Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research, 2nd Edition

Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research, 2nd Edition

by Willem E. Saris, Irmtraud N. Gallhofer
Released April 2014
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118634615

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research, Second Edition explores updates on the statistical knowledge and development of survey questionnaires, including analyzing the important decisions researchers make throughout the survey design process. The new edition provides coverage of an updated SQP program, which has an expanded question database from the Multi-trait Multi-method (MTMM) experiments. This book aims to give students and survey researchers a state-of-the-art introduction to questionnaire design and how to construct questionnaires with the highest relevance and accuracy. The pitfalls of questionnaire design are outlined throughout the book, which alerts designers of questionnaires to the many prior decisions that will affect the quality of the research outcome. It is important to measure the quality of questions at the outset in order for students and researchers to consider the consequences and methods of achieving reliable and effective questions.

Table of contents

  1. COVER
  2. SERIES PAGE
  3. TITLE PAGE
  4. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  5. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
  6. PREFACE
  7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  8. INTRODUCTION
    1. I.1 DESIGNING A SURVEY
    2. EXERCISES
  9. PART I: THE THREE-STEP PROCEDURE TO DESIGN REQUESTS FOR ANSWERS
    1. 1 CONCEPTS-BY-POSTULATION AND CONCEPTS-BY-INTUITION
      1. 1.1 CONCEPTS-BY-INTUITION AND CONCEPTS-BY-POSTULATION
      2. 1.2 DIFFERENT WAYS OF DEFINING CONCEPTS-BY-POSTULATION THROUGH CONCEPTS-BY-INTUITION
      3. 1.3 SUMMARY
      4. EXERCISES
    2. 2 FROM SOCIAL SCIENCE CONCEPTS-BY-INTUITION TO ASSERTIONS
      1. 2.1 BASIC CONCEPTS AND CONCEPTS-BY-INTUITION
      2. 2.2 ASSERTIONS AND REQUESTS FOR AN ANSWER
      3. 2.3 THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF ASSERTIONS
      4. 2.4 BASIC CONCEPTS-BY-INTUITION
      5. 2.5 ALTERNATIVE FORMULATIONS FOR THE SAME CONCEPT
      6. 2.6 EXTENSIONS OF SIMPLE SENTENCES
      7. 2.7 USE OF COMPLEX SENTENCES
      8. 2.8 SUMMARY
      9. EXERCISES
    3. 3 THE FORMULATION OF REQUESTS FOR AN ANSWER
      1. 3.1 FROM CONCEPTS TO REQUESTS FOR AN ANSWER
      2. 3.2 DIFFERENT TYPES OF REQUESTS FOR AN ANSWER
      3. 3.3 THE MEANING OF REQUESTS FOR AN ANSWER WITH WH REQUEST WORDS
      4. 3.4 SUMMARY
      5. EXERCISES
  10. PART II: CHOICES INVOLVED IN QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
    1. 4 SPECIFIC SURVEY RESEARCH FEATURES OF REQUESTS FOR AN ANSWER
      1. 4.1 SELECT REQUESTS FROM DATABASES
      2. 4.2 OTHER FEATURES CONNECTED WITH THE RESEARCH GOAL
      3. 4.3 SOME PROBLEMATIC REQUESTS
      4. 4.4 SOME PREREQUESTS CHANGE THE CONCEPT-BY-INTUITION
      5. 4.5 BATTERIES OF REQUESTS FOR ANSWERS
      6. 4.6 OTHER FEATURES OF SURVEY REQUESTS
      7. 4.7 SPECIAL COMPONENTS WITHIN THE REQUEST
      8. 4.8 SUMMARY
      9. EXERCISES
    2. 5 RESPONSE ALTERNATIVES
      1. 5.1 OPEN REQUESTS FOR AN ANSWER
      2. 5.2 CLOSED CATEGORICAL REQUESTS
      3. 5.3 HOW MANY CATEGORIES ARE OPTIMAL?
      4. 5.4 SUMMARY
      5. EXERCISES
    3. 6 THE STRUCTURE OF OPEN-ENDED AND CLOSED SURVEY ITEMS
      1. 6.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPONENTS OF SURVEY ITEMS
      2. 6.2 DIFFERENT STRUCTURES OF SURVEY ITEMS
      3. 6.3 WHAT FORM OF SURVEY ITEMS SHOULD BE RECOMMENDED?
      4. 6.4 SUMMARY
      5. EXERCISES
    4. 7 SURVEY ITEMS IN BATTERIES
      1. 7.1 BATTERIES IN ORAL INTERVIEWS
      2. 7.2 BATTERIES IN MAIL SURVEYS
      3. 7.3 BATTERIES IN CASI
      4. 7.4 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
      5. EXERCISES
    5. 8 MODE OF DATA COLLECTION AND OTHER CHOICES
      1. 8.1 THE CHOICE OF THE MODE OF DATA COLLECTION
      2. 8.2 THE POSITION IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE
      3. 8.3 THE LAYOUT OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
      4. 8.4 DIFFERENCES DUE TO USE OF DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
      5. 8.5 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
      6. EXERCISES
  11. PART III: ESTIMATION AND PREDICTION OF THE QUALITY OF QUESTIONS
    1. 9 CRITERIA FOR THE QUALITY OF SURVEY MEASURES
      1. 9.1 DIFFERENT METHODS, DIFFERENT RESULTS
      2. 9.2 HOW THESE DIFFERENCES CAN BE EXPLAINED
      3. 9.3 QUALITY CRITERIA FOR SURVEY MEASURES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES
      4. 9.4 ALTERNATIVE CRITERIA FOR DATA QUALITY
      5. 9.5 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
      6. EXERCISES
      7. APPENDIX 9.1 THE SPECIFICATION OF STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELS
    2. 10 ESTIMATION OF RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, AND METHOD EFFECTS
      1. 10.1 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PARAMETERS OF A MEASUREMENT MODEL
      2. 10.2 ESTIMATION OF PARAMETERS OF MODELS WITH UNMEASURED VARIABLES
      3. 10.3 ESTIMATING RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, AND METHOD EFFECTS
      4. 10.4 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
      5. EXERCISES
      6. APPENDIX 10.1 INPUT OF LISREL FOR DATA ANALYSIS OF A CLASSIC MTMM STUDY
      7. APPENDIX 10.2 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TS AND THE CLASSIC MTMM MODEL
    3. 11 SPLIT-BALLOT MULTITRAIT–MULTIMETHOD DESIGNS1
      1. 11.1 THE SPLIT-BALLOT MTMM DESIGN
      2. 11.2 ESTIMATING AND TESTING MODELS FOR SPLIT-BALLOT MTMM EXPERIMENTS
      3. 11.3 EMPIRICAL EXAMPLES
      4. 11.4 THE EMPIRICAL IDENTIFIABILITY AND EFFICIENCY OF THE DIFFERENT SB-MTMM DESIGNS
      5. 11.5 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
      6. EXERCISES
      7. APPENDIX 11.1 THE LISREL INPUT FOR THE THREE-GROUP SB-MTMM EXAMPLE
    4. 12 MTMM EXPERIMENTS AND THE QUALITY OF SURVEY QUESTIONS
      1. 12.1 THE DATA FROM THE MTMM EXPERIMENTS
      2. 12.2 THE CODING OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MTMM QUESTIONS
      3. 12.3 THE DATABASE AND SOME RESULTS
      4. 12.4 PREDICTION OF THE QUALITY OF QUESTIONS NOT INCLUDED IN THE MTMM EXPERIMENTS5
      5. 12.5 SUMMARY
      6. EXERCISES
  12. PART IV: APPLICATIONS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
    1. 13 THE SQP 2.0 PROGRAM FOR PREDICTION OF QUALITY AND IMPROVEMENT OF MEASURES
      1. 13.1 THE QUALITY OF QUESTIONS INVOLVED IN THE MTMM EXPERIMENTS
      2. 13.2 THE QUALITY OF NON-MTMM QUESTIONS IN THE DATABASE
      3. 13.3 PREDICTING THE QUALITY OF NEW QUESTIONS
      4. 13.4 SUMMARY
      5. EXERCISES
    2. 14 THE QUALITY OF MEASURES FOR CONCEPTS-BY-POSTULATION
      1. 14.1 THE STRUCTURES OF CONCEPTS-BY-POSTULATION
      2. 14.2 THE QUALITY OF MEASURES OF CONCEPTS-BY-POSTULATION WITH REFLECTIVE INDICATORS
      3. 14.3 THE QUALITY OF MEASURES FOR CONCEPTS-BY-POSTULATION WITH FORMATIVE INDICATORS
      4. 14.4 SUMMARY
      5. EXERCISES
      6. APPENDIX 14.1 LISREL INPUT FOR FINAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF “SOCIAL CONTACT” ON “HAPPINESS”
      7. APPENDIX 14.2 LISREL INPUT FOR FINAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF “INTEREST IN POLITICAL ISSUES IN THE MEDIA” ON “POLITICAL INTEREST IN GENERAL”
    3. 15 CORRECTION FOR MEASUREMENT ERRORS
      1. 15.1 CORRECTION FOR MEASUREMENT ERRORS IN MODELS WITH ONLY CONCEPTS-BY-INTUITION
      2. 15.2 CORRECTION FOR MEASUREMENT ERRORS IN MODELS WITH CONCEPTS-BY-POSTULATION
      3. 15.3 SUMMARY
      4. EXERCISES
      5. APPENDIX 15.1 LISREL INPUTS TO ESTIMATE THE PARAMETERS OF THE MODEL IN FIGURE 15.1
      6. APPENDIX 15.2 LISREL INPUT FOR ESTIMATION OF THE MODEL WITH CORRECTION FOR MEASUREMENT ERRORS USING VARIANCE REDUCTION BY QUALITY FOR ALL COMPOSITE SCORES
    4. 16 COPING WITH MEASUREMENT ERRORS IN CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH
      1. 16.1 NOTATIONS OF RESPONSE MODELS FOR CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISONS
      2. 16.2 TESTING FOR EQUIVALENCE OR INVARIANCE OF INSTRUMENTS
      3. 16.3 PROBLEMS RELATED WITH THE PROCEDURE
      4. 16.4 COMPARISON OF MEANS AND RELATIONSHIPS ACROSS GROUPS
      5. 16.5 SUMMARY
      6. EXERCISES
      7. APPENDIX 16.1 THE TWO SETS OF REQUESTS CONCERNING “SUBJECTIVE COMPETENCE”
      8. APPENDIX 16.2 ESS REQUESTS CONCERNING “POLITICAL TRUST”
      9. APPENDIX 16.3 THE STANDARD TEST OF EQUIVALENCE FOR “SUBJECTIVE COMPETENCE”
      10. APPENDIX 16.4 THE ALTERNATIVE EQUIVALENCE TEST FOR “SUBJECTIVE COMPETENCE” IN THREE COUNTRIES
      11. APPENDIX 16.5 LISREL INPUT TO ESTIMATE THE NULL MODEL FOR ESTIMATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “SUBJECTIVE COMPETENCE” AND “POLITICAL TRUST”
      12. APPENDIX 16.6 DERIVATION OF THE COVARIANCE BETWEEN THE COMPOSITE SCORES
  13. REFERENCES
  14. INDEX
  15. WILEY SERIES IN SURVEY METHODOLOGY

Product information

  • Title: Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Willem E. Saris, Irmtraud N. Gallhofer
  • Release date: April 2014
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118634615