Questionnaires, Definition and Characteristics of the Technique

Group name: Data Detectives

Lucha Martínez, Erick Gustavo

Vargas Aguilar, Wendy Guadalupe

Monterrosa Revolorio, Julio Alexander

Escobar Contreras, Evelyn Lissette



Questionnaires

According to Hassan (2024), a questionnaire serves as a research instrument to gather information from individuals or groups. Comprising a series of carefully crafted questions or prompts; furthermore, it aims to collect data in a standardized manner about a particular subject or research goal. This tool facilitates the systematic acquisition of insights from a broad spectrum of respondents, enabling researchers to analyze and draw conclusions based on the accumulated data.  

A good questionnaire should be valid, reliable, clear, interesting and succinct; moreover, a questionnaire is a data collection technique in which written questions are presented to gather information based on the topic to be studied.

The type of questionnaire depends on the type of study and the kind of information researchers need to get in order to approve or disapprove a hypothesis. 

According to that, questionnaires can be for Qualitative or Quantitative studies.

Questionnaires for quantitative studies:


  • The questions are pre-categorized.
  • There is no space for opinions, thoughts or points of view.
  • The possible answers are stated for the respondent to choose from.
  • The answers to the questions can be counted and expressed numerically.
  • There is no space for uncertainty.

Questionnaires for Qualitative studies:

  • The questions are post-categorized or open questions.
  • The respondents are free to answer whatever they want.
  • There is no limit for answers.



Characteristics of the technique



Valid

In the questionnaires, the questions should be phrased in such a way that the respondent understands the objective of the question.

Reliable

A reliable questionnaire should yield the same answer if the same question is posed to the respondent repeatedly in a short span of time.
Any discrepancy in the answers could be due to lack of clarity of the questions and this should be reviewed and rephrased.

A reliable questionnaire should yield the same answer if the same question is posed to the respondent repeatedly in a short span of time.

Interesting

Crafting engaging questions in a questionnaire increases the chances of respondents completing it, leading to higher response rates. To achieve this, researchers need to carefully consider the relevance of the questions to the respondents and arrange them in a logical sequence.

Succinct

A succinct questionnaire focuses solely on addressing the research objectives by asking relevant questions. Any inquiries that extend beyond the research scope should be omitted. Researchers often expand the scope to gather additional data, regardless of its significance, typically due to insufficient consideration of the research objectives. This can result in an excessive number of questions and lead to a lengthy questionnaire.



References

Hassan, M. (2024). Questionnaire - Definition, types, and examples. Research Method. https://researchmethod.net/questionnaire/

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