Questionnaire Construction and

Administration
 Cover letter
•  Why a cover letter? We have to tell the participant the purpose of
the survey, who is responsible and what we are expecting from the
participant. The cover letter should be motivating:
–  As short as possible
–  The aim of the study should be revealed if there is no drawbacks
–  Need for the source person and his knowledge should be stressed.
–  If possible, participants should be told that a short summary of the research
will be sent to them.
–  An approximate time to finish the questionnaire can be given.
–  If it is administered by mail, include return deadline.
–  Should be written by the researcher(s) and name and signature can be
included.
 Ordering of Questions
•  Is important, many times may effect the responses.
•  Generally demographic questions are posed first. Some researchers
believe that especially in self-administered questionnaires, it is best
to begin with the most interesting questions to capture respondents’
attention.
•  On the other hand for telephone surveys demographic questions are
frequently asked at the beginning to establish rapport..
•  The questionnaire should have a continuity, therefore;
–  Related items should be asked consecutively
–  Questions should be ordered logically
•  Delicate questions (e.g. sexual) can be mixed into others.
•  Instructions for each question should be at the beginning of each
question type (e.g. Circle the right answer, choose with x, or put in
order from 1 to 5)
 Ordering of Questions
•  Generally it is designed to move from general questions to specific
ones:
–  Should abortion be legal?
–  Should abortion be legal if there is a disability in the child?
•  Sometimes the questions may exhibit a serial position effect.
–  E.g. In a study where prejudice to different nations is investigated, the
ordering of the nations can make a difference. Putting UK after Sweden or
after North Korea .. What can be done?
•  If you think that order effect is important, the best method is to
prepare different forms where the questions are in different order..
•  Filter questions (filtre, elek veya trafik): They should be designed
very carefully.
–  Filter questions should be objective questions (married, have a car, if you are
over 65 etc.)
–  Behavioral or attitudinal questions should not be used as filter (do you
approve a person hitting on another? Skip to question #54 if your answer is
no- Not correct)
 Administering the questionnaire
•  Before you prepare the questionnaire you
should decide how you are going to
administer it.
–  Mail
–  Telephone
–  Face to face
–  Group administration
–  internet
 Mail
•  An easy method. But there is the ‘nonreponse bias’ problem. If
there is any significant difference between the participants who
respond and who don't, the research will have a bias. Precautions:
1.  Multiple contacts: Prenotice (better on phone and by a female
voice), questionnaire, thank you and reminding.

2.  Cover letter should include; the importance of the study, importance
of the participant, an additional envelope with the address printed
on, maybe a small token (pen, small amount of money, etc.)

3.  Do an appropriate timing, choose a time that is not a busy time for
the participant

4.  Promise of anonymity, inclusion of deadline

5.  If the response rate is about 70%-80% it is healthy. If not, go back

and ask the nonrespondents why, by phone or mail.
 Telephone surveys
•  Questions should be short, simple and with few
response alternatives
•  Surveyor should be trained and be persuasive
•  Sometimes they may lead to suspicion and thus
not responded.
•  Timing: What the participants are doing at that
moment is important.
•  How effective is it to talk with a voice without a
face?
 Group administered surveys
Advantages
•  Large amounts of data in a short time
•  Avoid volunteer bias

Disadvantages
•  Participants may not treat it seriously
•  Anonymity may be hard to achieve
•  Participant has a right to decline participation. It should be
assured by the surveyor. But the participant may feel
pressure (conformity effect). Make special effort for them
to understand, so that they don't feel that they have to
participate.
 Face-to-face interviews
•  Structured or semi-structured questionnaires can be used.
•  Experimenter bias: Participants may be affected from the
interviewer, changes in experimenter behavior etc.
•  Can be solved with extensive training and pilot study
•  The place where interview takes place and people around
may cause bias.
 Internet (Electronic surveys)
•  e-mail & Web-based
–  Many participants can be reached in a very short time.
–  download to spreadsheet
•  disadvantages of electronic surveys
–  reliability and anonymity
–  sample may not be representative of population
•  Survey monkey, Surveey, Proquest, Typeform etc
How can we increase the validity
of a survey?
•  Increase the number of questions.
•  Standardize the administration procedures.
•  Be very careful while analyzing the questionnaire
•  Be sure that the questions are clear and fit to the
characteristics and abilites of the sample.
•  Perform a pilot study
 Ethics-Informed Consent
•  When done properly, the consent process ensures that individuals are
voluntarily participating in the research with full knowledge of
relevant risks and benefits.
–  APA's Ethics Code mandates that psychologists who conduct research should
inform participants about:
–  The purpose of the research, expected duration and procedures.
–  Participants' rights to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once
it has started, as well as the anticipated consequences of doing so.
–  Reasonably foreseeable factors that may influence their willingness to participate,
such as potential risks, discomfort or adverse effects.
–  Any prospective research benefits.
–  Limits of confidentiality, such as data coding, disposal, sharing and archiving, and
when confidentiality must be broken.
–  Incentives for participation.
–  Who participants can contact with questions.
APA Ethics Code says informed concent
be skipped in two cases:
•  When permitted by law or federal or institutional regulations, or when
the research would not reasonably be expected to distress or harm
participants and involves one of the following:
–  The study of normal educational practices, curricula or classroom
management methods conducted in educational settings.
–  Anonymous questionnaires, naturalistic observations or archival research
for which disclosure of responses would not place participants at risk of
criminal or civil liability or damage their financial standing, employability
or reputation, and for which confidentiality is protected.
–  The study of factors related to job or organization effectiveness conducted
in organizational settings for which there is no risk to participants'
employability, and confidentiality is protected.
 Ethical ıssues

  Araştırmanın amacının anlatıldığı ve kim tarafından yapıldığının açık

olarak anlatıldığı bir yönerge ya giriş bölümü bulunmalı. Bu bölümde
elde edilen bilgilerin gizliliğinin korunacağı güvencesi verilmeli.

  9.2 Araştırmalarda Bilgilendirilmiş Onam Almak -Informed Consent

Psikolog katılımcıların bilgilendirilmiş onamını alırken; katılımcılara (a)
araştırmanın amacı, öngörülen süre ve yapılacak işlemleri, (b) başladıktan
sonra vazgeçme hakları, (c) vazgeçmenin olası sonuçları, (d) potansiyel
riskler, rahatsızlık ya da olumsuz etkiler gibi kendilerini etkileyebilecek
olası etmenler, (e) gelecekteki araştırma yararları, (f) gizlilik sınırları, (g)
katılım için teşvikler, (h) araştırma ve araştırmaya katılanların haklarıyla
ilgili soruları için kiminle görüşebilecekleri hakkında bilgi verir. Olası
katılımcılara soru sorma olanağı sağlar. (TÜRK PSİKOLOGLAR
DERNEĞİ ETİK YÖNETMELİĞİ, 2005)
 Bilgilendirilmiş Onam (informed consent) Nedir?
  Psikologlar araştırma yaparken veya terapi, danışmanlık ve benzeri
hizmetleri yüzyüze veya elektronik ortam vasıtasıyla verirlerken anlaşılır
bir dil kullanmak suretiyle bireylerin bilgilendirilmiş onamını almaları
gerekir (Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code Of Conduct, APA,
2002)
  …Bu hüküm, araştırma için olsun veya olmasın, herhangi bir
uygulamadan önce kişinin bilinçli olurunun alınması anlamına
gelmektedir… alınan olurun geçerli olabilmesi için bazı koşulları yerine
getirilmesi gerekmektedir. Herşeyden önce hasta ya da sağlıklı denek,
olur verdiği araştırma konusunda aydınlatılmış olmalıdır… Bilgilendirme
sırasında bir yönlendirme çabası içine girilmemelidir. Denek herhangi bir
zorlanma ile karşılaşmamalıdır. Bilgiler bireyin kültür düzeyine uygun
düşen bir üslup ile verilmelidir. Bilgi ve kişiliği yetersiz olan bireyler
normal denek olarak kabul edilmemelidir. Diğer bir deyişle, olurun
geçerli olması için ilgili bireyin, bilgileri anlayabilecek,
değerlendirebilecek, karar verebilecek ve bunları uygulamaya
koyabilecek yeterliliği taşıması gereklidir (Bilimsel Araştırmada Etik ve
Sorunları, Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi, 2002)
  9.5 Bilgilendirilmiş Onamın Gerekmediği Durumlar
Psikolog sadece iki koşulda bilgilendirilmiş onam almaktan vazgeçebilir:
(a) araştırmanın sıkıntı ya da zarar yaratması öngörülmediğinde ve
araştırma: eğitim ortamlarında kullanılan normal eğitim çalışmaları,
müfredat ya da sınıf yönetimi yöntemlerinin araştırılmasını; sadece
isimsiz anketler, doğal gözlemler ya da arşiv araştırmaları gibi sonuçların
açıklanmasının katılımcıları riske sokmadığı ya da ekonomik durumuna,
işine ya da unvanına zarar vermeyeceği ve gizliliğin korunduğu
çalışmaları; ya da katılımcıların işini riske atmayan kurumlarda yürütülen,
iş ya da kurum etkinliğiyle ilgili etmenleri inceleyen, gizliliğin korunduğu
çalışmaları kapsıyorsa ya da (b) yasal ya da kurumsal düzenlemelerce izin
verildiğinde. (TÜRK PSİKOLOGLAR DERNEĞİ ETİK YÖNETMELİĞİ,
2005)