Questionnaire Design for Social Surveys

This course will cover the basic elements of designing and evaluating questionnaires. We will review the process of responding to questions, challenges and options for asking questions about behavioral frequencies, practical techniques for evaluating questions, mode specific questionnaire characteristics, and review methods of standardized and conversational interviewing.

• Introduction and Unit 1: Overview of Standardized Interviewing
• Introduction; Different types of questions, Measurement error in questions: Bias and variance; Standardized and conversational interviewing; From specifying a concept to asking questions
• Unit 2: Response Process
• Comprehension; Retrieval; Judgment; Response
• Unit 3: Asking Factual Questions
• Facts and quasi facts; Memory and recall; Asking sensitive questions; Mode, privacy and confidentiality
• Unit 4: Measuring Attitudes
• Context effects in attitude questions; Use of different scales; Offering don’t know options; Response order effects
• Unit 5: Testing Questionnaires
• Expert reviews and focus groups; Cognitive interviews; Behavior coding; Quantitative techniques
• Unit 6: Putting It All Together
• The questionnaire from start to finish; Things to put at the end; Mode Choice: Implementations for layout; Self-administered questionnaires