A questionnaire 

is a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful information about a given
topic. When properly constructed and responsibly administered, questionnaires become a vital instrument by which
statements can be made about specific groups or people or entire populations.

  Questionnaires are frequently used in quantitative marketing research and social research. They are a valuable
method of collecting a wide range of information from a large number of individuals, often referred to as respondents.
Adequate questionnaire construction is critical to the success of a survey. Inappropriate questions, incorrect ordering
of questions, incorrect scaling, or bad questionnaire format can make the survey valueless, as it may not accurately
reflect the views and opinions of the participants. A useful method for checking a questionnaire and making sure it is
accurately capturing the intended information is to pretest among a smaller subset of target respondents.

  Types of questionnaires:

 •      Postal questionnaire-mailed to respondents with a stamped envelope for return to the researcher. It provides an
inexpensive way of gathering data, especially if respondents are dispersed over a large geographical area.

 •      Telephone questionnaire-Asking questions over the telephone. This is often done by market research firms or
marketing departments of companies, but is not usually regarded as satisfactory by sociologists.

 •      Electronic questionnaire-administering questions by e-mail. Geoff Payne and Judy Payne (2004) suggest that this
may be useful way of contacting dispersed groups of people, or those who might not wish to be questioned face-to-
face.

 •      Personally Administered - it provides:

 •      Questions can be more detailed, as opposed to the limits of paper or telephones.

 •      Rapport with respondents.

 •      High response rate.

 •      Usually a convenience (vs. a statistical) sample so you cannot generalize your results.

  Types of questions:

 1.Contingency questions - A question that is answered only if the respondent gives a particular response to a previous
question. This avoids asking questions of people that do not apply to them (for example, asking men if they have ever
been pregnant).

 2.Matrix questions - Identical response categories are assigned to multiple questions. The questions are placed one
under the other, forming a matrix with response categories along the top and a list of questions down the side. This is
an efficient use of page space and respondents’ time.

 3.Closed ended questions - Respondents’ answers are limited to a fixed set of responses. Most scales are closed
ended. Other types of closed ended questions include:

 Yes/no questions - The respondent answers with a “yes” or a “no”.

 Multiple choice - The respondent has several option from which to choose.

 Scaled questions - Responses are graded on a continuum (example : rate the appearance of the product on a scale
from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most preferred appearance). Examples of types of scales include the Likert scale,
semantic differential scale, and rank-order scale (See scale for a complete list of scaling techniques).

 4.Open ended questions - No options or predefined categories are suggested. The respondent supplies their own
answer without being constrained by a fixed set of possible responses. Examples of types of open ended questions
include:
 

•      Completely unstructured - For example, “What is your opinion of questionnaires?”

 •      Word association - Words are presented and the respondent mentions the first word that comes to mind.

 •      Sentence completion - Respondents complete an incomplete sentence. For example, “The most important
consideration in my decision to buy a new house is . . .”

 •      Story completion - Respondents complete an incomplete story.

 •      Picture completion - Respondents fill in an empty conversation balloon.

 •      Thematic apperception test - Respondents explain a picture or make up a story about what they think is
happening in the picture.

 Advantages of a structured questionnaire:

 1.    The researcher is able to contact large numbers of people quickly, easily and efficiently using a postal
questionnaire.

 2.    Questionnaires are relatively quick and easy to create, code and interpret (especially if closed questions are used).

 3.    A questionnaire is easy to standardise. For example, every respondent is asked the same question in the same
way. The researcher, therefore, can be sure that everyone in the sample answers exactly the same questions, which
makes this a very reliable method of research.

 4.    Questionnaires can be used to explore potentially embarrassing areas (such as sexual and criminal matters) more
easily than other methods.

  Disadvantages of a structured questionnaire:

 1.    The format of questionnaire design makes it difficult for the researcher to examine complex issues and opinions.

 2.    With a postal questionnaire, the researcher can never be certain the person to whom the questionnaire is sent
actually fills it in.

 3.    Where the researcher is not present, it's always difficult to know whether or not a respondent has understood a
question properly.

 4.    The researcher has to hope the questions asked mean the same to all the respondents as they do to the
researcher.

 5.    The response rate (that is, the number of questionnaires that are actually returned to the researcher) tends to be
very low for postal questionnaires.

  Questionnaire design is a long process that demands careful attention. A questionnaire is a powerful evaluation tool
and should not be taken lightly. Design begins with an understanding of the capabilities of a questionnaire and how
they can help your research. If it is determined that a questionnaire is to be used, the greatest care goes into the
planning of the objectives. Questionnaires are like any scientific experiment. One does not collect data and then see if
they found something interesting. One forms a hypothesis and an experiment that will help prove or disprove the
hypothesis.

 
Validity and reliability of questionnaires:

 •      Questionnaires generally have low validity because they don't explore questions in any detail or depth. Complex
issues - requiring a respondent to explain their reasons for believing something - are difficult to explore.

 •      Where closed questions are used the respondent is restricted to answers using categories provided by the
researcher - there is little opportunity to qualify the meaning of answers. Similarly, the questions asked are, by
definition, those considered important by the researcher. It is easy, therefore, to miss important information because
you fail to ask appropriate questions.

 •      However, the fact postal questionnaires can be anonymous means respondents may be encouraged to answer
questions truthfully in the knowledge they cannot be identified. This may increase the validity of their responses.

Types of Survey Questions

Survey questions vary according to what type of information they are trying to collect from the respondents,
and how this information will apply to the goals of the survey. There are two basic types of survey questions:
Open-ended and Closed-ended.

Open-ended

This type of question allows participants to respond in any way they choose. Open-ended questions provide
primarily qualitative data, and are frequently used in exploratory research.

Example

What is your current marital status?

A: [Participants provide answers in their own words]

Closed-ended

In contrast to open-ended questions, closed-ended questions require participants to choose from a limited
number of responses predetermined by the researcher. There are 5 basic types of closed-ended questions:
Multiple-choice; Categorical; Likert-scale; Numerical; and Ordinal. Closed-ended questions provide
primarily quantitative data, and are frequently used in confirmatory research.

Multiple Choice 

Use a multiple-choice question when you want your respondents to choose the best possible answer among
all options presented.

Example 

What is your current marital status? (Select one.) 

 Single 

 Married 

 Divorced 

 Separated 

 Widowed

Categorical 
Use a categorical question when the possible answers are categories, and the respondent must belong to one
category.

Example

What is your gender?

 Male 

 Female

Likert-Scale

Use a Likert-scale question when you are trying to determine respondents’ attitudes or feelings about
something. 

Example

How important do you think SAT scores are to a college student’s success? (select one):

Not very important  1    2    3    4    5   Extremely important

Ordinal

Sometimes you may want your respondents to rank order their responses. A ranking indicates the importance
assigned by a participant to an attitudinal object.

Example 

Please rank the importance of the following qualities in a team leader. (Please fill in your rank order in the
spaces provided using the numbers 1 through 5) 

 A team leader that is sincere 

 A team leader that gets resources for the team 

 A team leader that is an advocate for the team 

 A team leader that is a strong disciplinarian 

 A team leader that is a good motivator

Numerical

When the answer must be a number, ask a numerical question.

Example 

What is your current age? (select one) 

 Less than 18 

 18 to 29 

 30 to 39 
  40 to 49 

 50 or older

Remember: How you develop your questions depends on why you are conducting your survey, and how you
plan to apply the data from your survey to your survey problem. Educate yourself on the various types of
survey questions, and what purpose they serve before developing questions for your own survey project.