Survey Questionnaire Construction
Elizabeth Martin
KEY WORDS: questionnaire design, response error, question wording and context effects, standardization, recall, pretesting
ABSTRACT
This article provides a basic introduction to the design of survey questionnaires. Three theoretical frameworks provide different ways for thinking about the question and answer process: as a standardized interview, as a series of cognitive tasks, and as a conversation. The article discusses question wording, question context and order, response categories and scales, and strategies for addressing problems of recall and retrieval. Finally, it summarizes tools for pretesting and evaluating questions, including expert appraisal, think-aloud interviews, behavior coding, respondent debriefing, vignettes, and split-sample experiments. Selected readings are suggested for further reading
CITATION: Elizabeth Martin. 2005. “Survey Questionnaire Construction.” Pp. 723-732 in Encyclopedia of Social Measurement, Vol. 3. Elsevier.
