QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION

Constructing Questionnaires

A questionnaire is generally mailed or handed to the respondent
and filled in by him or her with no help from the interviewer.

Interview Schedule is an instrument that is not given directly to the
respondent but is filled in by the interviewer who reads the questions to the
respondent.

Questionnaire is the generic name for both types.

A good way to begin writing the questionnaire, anticipating possible
sources of error, is first, to list some of the reasons why the respondents
might give erroneous information or might even fail to answer the question
altogether.

SOME OF THE PROBLEMS AND THEIR POSSIBLE REMEDIES:

1. Respondents feels the interviewer is not legitimate but is a subterfuge
either to sell him or her something or for some other commercial purpose
such as conducting a credit check.

Remedy: A well-written cover letter or introductory statement
legitimizing the study.

2. Respondents feels that the information will be used against him or her or
is an invasion of privacy.

Remedy: Omit unnecessarily sensitive questions, assure respondents
of anonymity.

3. Respondents refuse to cooperate.

4. Respondents is an ethnic-minority member who says he or she is tired of
being a guinea pig and refused to be interview, suggesting that the
respondent study rich people for a while.

5. Respondent is sophisticated, gets many questionnaire and knows what
the investigator wants to hear and where the reliability checks are located
in the questionnaire.

Remedy for 3, 4 & 5: Survey situation has become a problem of
major proportions with the proliferation of sampling
helps to ensure that the same person will not be
interviewed over and over again, some surveys such
as panel studies require resampling, other
respondents may have unique characteristics that
make them in demand for surveys. In such cases the
investigator can try sampling around a particular
respondent. If the respondent must be interviewed,
the researcher must make a special appeal, assuring
him or her that the interview is necessary and that no
one else can be substituted.

6. Respondents answer normatively the way he or she thinks, he or she
should answer, whether it is an honest answer or not.

Remedy: The same as 2.

7. Respondents is afraid that his or her responses will reveal lack of
education or that he or she appear stupid.

Remedy: Emphasize that there are no right and wrong answers,
assure anonymity.

8. Respondents says that his or her time is too valuable to waste on the
study, that the study is not applicable to him or her. He or she argues that
it is not important that he or she be studied anyway and that a relative or
neighbor who has more free time should be substituted.

Remedy: Same as 5.

9. Respondent says he or she cannot answer because the question is too
general or value, or because he or she has never thought about the topic.

Remedy: Use more specific probing questions to guide the answer.

Questionnaire Relevance

3 Different Factors:

1) Relevance of the study
- The entire goal of the study must seem relevant to the
respondent.

2) Relevance of questions to the study
- The respondents must be convinced that all the questions in the
questionnaire are relevant to the stated goals of the study.
- A good tactic is to decide, before including and item in the
questionnaire, exactly how the answers will be analyzed and
how the data will be published or otherwise presented.

3) Relevance of Questions to Respondents
- Often the study is a comparative one whose chief purpose is to
compare the views of one group with those of another group.
- There are 3 main ways to make that a respondent is not asked
a question that does not apply to him or her:

(1) Use of 2 or more separate questionnaire, for the respective
populations.

(2) Use of multiple wording, so that the respondent or interviewer can pick
the appropriate phrase; and

(3) Skips or contingency questions.













PITFALLS IN QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION; WORDING THE
QUESTIONS


1. Double- barreled Questions = do not include 2 or more question in one.
Questions with or or and in them should be checked to see if they
consist of 2 question with only one answer expected.

2. Ambiguous Questions = some words are vague and ambiguous, the best
precaution is to word each question carefully and to pretest all questions
before the actual study by trying them out as people of as many ages,
educational levels, ethnic groups, and so on, as possible, to see if they are
clear to the respondents. The problem with this is that the researcher may
be getting answers to what are really two or more different questions.
Another kind of ambiguity can arise if the item is stated not as a question
but as a statement to be agreed or disagreed with, or labeled true or false.

3. Level of Wording = the wording of the question, including such concerns
as the difficulty of the words use, the degree of formality of the language,
and wheter the slang or colloquialisms are used, is a difficult matter and
depends not only upon the educational level and characteristics of the
respondent but also upon the characteristics of the researcher.

- question wording can greatly affect the answers received.

- in addition to clarity, the key factor in the question writing is
parsimony.

4. Abstract vs. Factual Questions

- question should refer to concrete and specific matters and have
specific answer, if possible.

5. Leading Questions

- questions should be carefully structured in order to minimize the
probability of biasing the respondents answer by leading him or
her and thus artificially increasing the probability of a particular
response.

- the question should be asked in its more neutral form.
6. Sensitive or Threatening Questions

- sensitive topics such as sex, or taboo topics such as suicide,
are prone to normative answers that is, answers that are
considered with a norm even though they are false answers for
the particular respondents.

- questions that require the respondent to admit that he or she
engage in socially indesirable behavior should be phrased in a
manner taht assumes that he or she engages in that behavior.

- word the questio so as to presume that there is no consensus
regarding the norm.


TWO TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRE


Structured

a. Same wording of questions in the same order to all subjects

b. Two types of Questions

(i) Fixed alternative questions fixed responses: simple to
administer, less costly analyses, possible alternative replies are
known and clear cut thus more efficient.

e.g. What is your total monthly income?
____________ less than P300
____________ P300 to less than P500
____________ P500 to less than P1,000
____________ P1,000 or more

(ii) Open-ended questions free responses: when complex issues
are involved, process is explored, etc.

e.g. How do you spend your salary?




Unstructured

a. Neither questions nor responses are predetermined; the theme is the
only one given and questions are formed on the spot

e.g. Attitudes are spontaneous ,spicific and concrete, self-
revealing and personal; method is flexible but difficult to analyze.

b. Application in Personal Interviews

(i) Focused interview respondent focuses his attention on the
effects of a given experience (e.g. TV,broadcast, movie, etc.).

(ii) Clinical Interview more concerned with the motivations or
feelings underlying the experience.

(iii) In-depth Interview searching intensive in character.

(iv) Non-directive Interview simply encourage the respondent to
talk on a topic with a minimum direct questioning.


RESPONSE-CATEGORY FORMAT

- the response categories for open-ended questions generally
consists of only a blank space in which the respondent can write
his or her answer.

- response categories for fixed-alternative questions are
somewhat more complicated. Most answers are variables
having two or more discrete categories.

- category style depends at least partially upon the level of
measurement of the variable.

- the basic rule for writing answer categories is to provide all
possible answers in as clear and unclustered a fashion as
possible.

- the means of answering the question should be explicit.

- boxes are generally superior to blanks for check marking
answers.

- Most common format is to place the response categories below
one another.

- Answer categories for a nominal variable must be mutually
exclusive and exhaustive.

- Response scales are used for ordinal variables. Ex. Strongly
Agree, Agree, Disagree.

- Same commonly used response scales are:

1. strongly agree / agree / neutra l/ disagree/ strongly disagree/
unable to answer or never; not applicable(NA)

2. excellent / adequate / barely adequate / inadequate / terrible/
unable to answer

3. excellent / good / alright / poo r/ bad / unable to answer

4. often/ sometimes/ almost never / never

- an alternative format for ordinal questions is to list responses as
a contanuum with labels only at the extremes.

e.g. To what do you feel DENR employees should have a voice in
determining policies?


DENR employees Policy matters
should make the should be left
final decisions entirely to the
about policies : -- : -- : -- :-- : -- : -- : -- : -- : -- : administration
0 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

- advantage of this design is that often a respondent will feel
absolutely neutral as an item and simply have no opinions.

- reminder: The response categories should often a respondent to
answer and should provide just enough detail but not too much.
It is generally a good idea to provide a category such as dont
know or no opinion or unable to answer, so that people who
are really unable to answer will not feel frustrated and thus
refuse to complete the questionnaire.

- another response-category format for ordinal variables is to
present a list of topics and have the respondent rank-order
them.

e.g. 1. The following are some of the problems faced by DENR. Please
order them in terms of importance, from 1 (most important) to 5 (less
important)

__________________ Pollution
__________________ Denuded Forest
__________________ Land Use
__________________ Extinction of Wild Life
__________________ Illegal Logging

- for interval scales, the researcher will be content with just the
approximate group in which the respondent falls rather than the
exact value.

e.g. age and income


Question Order:

1. Put sensitive questions and open-ended questions late in the
questionnaire.

2. Ask easy-to-answer questions first.

3. Ask information needed for subsequent question, first.

4. Place questions in logical order.

5. Avoid establishing a response set.

6. Separate realiability check question pairs.

7. Place scale items according to response required.

8. Vary questions by length and type.

9. Determine whether funnel technique is applicable.


Contingency Questions

- a contingency question is a question whose relevance to the
respondent is determined by his or her response to an earlier
filter or screening question.

- the need to use filter and contingency questions and to skip
some questions arises chiefly from the fact that a sample of
respondents is often heterogenous in terms of personal
characteristics such as age, sex, race, and marital status and
also in terms of opinions nad attitudes.

Cover Letter or Introductory Statement

- Introductory statement justifies the study to the respondent and
often determines whether he or she cooperates or not.

- The cover letter is usually written on the letterhead of the
organization conducting a sponsoring the survey in order to help
legitamize the survey to the respondent.

Pretesting

- is the final stage in questionnaire construction

- can be administered to a far respondents so that its flaws can
be identified and corrected.

- Sample for a pretest is usually some captive audience such as
office staff, family, of fellow students.

- The pretest should be conducted in the same manner as the
final study.
INTERVIEW STUDIES

Advantages of Interview studies

1. Flexibility
2. Response Rate
3. Non-verbal behavior
4. Control over environment
5. Question order
6. Spontaneity
7. Respondent alone can answer
8. Completeness
9. Time of interview
10. Greater complexity of questionnaire

Disavantages of Interview Studies

1. Cost
2. Time
3. Interview bias
4. No opportunity to consult records
5. Less anonymity
6. Inconvience on the part of the respondent
7. Less standardized question wording
8. Lack of accessibility to respondents
9. Hazardous to health

The Interview

A. Approaching the Respondent

- The introductory tasks of the interviewer are to:

1. Tell the respondent who the interviewer is and what he or she
represents, including showing an identification card.
2. Tell the respondent waht the interviewer is doing.
3. Tell how the respondent was chosen.
4. Use letters or clippings.
5. Use a positive approach.

B. Dealing with Refusals

- There are a number of reasons why respondents may refuse
the interview

1. Respondent gives flat no or not interested response but no
reason for refusal.

2. Respondent expresses antigovernment, antiadministration,
antibusiness feeling.

3. Respondent expresses feeling that surveys are silly or not
worthwhile.

4. Respondent speaks foreign language, does not understand
English well, and views the interviewers mission with suspicion.

5. Evidence of some antigonism toward the interviewer, with no
real reason given for not wanting to give the interview.

6. Respondent reports that he or she is too busy.

7. Respondent reports that he or she is working and can not, or
does not want to, take time for the interview.

8. Respondent was intrviewed by some other survey organization
or some sales organization that misrepresented the reason for
the visit.

C. Conducting the Interview

1. Ask questions as worded
2. Ask questions in order
3. Do not lead Respondents

Stages of Interviewer Training

1. Briefing bu Study Director
2. Reading the Questionnaire
3. Practice Interviews
4. Discussion Session










CODING AND DATA REDUCTION


Data Reduction

- main task is coding

- coding for computer anaylsis generally consists of assigning a
code number to each answer category so that answers may be
stared in the computer.

- for open-ended questions, codes that paraphrase the meaning
of verbal responses are typically constructed after the data is
acquired.

- it is standard procedure to assign each respondent, or sample
element, a distint identification or ID number. Coding usually
done after collecting the data.
You can do coding during questionnaire construction .
Example: Sex 1. Male
2. Female

1. Precoding

- numeral coding can be conducted either when the questionnaire
itself is being written (precoding) or after the questionnaire has
been administered and the questions answered (postcoding).

- precoding is limited chiefly to questions whose answer
categories are known in advance.

- Coding whether pre or post is a two-part procedure involving:
(1) choice of a different number for each and every possible
answer category; and (2) choice of the approprite column or
columns on the computer that are to contain the code numbers
for that variable.

Advantages of Pre-coding:

a. saves a tremendous amount of labor
b. questionnaire can serve as a code body that defines the meaning of each
code number

2. Postcoding

- refers to coding of responses after the questionnaires have
been answered by the respondent.

- chief advantage of postcoding over precoding is that postcoding
allows the coder to ascertain which answers are actually given
by respondents before beginning coding.

3. Code-Book Construction

- purposes of the code book are to define the meaning of the
numerical code and to tell the location of the variable on the
computer.

4. Coding Non-responses

- assign a numerical code for nonresponse.

- numbers used most often for nonresponse are 9 and 0.

- for variables requiring more than one column the number is
merely repeated for each column

- any numerical code is satisfactory for nonrespose as long as it
is not a number that could occur as a legitimate response.

- codes may also need to be assigned for DK (dont know)
responses and for INAAP (inapplicable) responses, where the
question does not apply to a particular respondent.

- Dont Know responses are often coded as 8 or 88, while
inapplicableresponses are often coded as 0 or 00.

Note: The standard procedure for coding is to split the task of constructing the
data file into 2 separate operations:

(1) reading the questionnares and code book and transferring the correct
numerical codes for each question into a sheet of computer paper and

(2) entering the data into the computer.


Data Entry

- is performed at a computer that has a keyboard.

1. Data Cleaning

- crude method of checking or clerical errors.

- method of comparing each column to a set of column with the
code book.

- an easier way to conduct possible entry cleaning is through the
use of computer programs.

- computer programs can see very quickly if a variable contains
any illegal values.

- one should be aware that possible entry data cleaning is only a
comprise measure that is no substitute for complete verifying
and proofreading.


2. Contingency Cleaning

- contingency questions are questions that are not answered by
all respondents.

- contingency cleaning entails checking to see that such a
question was actually answered only by those respondents who
are qualified to answer it by means of an earlier response.
















ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

TABLE PRESENTATION

Univariate Presentation

- a table containing a single variables

- concerned with describing the extent of occurence of a
phenomenon than with studying the correlates

Example: Logs and Lumber Confiscations: 1988-1992
(in cubic meter)


Year

Volume

1988
1989
1990
1991
1992

60,677
107,197
84,601
73,998
65,583

Source: Project Development and Evaluation Division, PPSO

Percentages

- much of the time data are presented in percentage form,
whether in the univariate or bivariate case

- consists merely of dividing the number in each category by the
total number

Example: Watershed Forest Reserves: 1992


REGION

NO.

PERCENTAGE

Philippines
CAR
I
II
III
IV
V
VI

93
5
9
4
8
26
6
8

100
5.4
9.6
4.3
8.6
28.0
8.4
8.6
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
ARMM
4
5
3
7
4
2
2
4.3
5.4
3.2
7.5
4.3
2.1
2.1


- for nonresponses, they can be handled in two ways when
computing percentages:

(1) subtract the number of nonresponsefrom the total sample
size and use this smaller figure as the base for the
percentage

(2) to use the total sample size as the base and include the
nonresponses as a percentage

- The chief advantage of including nonresponses as part of the
analysis is the base no. stays constant from one analysis to the
next.

- a good reason for excluding nonresponses is that it is not a
meaningful substantive category of the variable being analyzed
but is more or less an error category.

Bivariate Presentation Two Variables

- places two variables together in a single table in such a manner
that their interrelations can be examined

- such tables are called contingency tables or cross-tabulations

- in contingency tables all combinations of categories of all
variables are presented

e.g. two dichotomous variables from a table with four cells, often
called a fourfold table

- by tradition and convention, one variable, called the COLUMN
VARIABLE, is usually labeled across the top so that its
categories column vertically down the page

- the second form variable as ROW VARIABLE, is labeled on the
left margin, with its categories forming rows horizontally cross
the page.

- the intersections of the categories of the two variables form the
interior cells of the table.

Example:


Opinion Abortion by Gender


Opinion on Abortion

Male %

Female %

Total %

Yes
No

12 / 30
18 / 30

60
40

48
42


30 / 100 100 90

- express in percent to compare the two data

- it is generally advisable to percentage along the column variable



















SOME PARAMETERS TO EVALUATE IN A SOCIOECONOMIC SURVEY OF A
WATERSHED

Population census and description
- total population
- sex ratios
- age structure
- rate of growth
- migration patterns

Behavioural and social characteristics
- family pattern
- family size
- traditions
- taboos belief
- details on communal administration
- farm/village organizations
- reaction to innovation
- education level
- religious sects
- work ethics
- health schemes
- forestry organization

Economic and Marketing Factors
- land tenure patterns
- patterns of cultivation
- farming practices
- shifting cultivation
- transport systems
- forest inventories/descriptions
- industry (also for forestry)
- forest fire hazards and protection
- marketing arrangements
- crop surveys
- input/output and yields of crops
- labour, settled, migrant
- local / export use
- range and grazing surveys
BASIC PROCEDURES AND METHODOLOGIES FOR
SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILING


Essentials stages in the conduct of socio-economic profiling:

1. Data Collection

a. Representativeness
b. Accurativeness
c. Timeliness

2. Data Management Procedures

Clarity
Internal Consistency
Correction
Conversions

- practical applications of data management concepts
collation / data matrix
categorization forms:
1. dictionary
2. serial
3. variable
coding
tabulation







SAMPLE CODING SHEET
(Socio-economic Profiling)



CARD/COL
NOS.

ITEM
NO.

DESCRIPTION

CODE
1 / 11 5 Civil Status 1. Single
2. Married
3. Widow/Widower
4. Separated/Divorced
9. NR/NA


SAMPLE TECHNIQUES

Sample part of population which is observed in order to make inference
about the whole population. A sample reflects the characteristic of the
population.

Factors to be considered when selecting a sample
1. Homogeneity
2. Size of Population
3. Cost
4. Precision



Method / Process of Sampling

1. Probability Sampling - sampling process where each individual is drawn or
selected with known probability
- when an individual in the population is given a non
zero chance of being chosen for the sample.

Techniques of Sampling
1. Random Sampling
2. Systematic Sampling
3. Stratified Sampling
4. Simple Cluster Sampling
5. Strip Sampling
6. Multi-Stage Sampling

2. Non-Probability Sampling process whereby probability cannot be
assigned objectively to individuals in the
populatoion; not all individuals in the population
are given a non-zero chance of being included
in the sample. In fact, some individuals in the
population may be deliberately ignored.
Three Techniques
1. Judgement Sampling
2. Qouta Sampling
3. Accidental Sampling

ANALYZING THE DATA

1. Quantitative Analysis
a. Descriptive
measure of central tendency (mean, median, mode)
measure of dispersion and variability (range, mean
deviation, standard deviation)
b. Inferential
T-test (mean values of 2 samples N= leaa than 30)
Pearson product moment coefficient correlation
Chi-square test analysis (x) chi-square test analysis
(freq., data, value not less thans)
ANOVA (F-test)
(relationship within the sample is compared among other
sampling units)

2. Qualitative Analysis
illustrating the meaning of a category
stimulating new insights