Questionnaires as a primary research method

Questionnaires: a set of formally prepared questions that seek information on a person’s knowledge, beliefs, feelings, opinions, likes or dislikes; it is completed by the respondent.

Survey: a set of formally prepared questions that seek information on a person's knowledge, belief, feelings, opinions, likes or dislikes; it is filled in by the researcher after asking the respondent questions.

Developing reliable questions

It is important to include questions that:

• Are easy to understand

• Use clear, simple language

• Ask only one question at a time

• Are listed in a logical order

• Once you have developed your questionnaire, ask a friend to read and answer them as a test run. This will help to ensure that the questions are suitable and have a clear layout with plenty of space for answers. Then, make any required changes to the questions so that the questionnaire is ready to hand out.

Closed Questions

Closed question elicit a limited range of responses. They are often easier to collate and interpret. A check box, frequency or Likert scale (such as never/sometimes/always), attitudinal scale (strongly agree through to strongly disagree) or other variables can be included in these questions.

Open-ended Questions

Open-ended questions provide the opportunity for an open response that is not guided by the researcher. A line or space is provided on the questionnaire for the respondent’s answer; for example, ‘Why are informal support networks important to your family?

Common Mistakes in Surveys

www.surveymonkey.com/mp/5-common-survey-mistakes-ruin-your-data/

Conducting the Questionnaires:

How many people do I speak to? As many as you can in order to gain as much information as possible across a group or community. The Questionnaire is distributed in real time via SMS, live or through email.

How do I present my Questionnaire? Ensure your questions have space in order to record data and make any changes that are required. As always, information should be clear, concise and accurately recorded so that results can be easily collated and an Analysis performed.

Collecting and recording data

Quantitative data: Represented as numbers.

Your Quantitative research data can be counted and presented in:

• Graphs – bar, line or pie

• Tables with statistics or percentages

Qualitative data: Describes characteristics and is collected through Questionnaires, Interviews and Observation.

• Qualitative data can be presented in dot point form. The information should highlight the key trends in the respondents answers.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

• Questions can be designed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data.

• Data can be collected from a large group of people in a reasonable time frame.

• Questions are completed by respondents and avoid interviewer bias.

• A written record of data is easy to access.

Disadvantages:

• Questions may be misinterpreted and cannot be explained to the respondent.

• It requires the respondent to have satisfactory literacy skills

• If there are too may questions or too many details required, respondents may not participate or complete the questionnaire.

Explain how the disadvantages associated with a questionnaire can be minimised by the researcher (4 marks)

1. Using Google Forms, work with a partner to construct a questionnaire that can be used to identify the demographics in your local community. Your questions should focus on gathering the following information.

   • gender

   • age

   • martial status

   • level of education attainment

   • culture and language

   • religious affiliations

   • employment/ occupation

   • income

   • type of housing

   • reasons for living in the community

2. Distribute your survey to 10 people each.

3. Working with your partner, tally your results and use Google Forms to construct a graph to represent the responses for each question.

4. Underneath each graph, provide a one point summary of the information.

For example: Of people in Dural aged 15 years and over, 50.2% were married and 10.7% were either divorced or separated.

The following questionnaire results may help you construct your questionnaire.

http://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SSC12588

Discuss the use of questionnaires as a research method.

I.e. what worked well, what didn't and what can be improved.