Using Research Instruments

Using Research Instruments

1. Questionnaires

   • How do we obtain information from individuals regarding their views on particular topics or issues? What is an effective and efficient way of eliciting those views and opinions?
   • The questionnaire is the favoured tool of many of those engaged in research, and it can often provide a cheap and effective way of collecting data in a structured and manageable form.
     • While questionnaires can be very detailed, covering many subjects or issues, they can also be very simple and focus on one important area. A simple yet effective questionnaire is that used by the National Railway Museum in York

2. Types of questionnaire

   • Essentially, there are three broad types of questionnaire – the mail survey, the group-administered questionnaire, and the household drop-off survey. The mail survey is, by far, the most common questionnaire type.
   • The group-administered questionnaire is a useful instrument for collecting data from a sample of respondents who can naturally be brought together for the purpose. For example, we have often used group-administered questionnaires in our own research to collect data from students attending a lecture, teachers in a school and medical personnel in hospitals.
   • Response rates using group-administered questionnaires can be higher than those for mail surveys, as the group is often assembled specifically for the purpose of assisting with the research and the respondents feel personally involved with the work by being handed the questionnaire by a member of the research team.
   • The household drop-off survey is a hybrid of the mail and the groupadministered survey.
     • Using this approach, the researcher delivers the questionnaire by hand to a member of an identified household for collection at some later date

3. Types of question

   • When conducting research we are often interested in collecting data covering a broad range of subjects.
     • Questionnaires usually are comprised of a number of different approaches to asking questions – the essential ones being: closed questions, multiple-choice or ranking questions, and open-ended questions
       • Using this approach, the researcher delivers the questionnaire by hand to a member of an identified household for collection at some later date.
   • Using subtly different questions, and approaches to questioning, can allow us access to the information we require.
   • Among the advantages of this approach are that the drop-off and subsequent collection affords the opportunity for those completing the instrument to clarify questions posed with the researcher
     • This type of instrument allows each member of the group to complete his or her own questionnaire and return it to the researcher on completion.
       • The mail survey is, however, sometimes considered impersonal and can suffer from low response rates.

4. Closed questions

   • The most often-used form of closed question is the dichotomous question requiring a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response.
     • For example, ‘Do you wear glasses?’ is a dichotomous question: the respondent either does (responding ‘yes’) or doesn’t (responding ‘no’) wear glasses.
   • Most questionnaires consist of a collection of closed questions. These are questions to which all possible answers are provided