1. Categories of questions
The questions included on the questionnaire should individually and collectively provide
the data required for successful achievement of the research objectives. A well-constructed
questionnaire also has a range of question categories, each consisting of small number of
related questions, intended to elicit information of a particular type relating to the research
topic.
• Socio-demographic items
: to develop a “summary” of the respondent by asking
questions about their gender, marital status, age group, occupation and related non-
sensitive personal information.
• Orientation items:
to familiarise the respondent with the core issues relating to the
research and sometimes to test their level of knowledge of the topic.
• Behavioural questions:
to
measure attitudes, beliefs, opinions,
motives and
behaviours. Attitude questions record how respondents feel about something (their
belief in something) and opinion questions record what respondents believe is true
or false.
• Content-related questions
: to elicit data on the major purpose and content of the
research topic.
2. Number and content of questions
Most researchers tend to include too many questions in their questionnaires. This often
arises from an incomplete analysis of the research objectives. Researchers should
therefore have absolute clarity about
their research objectives, and keep these in mind
during the planning and design stage so that all the items on the questionnaire are relevant
and have a clear purpose. Clear, concise and well-constructed questionnaires generally
result in a better participant response rate.
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