5 Questionnaire Design

STATISTICAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING
CENTER
J and S Building, 104 Kalayaan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon
City
Training Course on Basic Statistics for

Research
August 24-28, 2009
Introduction to
Questionnaire Design
Prepared by:
Josefina V. Almeda
Professor and College Secretary
School of Statistics
University of the Philippines, Diliman
August 2009
Questionnaire
refers to any list of questions, which

can be self-administered by the
respondent or read to the respondent
by an interviewer
Statistical Research and Training Center
Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

August 24 - 28, 2009
Process of Constructing the Questionnaire

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Decide on the type of questionnaire that will be

constructed.
Write down the questions.
Combine all questions and decide on which order to
present them.
Write the introductory statement or cover letter.
Write the instructions to interviewers or respondents.
Design the Form.
If the study is a nationwide survey, translate the
questionnaire to other major languages.
Pretest the questionnaire.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Strategies in Writing the Questions
Use the research objectives as the basis for your

questions.
You may borrow questions that were already asked in
past studies.
Anticipate the possible problem that you might encounter
in extracting information from the respondents.
Consider the resources available.
Consider the medium used in acquiring the responses
Consider the level of measurement required by the
analysis that you have in mind.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Types of Questionnaire
Structured
wording and order of

questions are uniform for all
respondents
Unstructured
wording and order of

questions can vary for
different subjects; usually
used for qualitative studies
like FGDs, case studies, etc.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Types of Questions in Survey Research
Open-Ended Questions
Closed-Ended Questions

August 24 - 28, 2009
Types of Questions
Open ended :response categories are not specified;
the respondents are free to answer as
they please
Example:
We would like to get your opinion regarding the
effectiveness of the project in your barangay.
a. What do you think are the strengths of the
project? Why did you say so?
b. How do you think can the project still be
improved to meet its objective?

August 24 - 28, 2009
Types of Questions
Closed - ended respondent selects one or more of the
specific categories provided by the researcher or the
question is asked as an open question and the interviewer
allocates the answer to the appropriate code category.
Example:
Do you practice family planning?
__ Yes
__ No
If YES, what methods did you use?
__ Condom
__
Pills
__ Ligation
__
IUD
__ Injectables
__
Natural
__ Others, specify ____________________

August 24 - 28, 2009
Advantages of Closed-Ended Questions
The answers are standard, and can be compared from

person to person.
The answers are much easier to code and analyze, and
often can be coded directly from the questionnaire.
A respondent who is unsure about the meaning of the
question can often tell from the answer categories what
is expected.
Irrelevant responses are avoided.

August 24 - 28, 2009
10
Disadvantages of Closed-Ended Questions

It is very easy for a respondent who does not know the
answer or has no opinion to try to guess the appropriate
answer or even to answer randomly.
The respondent may feel frustrated because the
appropriate category for his/her answer either is not
provided at all or is not provided in sufficient detail .
Variations in answers among the different respondents
may be eliminated artificially by forced-choice responses.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Advantages of Open-Ended Questions
11
They can be used when all of the possible answer

categories are not known, or when the investigator wishes
to see what the respondent views as appropriate answer
categories.
They allow the respondent to answer adequately, in all
the detail he/she likes, and to qualify and clarify his/her
answer.
They can be used when there are too many potential
answer categories to list on the questionnaire.
They allow more opportunity for creativity and selfexpression by the respondent.

August 24 - 28, 2009
12
Disadvantages of Open-Ended Questions

They may lead to collection of worthless and irrelevant
information.
Coding is often very difficult and subjective, leading to
low inter-coder reliability.
Open-ended questions require superior writing skills,
better ability to express ones feelings verbally, and
generally a higher educational level than do closed-ended
questions.
Open-ended questions require much more of the
respondents time and effort, and may engender a high
refusal rate.

August 24 - 28, 2009
13
Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Incorrect ordering of questions
Q7.
How would you rate the scent of lotion X?
Q8.
What do you think of lotion X?
Improvement: ________________________________________
________________________________________
Double-barreled questions
Does your department have a special recruitment policy for ethnic
minorities and women?
Improvement:
____________________________________
_____________________________________

August 24 - 28, 2009
14

Words with double meaning
Does your household participate in the activities of
the barangay?
The National Statistics Office defines the household
as an aggregate of persons generally but not
necessarily bound by ties of kinship, who live
together under the same roof and eat together or
share common the household food.

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15
Difficult words or technical terms

What proportion of your evening viewing time do
you spend watching news programs?
Improvement:
__________________________________________
_
__________________________________________
_

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16
Presuming questions
Do you think the Clean Air Act is being implemented
properly by local authorities?
Improvement:
_____________________________________
____________________________________

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17
Sensitive or Threatening Questions

Do you masturbate? Yes _____ No _____ If yes,
how often? Once a week, once a month, everyday?
Improvement:
__________________________________________
_
________________________________________

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18
Unrealistic questions
What brand of perfume do you think you will be
using three years from now?
Improvement:
__________________________________________
_
__________________________________________

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19
Incomplete/non-exhaustive listing
Did you learn about the brand from TV, radio, newspaper, or
friends?
Improvement:
____________________________________________
____________________________________________

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20
Biased Wording
Do you think that decent, low-cost funerals are
sensible?
Improvement:
__________________________________________
_
_________________________________________

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21
Leading questions
The majority of physicians in the Philippines feel
that smoking is harmful; do you agree?
Improvement:__________________________________
______________________________________

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22
Double Negatives especially in agree/disagree items

Please tell me whether you agree or disagree with the
following statement about teachers in public schools: Teachers
should not be required to supervise students in the halls, the
lunchroom and school parking lots.
Improvement:
____________________________________________
____________________________________________

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23
Dangling Alternatives
Would you say that it is very often, frequently, seldom, or never

that you and your boss disagree about advertising campaigns?
Improvement:
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________

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24
Insufficiently Specific or Unidimensional

Are you satisfied with your canteen?
Improvement:
__________________________________________
_
__________________________________________

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Examples of Pitfalls in Question

Construction
25
Hypothetical Questions
If you are the president of the Philippines, would you push
through with the Charter Change?
Improvement:
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________

August 24 - 28, 2009
Examples of Pitfalls in Question

Construction
26
Vague questions
How often do you wash your hair?
Very often
Often
Not too often
Never
Imrovement: ______________________________________
__________________________________________

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example to Avoid Unrealistic Questions
27
Getting information on number of hours spent shopping

(i)
Did you go shopping in the past week? (IF YES) How

many hours did you spend shopping in the past week?
(ii) On a typical week, how many hours did you spend
shopping? Or, on the average, how many hours do you
spend shopping in a week?
(iii) Do you go shopping? (IF YES) On your last shopping
trip, how many hours did you spend shopping?

August 24 - 28, 2009
Use of Simple Words
WORD
acquaint
assist
consider
initiate
major
materialize
purchase
sufficient
terminate
28
SIMPLER WORD
inform, tell
help
think
begin, start
important, chief, main, principal
come about, happen, occur
buy
enough
end

August 24 - 28, 2009
Exercise:
29
Evaluate the following statements:

1. According to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the court
should be free of bribery and corruption.
2. Do you think that the Congress, as an institution, is definitely free
from external controls, influence or pressure?
3. Does the government agency have criminal and civil cases?
4. What is the nature of the complaint against the Chief of the
Division?
Have you ever filed an administrative complaint against a
Division Chief?
5. Do you accept money for a favorable decision? If yes, how
often?
6. Approximately how many administrative cases did you have in
your agency from 2005 to 2008?

August 24 - 28, 2009
Filter and Contingency Questions
30
A contingency question is a question whose relevance to the

respondent is determined by the response to an earlier filter
question.
There are some questions that are not relevant to all of the
respondents in the study, particular if the population under
study is very heterogeneous.
Instead on using separate questionnaires for the different
subgroups, only one questionnaire containing
filter and contingency questions is used.

August 24 - 28, 2009
31
Possible Format of Filter and Contingency Questions

Instructions telling which to answer next in the event of the category
being chosen are placed beside each response category.
In the past two months, did you have any illness that kept you in bed,
indoors, or away from your usual activities?
Yes (ASK A)1
No..(SKIP TO Q.25)2
Or
Yes.1 ASK A
No . 2 SKIP to Q.25

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32
Possible Format of Filter and Contingency Questions

Used boxed contingency questions with no arrows leading
to them.
Have you ever had a miscarriage?
( ) Yes
( ) No
If YES: How old were you when you had your first
miscarriage? ____________

August 24 - 28, 2009
Response Category Format
33
Response categories should be exhaustive.

Response categories should be mutually exclusive.
Response categories should be made easy to data collectors,
respondents, or coders to select appropriate options.
Response categories should include the Other option with
sufficient space for writing answers.
Response categories should anticipate analytical needs and
enable the collection of data that are suitable for those
analyses.
It should be decided whether single or multiple answers are to
be allowed.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Response Category Format
34
Number of Categories
There is no optimal number of categories.
5 to 6 categories are commonly used
Odd or Even Number of Categories
If odd, usually the middle category is the neutral position.
If even, there will be no neutral category. Thus, the
respondent is forced to take a position.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Some Types of Category Formats
35
Verbal rating scale

This requires a respondent to indicate their position by
selecting among verbally identified categories.
Examples:
Strongly agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree,
Strongly Disagree
Very important, Important, Somewhat Important, Not at all
Important
Excellent, Good, All right, Poor, Bad

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36
Graphic Rating Scale

This requires a respondent to indicate his position on a
continuum which ranges from one extreme of the attitude in
question to the other extreme.
Since the respondent is not using a predetermined set of
response categories, the researcher cannot determine how a
particular respondent has subdivided the continuum.
Example: To what extent do you feel employees should have a
voice in determining performance evaluation content?
Employees should make
the decisions about
performance
evaluation matters
Performance evaluation matters
10
should be left entirely

to the Administration

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37
Rank-Order Scale
This involves having the respondent rank various objects with respect to
the attitude in question.
This is actually a forced scale.
It is possible that respondent actually dislikes all of the objects they were
asked to rank according to a favorable characteristic. This attitude is not
captured by the scale.
Example: The following are some of the problems faced by the local
government. Please rank them in terms of importance, from 1 (most
important) to 5 (least important).
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Pollution
Garbage
Traffic
Drug Addiction
Crime
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38
Checklist Question
provides more than two alternatives from which the respondent can
choose as many responses that apply to them.
Example: What kind of ball sports do you like to play?
basketball
volleyball
football
tennis
baseball
water polo
others, pls. specify _____________

August 24 - 28, 2009
Question Order
The order of questions should be in logical sequence so that the

trend of thought of the respondent is not broken.
The first part of the questionnaire are on Identification

Information consisting of the geographic identification,
interviewers record and the information about the sample.
Sensitive questions are placed towards the end of the interview

schedule or questionnaire.
39

August 24 - 28, 2009
Approaches to Question Sequence
40
Funnel Approach
Uses a general-to-specific question flow.
Work Approach
Requires that difficult to answer questions are placed deep
inside the questionnaire.
Sections Approach
Arranges the questionnaire into sections or topic category
divisions that are dictated by the objectives of the study

August 24 - 28, 2009
Approaches to Question Sequence
41
Quintamensional Design
This 5-question approach was developed by George Gallup to
cover the most essential features of an opinion:
Open-ended question on awareness/knowledge of the issue
Open-ended question on the attitudes toward the issue
Closed-ended question on attitude towards specific issues
Open-ended question on reason behind attitude
Closed-ended question on the intensity of attitudes

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42
Questionnaire Lay-out & Design

Flow of questions should be respondent-friendly .
Vary questions by length and type.
Place scale items according to response required.
Separate reliability-check question pairs.

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43
Physical Design of a Questionnaire

(1) The appearance of the form should be simple and
well spaced;
(2) The size and type of font used should be readable;
(3) The font size and type used for questions and
directions should be different.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Basic Contents of the Cover Letter/Introduction
44
Identification of the persons or organization conducting the

study
Explanation of the importance of the study and reason/s why it
is being conducted
Reason why the respondent should be the one to answer the
questionnaire
Assurance of no right or wrong answers
Guarantee the confidentiality of answers

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example of an Introduction
45
Good morning/afternoon/evening. I am Josie Almeda from the UP

School of Statistics Research Foundation. This study seeks to
know how Filipinos feel about various issues and problems
affecting their lives. This information is valuable both for
planning and for scientific research. Your household is very
important to this survey because it represents hundreds of others
which are not in our sample. Everything you tell us will be strictly
confidential. Your name will be in no way connected to the
findings of this important study.

August 24 - 28, 2009
The Pretest
46
Objective: To determine if there are errors in the questionnaires

or areas that need improvement such as ordering of questions,
wording, and the natural flow from one section to another.
Respondents: No rules on who the respondents should be in the
pretest and on the size of the sample.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Types of Pretest
47
Participating Pretest
Respondents are told that this is a practice run, and are asked
to explain their reactions and answers.
This allows for a very detailed probe on certain questions such
as:
What did the whole question mean to you?
What did the (term) make you think of?
Undeclared Pretest
The respondent is not told that this is a questionnaire under
construction, and the interviewer plays it straight.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Evaluating the Pretest
48
Before the pretest, tell interviewers to write marginal comments on

the questionnaire.
Conduct an oral debriefing after the pretest so that the interviewers
can report on their experience.
Some of the issues that can be discussed are:
Were there questions that made the respondent uncomfortable
Which questions have to be repeated
Did the respondent misinterpret any question
Which questions were the most difficult or awkward to read
Did any of the sections bore the respondent
Were there questions that respondent found stupid
Were there any section in which the respondent would have liked the
opportunity to say more

August 24 - 28, 2009
Evaluating the Pretest
49
Review answers to open-ended questions

Tabulate the number of no responses, unable to answer, and
dont knows for each question.
Investigate questions that yield too many such answers.
Watch out for response sets.
Look at the variability of responses.

August 24 - 28, 2009
WORKSHOP
50
Write a short questionnaire to measure employees job

satisfaction on their current position. Incorporate topics on the
employees preferences. Put questions regarding the personal
characteristics of employees like age, sex, department, position,
and others. Maximum of 15 questions only. Keep in mind the
guidelines on questionnaire construction.
Include a question that allows for multiple response.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Data Coding
51
Coding is a process of grouping the responses to a

question into categories and assigning numbers,
characters, and/or other symbols, called codes, to these
categories.

August 24 - 28, 2009
REASONS FOR CODING
52
To simplify the recording of information.

To preserve the confidentiality of the responses either
for personal, industrial, or security reasons.
To make it easier to enter the data into the computer,
minimize storage space, and speed up processing.
To facilitate the management of files (e.g., sorting,
merging, transforming, listing, etc.) using the coded
values of one or more key variables.
To perform data analysis using computer software like
MS Excel, STATISTICA, MICROSTAT, etc., which
require numeric inputs.

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53
Basic Principles in Coding

Consistent codes for identical answers should be used
throughout the instrument.
Consistent conventions should be used to record
missing data, and when appropriate, to indicate the
reasons data are missing.
Assign codes that minimize transformations during data
analysis
Select standard or commonly used classification
whenever possible

August 24 - 28, 2009
TYPES OF CODES
54
Listing codes
Bracket codes
Scale codes
Series codes
System codes

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LISTING CODES
55
Listing codes simply correspond to a list of choices or

possible responses.
Successive integers, beginning with 0 or 1, are assigned
to the items in the list of possible responses.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example:
56
For questions which allow only one answer, each possible

answer can be assigned a code from 1 to n.
Example : Religion
[1] Catholic
[2] Protestant
[3] Iglesia ni Kristo[5] Others, specify

[4] Fundamentalist

August 24 - 28, 2009
BRACKET CODES
57
Bracket codes represents ranges or class intervals.

These are frequently used for numerical responses like
income and age in which the respondent may not be
able to provide an exact answer.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example:
58
Q: What is your monthly income ?

(1) less than P 10000.00
(2) P 10000.00 to less than P 30000
(3) P 30000.00 to less than P 50000
(4) P 50000 or more
Provide the codes of the following answers:
Ans 1:
"My income is P 5000."
Ans 2:
"My income is between P 15000 and P
35000.
Ans 3."My income is not more than P 50000".
Ans 4."My income is P 49999.75".

August 24 - 28, 2009
SCALE CODES
59
Scale codes represent grouping of responses which vary

in degree or intensity along a continuum.
We represent each segment by a number which serves
as the code for any response falling within it.
We often use these for coding responses to attitudinal
questions.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example:
60
1. Two-point scale
Q:
"How do you rate the overall performance of this
administration?"
1
2
__________________
Low
High
Ans: "Inspite of the economic crisis, the performance of
this administration is above my expectation."
Code: ______

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example:
61
2. Three-point scale
(a) This scale has a middle or neutral position
Q:
"Do you get along well with your supervisor?"
1
2
3
__________________________________
YES
YES IN SOME WAYS,
NO
NO TO OTHERS
Ans: "Sometimes."
Code: _______

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example:
62
3. Four-point scale
(a) This scale has no middle or neutral position.
Q:
"How sure are you about the outcome of the
election in your province?"
1
2
3
4
__________________________________
Certain Fairly
Fairly
Uncertain
certain
uncertain
Ans: "I have no idea."
Code: _______

August 24 - 28, 2009
63
Example:
4. Five-point scale
(a) We use a five-point intensity to code responses with
degree of feeling.
Q:
"How satisfied are you with your present job?"
1
2 3
4
5
_____________________________________________
VerySatisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Very
Ans: "Neither satisfied or dissatisfied."

Code:
______

August 24 - 28, 2009
Series Codes
64
Multi-digit codes that are divided into two sets the

first set of leading digits represents a major
classification while the second set of trailing digits
represents a specific category within the major
classification.
This coding scheme can be extended to more than 2
levels.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example of Series Codes
65
Why do you think that now is a good time to buy a car?

Response:
PRICE and CREDIT
Prices are lower now compared to before
11
Uncertain about price in the future may go up 12
Credit is easy to get
13
Attractive car loan terms
14

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66
Continuation of Example of Series Codes

FEATURE of CAR
Quality is good/better
New models have better features
Small cars are available
21
22
23
GOOD ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF COUNTRY

People can afford to buy
31
High employment rate
32

August 24 - 28, 2009
SYSTEM CODES
67
System codes are used primarily in computer data

processing to identify and/or classify respondents,
households, products, accounts and other data items.
They are usually combinations of numbers and letters
(called alphanumeric).
By using the digit 0 through 9 and the 26 letters of the
alphabet, a total of 36 characters, 1,679,616 unique
four-character codes can be generated.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example:
68
The Philippine Standard Occupation Classification

(PSOC) uses group classification codes which consist of
three levels: major, minor, and unit groups.
The major groups are the highest level, of occupation
aggregate and represent broad fields of work.
Each major group has a one-digit code.
Minor groups represent the second level of occupation
aggregate and each minor group has a two-digit code.
Finally, unit groups are the third level of occupational
groupings with each unit group assigned a three digit code.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example:
69
List of Philippine Standard Classifications

Philippine Standard Geographic Classification
Philippine Standard Industrial Classification
Philippine Standard Commodity Classification
Philippine Standard Occupational Classification

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example:
70
Major Group 0/1: Professional, Technical, and

Related
Workers
0-8 Mathematicians, Statisticians, System Analysts and
Related Workers
0-81 Mathematicians and actuaries
0-82 Statisticians
0-83 Systems analyst
0-84 Statistical and Mathematical technicians

August 24 - 28, 2009
CODING OF NO RESPONSE
71
Types of No Response:
A.
No Opinion
B.
Don't Know
C.
Refuse to answer
D.
Not applicable
E.
Missing (in general)

August 24 - 28, 2009
NO RESPONSE
72
A. NO OPINION
NO OPINION should be coded NO or given a code
number directly following the other categories.
Example:
Did you find Mr.______adequate in helping you solve
your problems?
________Yes
________No
Answer: No Comment.
We could give Yes a code (1); No a code (0) and a No
Opinion/No Comment a code (2).

August 24 - 28, 2009
NO RESPONSE
73
B. DON'T KNOW
occurs when we ask Knowledge questions
assign a 'DON'T KNOW' response a code number

directly following the other categories.

August 24 - 28, 2009
NO RESPONSE
74
Example:
How much did you and your household spend on
transportation this past month ?
_____(1)
less than P200
_____(2)
P200 to less than P500
_____(3)
_____(4)
_____(5)
more than P2000
_____(6)
don't know

August 24 - 28, 2009
NO RESPONSE
75
C. REFUSES TO ANSWER
We sometimes, unfortunately, encounter not-so
receptive respondents who do not like to readily
volunteer their responses.
At times it may be due to an offensive question or

altogether sensitive topics.
In cases like these, we assign it a code '9', or '99', or

'9999' following the number of columns allotted for
the variable, i.e., if no other category has been
previously assigned to this.

August 24 - 28, 2009
NO RESPONSE
76
Example:
How much was your family income this past month ?
Answer: refuses to answer
Code: _______

August 24 - 28, 2009
NO RESPONSE
77
D.NOT APPLICABLE
Some responses to our questions may be dependent
upon answers to previous questions or to some
attributes of our respondents. So that if the attribute is
not present, the question becomes irrelevant.
In cases like these, we code it as NA; or as '9',or '99' or
even '99999', again depending on the number of
columns allotted to our variable.

August 24 - 28, 2009
NO RESPONSE
78
Example :
Do you own a farm ? _____Yes
_____No
What is the land area of your farm ? _____(hectares)
Code: ________

August 24 - 28, 2009
NO RESPONSE
79
E.MISSING
refers to responses which were not recorded for various
reasons, which could not be verified. Hence, we assign
to it a special "missing" value symbols.
Following are some characters which are recognized
automatically as missing values by three major
statistical software packages:
BMDP:
blank
SAS :
blank
SPSS :
blank

August 24 - 28, 2009
Coding Multiple Response
80
Multiple Dichotomy Method

For each possible response, create a dichotomous
variable with a value of 1 to indicate that the response
was given and a value of 0 if not.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Example of Multiple Dichotomy Method:
81
Q:
What type of TV shows do you watch ? (Please check your
answers )
[ ] action
[ ] drama
[ ] game
[ ] sport
[ ] none
[ ] Pls. specify __________________
A:
"I watch action and game shows.
Code: _____________

August 24 - 28, 2009
82
Example Of Multiple Dichotomy Method

Field Name
Action
Drama
Game
Sport
None
Code
1 watched
0 did not watch
1 watched
0 did not watch
1 watched
0 did not watch
1 watched
0 did not watch
2 does not watch

August 24 - 28, 2009
Some Rules for Designing Code Frames
83
Create a sufficient range of codes and variables so that

the coder need not force data into categories.
Include an Others category if you are not assured of
the completeness of codes.
Monitor the frequency of the Others category. A
large frequency indicates a failure in the coding
scheme.
Group together related categories of information and
use series codes.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Quality Control
84
Training of Encoders
Encoders should be trained and supervised
Procedures to be used in coding and entering data
should be reviewed in sequence and in detail.
Encoders should be provided with codebooks

August 24 - 28, 2009
Quality Control
85
Range Checking
This checks the variable values against predefined
maximum and minimum bounds.
This is often done to catch spurious values or keyboard
entry errors.
Cleaning rules can be formulated as logical expressions
making various assertions about the data.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Quality Control
86
Consistency Checks Using Contingency Tables

The pairs of variables whose answers should be
consistent with each other must be cross-tabulated.
The cells representing inconsistent responses must be
empty.
After cleaning, the contingency tables are constructed
once more to check that all answers are consistent with
each other.

August 24 - 28, 2009
Quality Control
87
Reentering the data file

A very expensive method but this is recommended if a
close-to-zero encoding error is desired.
Some software include a verify mode in which the
data being entered the second time are automatically
compared with those entered the first time.

August 24 - 28, 2009
WORKSHOP
88
Construct a code frame for the questionnaire

constructed in the last workshop. For each part of the
questionnaire, provide the variable name, variable label
and code of response.

August 24 - 28, 2009
89
Example
Respondent Identification Variables
Variable
Name
Variable Label
Code Response
ID
ID Number
Brgy
Barangay
1 Ibayo
2 Labac
Type
Type of Barangay
1 Urban
2 Rural
Resp
Age Classification
1 Adult
2 Youth
Intervr
Name of Interviewer
Encode as is
Encode as is

August 24 - 28, 2009
90
Example
Demographics. Personal Information
Variable Label
Variable
Name
A1
A2
A3
A01Name
A02Sex
Name
Sex
1 Lalaki
2 Babae
Age
Input number in years
A03Age
Civil Status
A4
Code Response
A04CS
1 Single
2 Married
3 Separated
4 Widowed
5 Others
August 24 - 28, 2009

5 Questionnaire Design

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STATISTICAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING

Training Course on Basic Statistics for

refers to any list of questions, which

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Process of Constructing the Questionnaire

Decide on the type of questionnaire that will be

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Strategies in Writing the Questions

Use the research objectives as the basis for your

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

wording and order of

wording and order of

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Types of Questions in Survey Research

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Advantages of Closed-Ended Questions

The answers are standard, and can be compared from

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Disadvantages of Closed-Ended Questions

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Advantages of Open-Ended Questions

They can be used when all of the possible answer

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Disadvantages of Open-Ended Questions

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Difficult words or technical terms

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Sensitive or Threatening Questions

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Statistical Research and Training Center

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Training Course on Basic Statistics for Research

Examples of Pitfalls in Question Construction

Double Negatives especially in agree/disagree items