Questionnaires

Questionnaires

1. Types

   • the mail survey
     • addressed to respondents and delivered by mail
   • the group-administered questionnaire
     • collecting data from a sample of respondents
   • the household drop-off survey
     • the researcher delivers the questionnaire by hand to a member of an identified household for collection at some later date.

2. Issues

   • Closed questions
     • These are questions to which all possible answers are provided
   • Multiple-choice questions
     • include questions which provide a number of predefined responses.
       • require careful thought to ensure that all or most responses possible are covered
   • Open-ended questions
     • They allow for the recording of any response to a question provided by the respondent

3. Limitations

   • difficult to design and analyse
   • Questions posed can be misleading or ambiguous
   • Complicated questions

4. use

   • facilitate the collection of vast amounts of data with minimal effort
   • useful for showing relationships with data that are easily quantifiable.