Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research

by Saris, Willem E.; Gallhofer, Irmtraud N.

• ISBN13: 9781118634615
• ISBN10: 1118634616
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-04-14
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Praise for the First Edition

"...this book is quite inspiring, giving many practical ideas for survey research, especially for designing better questionnaires."
—International Statistical Review

Reflecting modern developments in the field of survey research, the Second Edition of Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research continues to provide cutting-edge analysis of the important decisions researchers make throughout the survey design process.The new edition covers the essential methodologies and statistical tools utilized to create reliable and accurate survey questionnaires, which unveils the relationship between individual question characteristics and overall question quality. Since the First Edition, the computer program Survey Quality Prediction (SQP) has been updated to include new predictions of the quality of survey questions on the basis of analyses of Multi-Trait Multi-Method experiments. The improved program contains over 60,000 questions, with translations in most European languages. Featuring an expanded explanation of the usage and limitations of SQP 2.0, the Second Edition also includes:

• New practice problems to provide readers with real-world experience in survey research and questionnaire design
• A comprehensive outline of the steps for creating and testing survey questionnaires
• Contemporary examples that demonstrate the many pitfalls of questionnaire design and ways to avoid similar decisions

Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research, Second Edition is an excellent textbook for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level courses in methodology and research questionnaire planning, as well as an ideal resource for social scientists or survey researchers needing to design, evaluate, and analyze questionnaires.

Author Biography

WILLEM E. SARIS, PHD, is Emeritus Professor in Methodology of the University of Amsterdam and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. He is Laureate of the 2005 Descartes Prize for “Best Collaborative Research” as member of the Central Coordinating Team of the European Social Survey (ESS) and Recipient of the World Association of Public Opinion Research’s “Helen Dinerman Award” in 2009 for his lifelong contribution to the methodology of Opinion Research. Dr. Saris also received the “2013 Outstanding Service Prize” of the European Survey Research Association.

IRMTRAUD N. GALLHOFER, PHD, is a linguist and was senior researcher on projects of the ESS, Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. She is Laureate of the 2005 Descartes Prize for “Best Collaborative Research” as a member of the Central Coordinating Team of the ESS.

Table of Contents

Part I The three-step procedure to design requests for an answer 13

1. Concepts-by-postulation and concepts-by-intuition 15

 2. From social science concepts-by-intuition to assertions 29

3. The formulation of requests for an answer 63

Part II Choices involved in questionnaire design 71

4. Specific survey research features of requests for an answer 83

5. Response alternatives 103

6. The structure of open-ended and closed survey items 121

7. Survey items in batteries 137

8. Mode of data collection and other choices 155

Part III The effects of survey characteristics on data quality 151

 9. Criteria for the quality of survey measures 153

10. Estimation of reliability, validity and method effects 199

11. Split ballot MTMM designs 219

12. MTMM experiments and the quality of survey questions 237

Part IV Applications in social science research 255

13. The SQP 2.0 program for prediction of quality and the improvement of measurement 223

14. The quality of measures for concepts-by-postulation 279

15. Correction for measurement errors 305

16. Coping with measurement error in cross–cultural research 275

References

 Index