7.2.7 Questionnaire and interview construction

Designing questionnaires

Likert Scale – one in which the respondent indicates their agreement to a statement using a scale of five points. 1-– 5- strongly disagree

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Rating Scale – gets respondents to identify a value representing their strength of feeling about a topic.

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Fixed Option Choice – includes a list of possible options and respondents are required to tick all that apply to them.

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Writing Good Questions

Clarity is key when designing questionnaires. If the respondents are confused by or misinterpret the questions, this hurts the quality of data received. The following should be avoided:

• Use of jargon - Jargon refers to specialised terms that are only familiar to those within a specialised field.
• Emotive language/leading questions – sometimes researchers' attitudes can be determined by the way the question is phrased.
• Double-barrelled questions and double negatives – double-barrelled questions contains two questions in one, the issue being that the respondent may agree with one half of the question but not the other. Double negatives (I am not unhappy with my job: agree/disagree) are difficult to understand.

Designing Interviews

Most interviews involve an interview schedule – a list of the questions the interviewer intends to cover. Should be standardised for each participant to reduce interviewer bias. Typically, the interviewer will take notes, or they may record the responses. Group interviews may be used in a clinical setting otherwise, one-to-one interviews are conducted. The interviewer must ensure that the interview is conducted in a quiet room, away from other people, as this would increase the likelihood of the interviewee opening up. Comfortable conditions are a way of establishing rapport.