1. Develop a questionnaire

1.1 What is a questionnaire?

• • A questionnaire is a research tool consisting of a set of questions which are designed to gather information about a particular/ multiple theme(s).

1.2. Basic structure of a questionnaire

• • Consent form

    • Consent form is a document to be signed before participating the study by the participant. The participant has the right to understand the detail, benefits, drawbacks and use of data in the study.

  • Demographic data

    • Demographic data refers to the personal information of a participant, e.g., gender, age, and year of study.

  • Scale

    • An instrument for measuring a psychological construct, e.g., a "happiness scale" for measuring happiness.

    • The score on a scale is often computed based on the scores obtained from multiple items.

  • Item

    • An item is often presented as a question or a statement on the questionnaire. In response to each item, the participant gives an answer, usually as a number.

    • For example, a "happiness scale" may contain an item "I smile a lot". The participant will rate how much he/she agrees to this statement, on a scale of, e.g., 1-5.

    • Items presented in a questionnaire for scientific research are often extracted from validated measurement scales. Scale validation is a rigorous scientific process that ensures a scale's validity (more in later lectures).

    • Sometimes, scales that are constructed by the researchers (that have not been validated) may also be included.

1.3. Sample questionnaire

2. Develop a codebook

2.1. What is a codebook?

• • A codebook is a document to store relevant information of the questionnaire.

2.2. Basic field names of a codebook

• • Variable names

    • Variable names are data items collected in the questionnaire. For example, date, gender, and questions.

  • Format

    • Format can also be called level of measurement. For example, nominal, ordinal, and continuous.

  • Description

    • Description is to describe what the variable refers to.

  • Reverse code

    • A scale may contain certain items that are written in an opposite way. These items are called reverse-coded items.

    • E.g., a "happiness scale" may contain an item "I often feel sad.". Reverse coding is a survey technique for checking participants' responses on a multi-item scale.

    • A high score in response to reverse-coded item represents that the person has a low score in terms of the meaning of the actual scale.

    • E.g., a person strongly agrees to the item "I often feel sad" should have a low score in the "happiness scale".

  • Subscale

    • Subscale refers to a subdivision scale under a large scale. A subscale usually represents a particular dimension of a scale that measures a psychological construct.

    • For example, Big five personality scale has 5 subscales including Openness to experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, and Neuroticism.

  • Item

    • Item refers to the actual item presented in the questionnaire. For example, "How old are you?" is presented in the questionnaire.

  • Point

    • Point refers to the number of point scale of a question. For example, a question has a 5-point Likert scale indicating there are 5 points for the participant to rate.

2.3. Demonstration

• • Create a new spreadsheet with any software like Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheet.

  • (Here we use Microsoft Excel.)

  • Remember to save the file for future use.

3. Data entry

3.1 Why and how?

• • We want to maintain a record of all raw responses from all participants in a computer file. This is typically done on a spreadsheet software (e.g., MS Excel, Google Sheets).

  • Typically, on the record sheet, one column represents one item in the questionnaire; one row represents one participant.

  • Therefore, a cell in the record sheet represents a particular participant's response to one particular item.

  • At this stage, we enter the raw responses as they are shown in the questionnaire (even for reverse-coded items).

  • We will learn some data processing techniques in later modules.

3.2. Demonstration

• • Open the codebook spreadsheet (the file in 2.3).

  • Create a new spreadsheet with any software like Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheet.

  • (Here we use Microsoft Excel.)

  • Note: Comma-Separated Values (CSV) is a file format using a comma to separate values. One of the advantages is easy to read by many software like notepad.

  • ***Remember to save the file as .CSV for future use, so that it can be opened in different applications (e.g., MS Excel, Google Sheets, jamovi, or even notepad)***

4. Import the data to jamovi

4.1. Demonstration

• • Open jamovi.

  • Note: .OMV is a file format specifically used by jamovi. It stores extra information (e.g., scale of measurement, that only jamovi can read.)

  • ***Remember to save the file as .OMV for future use specifically in jamovi.***