Chapter 9 Self-completion questionnaires

Question 1

What is a self completion questionnaire?

Answer 1

Where respondents answer questions by completing a questionnaire themselves. A common form is mail questionnaire, where the respondent sends back the answers after completion.

Question 2

Self completion questionnaires, as compared to structured interviews tend to:

Answer 2

• have fewer open questions, since closed ones tend to
  be easier to answer;
• have easy-to-follow designs to minimize the risk that
  the respondent will fail to follow fi lter questions or
  will inadvertently omit a question;
• be shorter, to reduce the risk of ‘respondent fatigue’,
  since it is manifestly easier for a respondent who
  becomes tired of answering questions in a long ques-
  tionnaire to consign it to a waste paper bin than to
  terminate an interview.

Question 3

Advantages of the self completion questionnaire over the structured interview

Answer 3

• Cheaper to administer especially if you have a sample that is geographically dispersed
• Quicker to administer
• Absence of interviewer effects: It was noted in Chapter 5 that various studies have demonstrated that characteristics of interviewersmay affect the answers that people give.
• No interviewer variability: do not suffer from the
  problem of interviewers asking questions in a different
  order or in different ways.
• Convenience for respondents

Question 4

Disadvantages of the self completion questionnaire in comparison to the structured interview:

Answer 4

• Cannot prompt: no one present to help respondents if they are having difficulty answering a question.
• Cannot probe: no opportunity to probe respondents to elaborate an answer.
• Cannot ask many questions that are not salient
  to respondents.
• Difficulty of asking other kinds of questions.
• Questionnaires can be read as a whole: Respondents are able to read the whole questionnaire before answering the first question. When this occurs,
  none of the questions asked is truly independent of the others. It also means you dont know if they answered them in order.
• Do not know who answers.
• Cannot collect additional data (about the workplace, firm etc. that the interviewer could)
• Difficult to ask a lot of questions (bc of respondent fatigue)
• Not appropriate for some types of respondents (e.g limited literacy)
• Greater risk of missing data
• Lower response rates

Question 5

What is triangulation?

Answer 5

Triangulation in research means using multiple datasets, methods, theories, and/or investigators to address a research question. It’s a research strategy that can help you enhance the validity and credibility of your findings and mitigate the presence of any research biases in your work.

Question 6

What are steps to improve response rates to postal questionnaires?

Answer 6

• Write a good covering letter explaining the reasons for
  the research, why it is important, and why the recipient
  has been selected; mention sponsorship if any, and
  provide guarantees of confidentiality.
• Postal questionnaires should always be accompanied
  by a stamped addressed envelope or, at the very least,
  return postage.
• Do followups to those who dont reply at first
• Shorter questionnaires tend to achieve better response rates than longer ones
• Clear instructions and attractive layout
• Do not allow the questionnaire to appear unnecessarily bulky (gives more professional look)
• Could personalise cover letter
• Avoid open ended questions
• Could have monetary incentives

Question 7

Designing the self completion questionnaire.

Answer 7

• Even though its good to keep as short as possible do not cramp the presentation – risks looking unprofessional, decreases likelihood of response
• Clear presentation – make the layout easily understandable
• Clear instructions about how to respond
• Keep question and answers together

Question 8

Advantage of using closed questions?

Answer 8

They can be pre.coded thus the processing of data for analysis is much simpler

Question 9

What is a response set?

Answer 9

A response set in a Likert scale refers to a pattern of responses given by an individual that is not related to the content of the items being measured, but rather reflects a consistent or systematic response bias. Identifying response sets is important in order to ensure the validity and reliability of Likert scale data.

Question 10

Acquiescence response set

Answer 10

This occurs when respondents agree with statements regardless of their content. For example, a respondent might consistently choose the “strongly agree” or “agree” response option without considering the actual meaning of the statements.

Question 11

What is a research diary?

Answer 11

• Diaries can be used as a method of data collection in both quantitative and qualitative research.
• The researcher can devise a structure for the diary and ask diarists to record their activities contemporaneously.
• This method can be supplemented with a personal interview if necessary.
• Diaries can also be used as documents written spontaneously by the diarist, which can be useful for historians and business researchers.
• Researchers can keep a diary as a record of their activities, which can be used as an aide-mémoire and sometimes shades into the writing of field notes.

Question 12

A person preparing a diary should:

Answer 12

• provide explicit instructions for diarists;
• be clear about the time periods within which behav-
  iour is to be recorded—for example, day, twenty-four
  hours, week;
• provide a model of a completed section of a diary;
• provide checklists of ‘items, events, or behaviour’ that
  can jog people’s memory—but the list should not
  become too daunting in length or complexity;
• include fixed blocks of time or columns showing when
  the designated activities start and finish

Question 13

Advantages of diary as data collection

Answer 13

• When fairly precise estimates of the frequency and/or
  amount of time spent in different forms of behaviour
  are required, the diary may provide more valid and
  reliable data than questionnaire data
• When information about the sequencing of different
  types of behaviour is required, it is likely to perform
  better than questionnaires or interviews.
• Good for producing data on behavior that is personally sensitive, also in a traditional interview respondents would be less likely to divulge personal details

Question 14

Disadvantages of diary as data collection

Answer 14

• They tend to be more expensive than personal inter-
  views (because of the costs associated with recruiting
  diarists and of checking that diaries are being properly
  completed).
• Diaries can suffer from a process of attrition, as people
  decide they have had enough of the task of completing
  a diary.
• This last point raises the possibility that diarists become
  less diligent over time about their record keeping.
• There is sometimes failure to record details sufficiently
  quickly, so that memory recall problems set in.

Question 15

What questions tend to be used more frequently in survey research?

Answer 15

Closed questions tend to be used in survey research rather than open ones. Coding is a particular
problem when dealing with answers to open questions.