Factual questions about others
These ask respondents for personal information about others, sometimes in combination with information about the respondent. For example, about the income of a household.
Informal factual questions
For example, questions about the size of the company they work for or the behavior of their supervisor, for example the answer option 'puts me down in front of others'.
Questions about attitudes
The Likert scale is a commonly used form of questions to measure someone's attitude toward an issue.
Questions about beliefs
For example, questions about religious, political preferences or position on the climate.
Questions about norms and values
Questions about which principles or behavior influence respondents in a particular environment.
Knowledge Questions Questions
are sometimes used to test respondents' knowledge of a particular area.
Choosing the right type of questions
Most questionnaires contain several types of questions. It is important to keep the differences in mind for the following reasons:
- The distinction between the questions forces you to clarify what you are going to ask about: are
you mainly asking for facts, about the respondent only?
- It prevents asking questions in an inappropriate way. For example, a Likert scale is not a
good choice if you ask factual questions.
- If you ask scale questions, such as the Likert scale, do not mix different types of questions.
Attitudes and beliefs sound similar, but it is better to ask these questions separately. Mixing may result in lower measurement validity.
00.0 Vignette questions
The vignette technique is a way of asking closed questions about someone's norms. The technique is widely used in experiments. A respondent is presented with 0 or more scenarios and asked how they would react in that circumstance.
When designing vignette techniques, it is important that the scenarios are believable.
00.0 Rules for preparing questions
General principles
Keep your research questions in mind
This principle has two implications: you ask questions in relation to your research questions and asking questions outside of that is a waste of your own time and that of respondents.
What do you want to know?
It is crucial that you know exactly what you want to know and ensure that your questions reflect this.