Title: Design, evaluation, and analysis of questionnaires for survey research /
Authors: Saris, Willem E.; Gallhofer, Irmtraud N.
Publisher: Wiley-Interscience,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Social surveys.; Social surveys Methodology.; Questionnaires.; Interviewing.; Data Collection; Psychology, Social
Abstract: This book aims to give students and survey researchers a state-of-the-art introduction to questionnaire design. The authors are recognized experts in their fields and have experience in teaching and research. While many researchers discover that their questions do not work post-hoc, this book alerts designers of questionnaires to the many decisions they make that will affect the quality of the research outcome. Most importantly, the book presents a tool with which to measure the quality of questions at the outset.
Contents: Introduction -- Part I The three steps procedure to design requests for an answer -- Concepts-by-postulation and concepts-by-intuition -- From social science concepts-by-intuition to assertions -- The formulation of requests for an answer -- Part II Choices involved in questionnaire design -- Specific survey research features of requests for an answer -- Response alternatives -- The structure of open ended and closed survey items -- Survey itemsin batteries -- Mode of data collection and other choices -- Part III The effects of survey characteristics on data quality -- Criteria for the quality of survey measures -- Estimation of reliability, validity and method effects -- Split ballot MTMM designs -- The estimation of the effects of measurement characteristics on the quality of survey questions -- Part IV Applications in Social Science Research -- The prediction and improvement of survey requests by SQP -- The quality of measures for concepts-by-postulation -- Correction for measurement error in survey data analysis -- Coping with measurement error in cross-cultural research.