QUESTIONNAIRE

Unit 4
(3)

 By questionnaire we mean a set of questions developed in an organised

and ordered manner for gaining information from the people in relation to a
given problem.
 Questionnaire method of data collection is the tool, which is more
frequently used in “mail survey research” than any other method of data
collection.
 A mail survey research is that branch of scientific investigation, which
studies the universe by selecting a sample from it.
 In survey research one attempts to discover the relative incidence,
distribution and inter-relation of sociological and psychological variables.
 Though the approach and technique of survey research can be used on
any sets of objects that can be well defined, survey research mainly
focuses on people, the vital facts of people, and their belonging, opinions,
attitudes, motivations, memory, behaviour, actions, inter-actions and even
future plans.
 The questionnaire is the best tool for collecting information in all above
areas, though other types of methods like the interview method based on
schedules or other, the questionnaire method is better as it covers a larger
population in a shorter time.
 The main difference between collecting information through questionnaire
in mail survey and an interview study based upon schedule is the manner
through which information is collected.
 In mail surveys the per cent of return is small i.e. between 20 per cent and
40 per cent on the average, as compared with interviews which typically
result in about 95 per cent return.
 The users of mail surveys are almost always faced with the question of
how to estimate the effects the non-respondents may have had on the
results.
Functions of Questionnaire:
Questionnaire method, as a tool of scientific inquiry, fulfils several
purposes or functions. They are; (a) Measurements, (b) Description, (c)
Comparison, and (d) Inference.
Measurement:
 Similar to other methods of data collection the questionnaire method also
aims to measure the sociological variables.
 Through it we collect information about individual or group characteristics
like sex, age, height, weight, years of education, occupation, income, etc.
 On the basis of measuring these characteristics, through questionnaire,
we are able to desire conclusions about more abstract social distance,
attitude, and perceptions of group cohesiveness. etc.
 However, it is easier to measure accurately the more concrete concepts
like, age, sex, income, weight etc.

Description:
 On the basis of the measurement achieved of the specified characteristics,
we are able to provide description of a given population.
 Through questionnaire we are able achieve more concrete numerical
measurement of characteristics. It becomes easier to describe the
population characteristics in more specific forms.
 All this helps in more specific comparison of different samples of related
populations.

Inference:
 It helps to infer about the total population on the basis of sample studies.
 The description achieved through it help not only in better understanding
of the people but at the same time it also helps in explaining why and how
people’s attitude, beliefs, motivations, behaviour etc vary from one group
to another.
 Which means that on the basis of such descriptive information we are able
to find out association or correlation between different factors.
 However, there are several factors, which create difficulty in the
measurement of social characteristics as accurately as found in natural

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 scenario. This hinders the accurate scientific description, comparison and
inference.
 Therefore, the methodologists are constantly attempting to improve the
questionnaire by structuring and restructuring the statements or scales
used in them.
 The success of the questionnaire method depends upon accurate
measurement of the variables (which themselves are determined by the
operational definitions of the variables and the accuracy in the construction
and the application of the questionnaire methods.

Types of Questionnaire:
Questionnaire can be divided into different types, on the basis of the
types of response required.
Types of Response Required:
The responses may be
(a) Fixed or closed type,
(b) Open ended types, and
(c) Mixed of both 'a' and 'b'

Fixed or Closed Type:

In a fixed or closed type of questionnaire not only the questions but
also the answers are already given in the questionnaire.
 A respondent is asked to check the answer that fits him best
 The fixed or closed type of questions can again be sub divided depending
upon the number of alternative five answers given, into, dichotomous
alternative type, multiple choice type, and rank order types.
 The use of alternative questionnaire depends upon the degree of
researcher knowledge of the people in the sample, upon the peoples
knowledge of the subject matter.
 Under investigation and upon the assumption that the people would be
capable of reflecting their attitudinal positions of verying intensities on the
issues mentioned in the questionnaire.

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Advantages:
 Fixed responses are easy to reply to score and to code.
 No writing is required on the part of the respondent. Thus it helps in
acquiring answers quickly.

Dis-advantages:
There is a possibility that the researchers may fail to provide with all relevant
response alternatives.

Open end Response:

It consists of questions that are written in specific language but the
respondents are free to give answers in their own words.

Advantages:
 Useful in cases where the researchers has little or no knowledge of the
subject matter or the sample being studied.
 The respondent is less restricted or is not forced to reply in terms of any of
the given choices.
 It helps in gaining insight into the opinion and behaviour of the people.

Dis-advantages:
It involves difficulties of coding, classifying grouping and comparing of
responses.

Mixed type Response:

 Most of the questionnaires are of mixed types. This means that they
consist of both fixed and open-ended type of questions.
 A questionnaire may consist of varieties of inquiries, for which it may
consist of factual inquiries about individual's status regarding socio-
economic met marital, occupations etc.
 It may also consist of attitudinal questions related to individual beliefs,
feedings, motivation, consciousness, attitudes and opinion etc.
 Such factual and attitudinal questions can easily be of fixed type.

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 However, on the other hand, many questions are related to mental
presses and need to be of open-end type being narrative or descriptive in
nature.

Construction of Questionnaire:
 Questionnaire construction may appear to be a simple task but in reality it
is not.
 This is evident from the process and considerations involved in its
construction.
 The development of questionnaire whether to be used in a personal
interview, is to be self administered or is to be mailed usually requires to
be processed through atleast three progressive steps:
(a) Examining the conceptual model.
(b) Framing of standardized questions
(c) Pilot study or pre-testing
(d) Printing of the questionnaire
(e) Types of questionnaire administered

(A) Examining the Conceptual Model

 It is done through literature surveys, exploratory interviews and analyses.
 It is done for explaining the model and for locating the relevant variables.
 Wherever the variables are not known and properly defined, it becomes
difficult to decide as to what information is to be sought.

(B) Framing of Questionnaire:

 In framing of the questionnaire, the following points need to be kept in
mind.

(i) Formal questions and answers:

 The foremost is to decide about the general strategy of the questionnaire.
 One has also to decide whether structured, unstructured, direct indirect or
projective questions would help to achieve research objectives.

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 Thereafter, the forms of each questions has to be decided whether it
should be open or closed, loaded or non-loaded etc.

 Similarly, the structure of answers or forms of response has to be decided,

whether they should be dichotomous, multi-choices, scaled, short
answered etc.
 The form or structure of questionnaire depends upon the nature of quality
of information wanted and the type of the respondents.

Wording of Questions: Language:

 Questions should be framed in the common language, so that they are
easily understood.
 Ideally only these words should be used within the questionnaire, which
carry same meaning to every person.
 The use of structured questions assumes that all respondents will
understand the same thing by the same word. Unfortunately this does not
happen always.
 Ambiguous or loaded words and long questions should be avoided as they
are hard to follow, and yield biocides answers.

Level of Information
 It is not necessary or essential that the respondent will be acquainted or
formiliar with the topic under investigation and would be able to give some
sort of answer or information on the same.
 The respondent may pretend to know and provide information on the topic
rather than say he is not well informed.
 This can be checked by using probing questions.

Specifying the Questions:

 Unless one wants to explore the ways in which thee respondent will
interpret a question, one should establish the frame of reference one has
in mind.
 Specifying the questions in terms of time and place of occurrence of an
event helps in avoiding the bias that results from less of memory.

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Pre-disposing the Answer
 The frame of the question should suggest all possible alternatives for the
respondents so that the respondent selects the category which represents
his view to the nearest extent and does not select the answer suggested
by the investigator
 The frame of the questionnaire should not be one that suggests any
particular answer.

Protecting the Respondents Ego:

 If one wants to study the respondents unpleasant orientations or his
negative attitude then one should in the beginning give the a chance of
expressing his positive feelings first and then the respondent should be
acted to express has negative attitude or feeling.

Asking direct/indirect questions:

 Respondents may consciously or unconsciously give wrong or incomplete
answers.
 Therefore, both direct and indirect questions should be asked.

Sequences of Questions:
 The questions are put in a particular sequence in order to protect the
respondents ego.
 Which means that they do not hurler discourage the respondents to give
accurate answers.
 If personal and intimate questions are asked later, there is least resistance
from the respondents.
 The opening question is important. One should start with easy questions
so that the respondent would enjoy answering.

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 It means that in the beginning more general and easy questions should be
asked and later on one should slowly switch over to more specific and
difficult questions.
 This procedure establishes the frame of reference gradually and helps the
respondents to think more explicitly at successive stages.
Categories of Recording and Coding:
 The categories to be used for recording of answers and for classification
have to be determined in advance.
 If one waits until the data are in before deciding on categories one may fit
the concepts too closely to the obvious data and loose some of the
significance of the prove conceptualization.
 However, if the categories are developed and the tables are planned in the
beginning, then it is helpful to the researcher in numerous ways like
(a) Useless the relationship one seeks to,
(b) To check whether the question have adequately covered the variables
needed, and
(c) To check whether the sample is large enough to fill the cells.

Pilot Study or Pre-Testing:

 After drafting of the questionnaire, it is pre-testing through what, is called
as pilot survey.
 At this stage the questionnaire is finally edited to ensure that the contents,
form, sequence of questions, spacing, arrangement and appearance etc.
of questions are checked.
 The objects of pilot survey are to make the questionnaire easily
understandable to the people and to eliminate the probability of mis -
understanding confusion and bias.

Printing of the Questionnaire:

 After the pre-testing and final correction we come to the printing of the
questionnaire.
 While printing the questionnaire, the following have to be kept in mind.
(i) The physical format must be attractive and un ambiguous.

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(ii) The auspices and the statement of purpose must be crystal clear.
(iii) There must be some inducement for the respondent to co-operate, the
subject matter should preferably be of demonstrated interest to him.
(iv) The guarantee of anonymity must be clearly specified.
(v) The set up of questions and answer spaces must be very clear and
consistent, with explicit instructions on how to answer.
(vi) The entire form should be attractive and realistically spaced so as to
maintain interest and minimize boredom

Types of Questionnaire Administration:

 When the questionnaire has been printed and is ready for data collection
the researcher needs to make preparations for its application, depending
upon the method of administrating the questionnaire.
 The different methods of administering the questionnaire are-
(a)Interview method, (b)Distribution method and (c)Postal delivery method.

The Interview Method:

 In this method, with the help of trained interviewer data is collected from
the respondents.
 The method has the advantage of depth study with low probability of the
interviewee’s (respondents) giving incorrect or inadequate answers due to
mis-understanding of the question.
 A high rate of questionnaire completion is expected.

Distribution Method:
 It consists of distributing the questionnaire to the respondents at their
households, work places, or is any other setting, depending upon the
nature of the problem to be studied and the nature of the universe.
 The completed questionnaires are collected by the investigator later on.
 This method has an advantage that the respondent can fill in the
questionnaire in privacy without fear of replies being over heard.

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 However, the great dis-advantage is that since the questionnaires are self
administered, there is a risk that the respondent may willing or unwilling
provide among information.

Postal Delivery Method:

 This method is often called as mailed questionnaire method, constitutes
the distribution of questionnaires/questions through postal delivery along
with a letter of request for postal return in pre paid envelopes.
 Then a follow up letter is sent for the return of the questionnaire.
 The dis-advantage of this method is these associated with self-
administered questionnaires. It also involves uncertainly of response or
very low percentage of returns.
 Another difficulty is that the researcher can not know whether the
questionnaire was completed by the particular respondents or by other
persons known to them.

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