups to see if there are any differences between them.
By doing these analyses, researchers can understand how people think, feel, and behave. This helps them make conclusions and learn more about how our minds work.
Are questionnaires effective in gathering accurate data?
Yes, questionnaires can be effective in gathering accurate data. When designed well, with clear and understandable questions, they allow individuals to express their thoughts, opinions, and experiences.
However, the accuracy of the data depends on factors such as the honesty and accuracy of respondents’ answers, their understanding of the questions, and their willingness to provide accurate information. Researchers strive to create reliable and valid questionnaires to minimize biases and errors.
It’s important to remember that while questionnaires can provide valuable insights, they are just one tool among many used in psychological research.
Can questionnaires be used with diverse populations and cultural contexts?
Yes, questionnaires can be used with diverse populations and cultural contexts. Researchers take special care to ensure that questionnaires are culturally sensitive and appropriate for different groups.
This means adapting the language, examples, and concepts to match the cultural context. By doing so, questionnaires can capture the unique perspectives and experiences of individuals from various backgrounds.
This helps researchers gain a more comprehensive understanding of human behavior and ensures that everyone’s voice is heard and represented in psychological research.
Are questionnaires the only method used in psychological research?
No, questionnaires are not the only method used in psychological research. Psychologists use a variety of research methods, including interviews, observations, experiments, and psychological tests.
Each method has its strengths and limitations, and researchers choose the most appropriate method based on their research question and goals.
Questionnaires are valuable for gathering self-report data, but other methods allow researchers to directly observe behavior, study interactions, or manipulate variables to test hypotheses.
By using multiple methods, psychologists can gain a more comprehensive understanding of human behavior and mental processes.
What is a semantic differential scale?
The semantic differential scale is a questionnaire format used to gather data on individuals’ attitudes or perceptions. It’s commonly incorporated into larger surveys or questionnaires to assess subjective qualities or feelings about a specific topic, product, or concept by quantifying them on a scale between two bipolar adjectives.
It presents respondents with a pair of opposite adjectives (e.g., “happy” vs. “sad”) and asks them to mark their position on a scale between them, capturing the intensity of their feelings about a particular subject.
It quantifies subjective qualities, turning them into data that can be statistically analyzed.
References
Ayidiya, S. A., & McClendon, M. J. (1990). Response effects in mail surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 54(2), 229–247. https://doi.org/10.1086/269200
Fraley, R. C., Waller, N. G., & Brennan, K. A. (2000). An item-response theory analysis of self-report measures of adult attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 350-365.
Friedman, M., & Rosenman, R. H. (1974). Type A behavior and your heart. New York: Knopf.
Gold, R. S., & Barclay, A. (2006). Order of question presentation and correlation between judgments of comparative and own risk. Psychological Reports, 99(3), 794–798. https://doi.org/10.2466/PR0.99.3.794-798
Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of psychosomatic research, 11(2), 213-218.
Schwarz, N., & Hippler, H.-J. (1995). Subsequent questions may influence answers to preceding questions in mail surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 59(1), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.1086/269460
Smith, C. P. (Ed.). (1992). Motivation and personality: Handbook of thematic content analysis. Cambridge University Press.
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