The Questionnaire

Introduction

The questionnaire in research is the process of collecting data through an instrument

consisting of a series of questions and prompts to receive a response from individuals it is
administered to. Questionnaires are designed to collect data from a group. For clarity, it is
important to note that a questionnaire is not a survey, rather it forms a part of it. A survey is a
process of data gathering involving a variety of data collection methods, including a
questionnaire.

1- Function: What is a questionnaire for?

Three sorts of participants’ data could be elicited through questionnaires.

1.1Factual Data

The first section usually covers overall information (also called classification questions or
subject descriptors) about the questionnaire participants. The researcher may for example use
the following key items to construct the factual part of the questionnaire: How old the
respondents are; whether they are male or female; where they were born and what is their
origin (demographic data); where they presently live; what is their current civil status; what is
their educational position and occupation, what is their mother tongue and religion.

1.2. Behavioural Data

What the respondents do/ use/ how they behave in the present time or what they did/ used/
how they behaved in their past make the content of the second section of questionnaires.

1.3. Attitudinal Data

The questionnaire on the other hand may reveal the respondent’s way of thinking in terms of
attitudes, opinions, beliefs, interests and/ or values. The third section is devoted to this type of
data.

Attitudes: They are subjective and have to do with how the participants non-factually and
subconsciously evaluate the target. They are exposed to others’ influence and manipulations
with the result of being profoundly ingrained in the mind.
Opinions: They are also subjective but unlike attitudes, they are factual, changeable and
consciously expressed by the respondent.

Beliefs: A belief is more strongly factually based compared with an opinion. Questionnaire
items on beliefs serve to show how respondents perceive the truth.

Interests: This part tells the researcher what the participants prefer, favour, like or not.

Values: It has to do with the way of living of a given respondent and what is considered
worth practicing in life (on religious backgrounds for instance).

2. Order of Questionnaire Items

Overlooking order while elaborating a questionnaire may lead the respondents to perceive the
instrument as ill-constructed and messy. To make them feel comfortable, the researcher needs
to follow a certain logical organization and proceeding in his questionnaire elaboration by
fulfilling a number of criteria in this regard. It is important to pay attention to the first opening
questions which can convince or not the individual to cooperate. The type of questions that
should be avoided at this stage are,

-Those that are source of cognitive stress and memory effort.

-Those related to one’s privacy.

-Questions upon personal possessions.

As another illustration, questionnaire items are grouped together within sub-sections

identified separately by distinct specific instructions. This separation is based on item type
and topic. In other words, it involves,

-Stylistically similar items

-Items which are about the same topic

Furthermore, a smooth, gradual transition from general to specific related items is

fundamentally required on the one hand and on other from the easiest to the most difficult
questionnaire items. Difficult questions (including sensitive and intimate ones) should be left
to the end; in case the informant does not respond to them, a wealth of data is collected by the
researcher beforehand. Each response is not related only to its corresponding question but
occurs in relation to all the other questions. How the degree of difficulty is recognised could
be through comparing to other successful well-constructed questionnaire in literature and
getting inspired by their originators’ procedures. Otherwise, the new designed questionnaire
undergoes testing by means of piloting.

3. Piloting

A pilot study takes the form of a questionnaire testing on a sample population to simulate the
extent to which it could collect credible and authentic data, and this is before administering
the device to the target informants. Piloting allows shedding light on the questionnaire
weaknesses, making modifications and changes to problematic, ambiguous, sensitive, vague
and/ or difficult questionnaire items. It also permits fine- tuning its final version in terms of
clarity, length, time allotted, as it indicates what should be removed, added or kept. If piloting
seems a time period-consuming, it in fact allows gaining a lot time during the actual
questionnaire administration and shortens safely the temporal way to data collection.

4. How to undertake a Questionnaire Piloting

-Consult first individuals (or specialists if possible) whose viewpoint you trust to provide you
with their constructive criticism (without taking it personally) on your questionnaire
elaboration and components.

-Select subsequently a small group of sample population and listen to their suggestions about
reformulation, removal or addition of items by considering what they find problematic,
ambiguous, sensitive, vague and/ or difficult.

-Select again a second (larger if possible) group of sample population and see the quality of
feedback to finish with the questionnaire elaboration.

5. Benefits and Limitations

Questionnaires are widely used among researchers for many advantageous reasons such as:

-gathering/ collecting, in a short period of time, a huge amount of information which is more
reliable and valuable for data analysis.

-fast analysis and less effort, especially when making use of computer software

-low financial costs

-administering the questionnaire to a large number of people in different situations and about
various topics.
-far from the interviewer’s subjectivity interference as responses are provided by the
informants.

However, this research tool is not without drawbacks. Before handling any questionnaire, the
fieldworker should be aware of the deficiencies that he could encounter or go through during
his questionnaire filling in process. Here are a number of disadvantageous incidents,

-While responding, the participants may be allotted insufficient lapse of time and therefore
provide hasty superficial information.

-Some informants are demotivated to fill in questionnaires, a fact which may lead them to
leave out some questions by mistakes without answers, or for the reason that they just did not
feel like to answer them.

-It happens that some questionnaire items could be misleading or their formulation makes
them easily misinterpreted. The obtained answers at the end are considered unreliable.

-The amount of time allotted to filling in the questionnaire does not always allow the
researcher to verify the answer validity.

-Credibility is not always guaranteed with all the answers since it happens that a number of
participants give what they judge as an answer rather than the actual response.

-Some answers are provided in such a way to retain self-worth. Here, the respondents may be
insincere in completing the questionnaire and the researcher is again exposed to biased
results.

-Respondents’ uncertainty to opt for which option, if multiple choice questions are supplied,
may lead them to often agree with the answers even if this does not reflect reality.

-The researcher should also consider the way he makes his questionnaire to avoid
respondents’ fatigue before completing their answers.