Term
| How should a survey question be framed when conducting a telephone questionnaire? |
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Definition
| Say you'll read the names of department stores, ask respondent to rate them in terms of their preference to shop at the store, use a 10-pt scale (1 being worst, 10 being best)....then read one store at a time |
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Term
| How should a survey question be framed when conducting a personal questionnaire (on a piece of paper)? |
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Definition
| Give respondent a set of cards, tell them to examine the cards and pull out the card that has the name of the store they like most, then continue to do that until they only have one card left |
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Term
| what is a double barreled question? |
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Definition
| asking more than one question at once: "do you think UMD offers an affordable and quality education?" BAD BAD BAD |
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Term
| what are 3 questions you must answer to overcome a respondent's inability to answer? |
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Definition
Is the respondent informed?
Can the respondent remember? (ex. what did you have for breakfast last Saturday? they probably wouldn't remember that)
Can the respondent articulate? (how do you feel when you walk into a Macy's store? kind of hard to describe that) |
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Term
| It's important not to confuse a respondent's _______ to answer with their ________ to answer a question. |
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Definition
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Term
| which one is easier to change? unwillingness or ability? |
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Definition
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Term
| Example of how a researcher might make it easier for someone to answer a question |
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Definition
Original question: please list all department from which you've purchased merchandise from the last time you were in a department store.
Question made easier: in the following list of departments, check all the departments which you purchased merchandise from |
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Term
| why might an individual be unwilling to answer a question (3 reasons)? |
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Definition
Context: respondents may not want to answer a question if they think it is inappropriate for the given context
Legitimate purpose: respondents may not want to answer if they don't understand why the information might be needed
Sensitive information: respondents may not be willing to answer questions with sensitive info because it may be embarrassing or threaten their self-image |
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Term
| what do researchers often do to increase willingness of respondents? |
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Definition
| offer gift cards, entry into a drawing, other incentives |
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Term
| structured questions vs. unstructured questions |
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Definition
structured: specify the choices (multiple choice, dichotomous, scale)
unstructured: open-ended, answer in their own words (ex. what is your occupation/favorite color? what do you think about people who shop at high-end stores?) |
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Term
| describe multiple choice questions |
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Definition
| researcher provides a choice of answers, respondents select one or more options, MORE THAN JUST YES/NO |
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Term
| describe dichotomous questions |
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Definition
| only two responses, yes or no (sometimes will have an undecided option) forces the respondent to make a decision |
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Term
| what's wrong with this question: "which brand of shampoo do you use?" |
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Definition
question isn't specific enough, want to try to answer as many of the 6 w's as possible (who what when where why way)
reworded: "which brand of shampoo do you primarily use at home?" |
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Term
| what's wrong with this question: "do you think the distribution of soft drinks is adequate?" |
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Definition
adequate isn't an easily understood word, use ordinary words
reworded: "do you think soft drinks are readily available when you want to buy them?" |
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Term
| what's wrong with this scale of answers: "never, occasionally, sometimes, often, regularly" |
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Definition
| words are kind of ambiguous (occasionally might mean the same thing as sometimes) |
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Term
| what is a biased question? |
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Definition
| ex. why do Cheerios taste so good? |
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Term
| what is the problem with implicit alternatives? |
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Definition
ex. might ask the question: "Do you like to fly when traveling short distances?" They might be confused and think the ALTERNATIVE is to walk
Instead say: “would you rather fly or drive a short distance?” |
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Term
| what is the problem with implicit assumptions? |
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Definition
ex. might ask the question: “would you be in favor of providing undergrads with new laptops?” people might be afraid and ASSUME their tuition would go up (an implicit assumption)
Instead say: “would you be in favor of providing undergrads w/ new laptops if tuition didn’t increase?” |
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Term
| what is the problem with generalized questions? |
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Definition
| ex. might ask: “what is your yearly expenditure on groceries?” Many people won’t know the answer to this so they’ll generalize their answer, the information you’re collecting for that question probably isn’t accurate |
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Term
| how should questions be ordered? |
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Definition
opening: questions should be interesting, simple, non-threatening (basic info)
middle/end: difficult, sensitive, complex, or dull questions (classification and identification info) |
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Term
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Definition
| testing a questionnaire on a small number of people to identify and eliminate potential problems |
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