Psychology Session 2: Questionnaire Design

Questionnaires offer a way to objectively gather information about opinions, beliefs, and behaviors.

Questionnaires can be used alone in a study, or combined with other types of research.

Focus groups and interviews are valuable for exploring a topic before using questionnaires.

The initial stage of research is key to understanding the topic and identifying important areas.

If the study participants can't answer the questionnaire, it's not appropriate.

Sometimes questionnaires are used to quantify results from a more qualitative (exploratory) phase.

Questionnaires are useful in cross-sectional surveys, clinical trials, and epidemiological studies.

Questionnaires are objective tools for collecting information, particularly in large populations.

A type of question that assumes a certain viewpoint or opinion, influencing the respondent's answer.

A statement or question that implies judgment about a particular behavior, feeling, or belief.

When a question is unclear or can be interpreted in multiple ways, making it difficult to understand what the respondent is being asked.

A question that combines multiple concepts or ideas, making it hard to provide a straightforward answer.

A question that covers a broad range of emotions or experiences without specific detail.

The use of technical language or jargon that might be confusing for people outside of a specific field.

Making sure that the wording of your questionnaire is clear and easily understood by the intended audience.

This concept involves ensuring that the questionnaire is relevant to the intended audience, taking into account factors such as age, cultural background, and potential disabilities.

The process of creating a new questionnaire or scale to measure a specific concept.

The initial step in questionnaire development, where the researcher clearly defines the concept or phenomenon being measured.

A crucial step in questionnaire development involving a comprehensive search for existing questionnaires or scales that measure the target concept.

A vital stage where researchers consult with individuals who have direct experience with the target concept, such as service users or clinicians.

The act of formulating questions and choosing the appropriate response formats, such as multiple choice or Likert scales, for the questionnaire.

The process of testing the questionnaire with a small group of participants to identify and refine any issues or ambiguities.

A scientific assessment of the questionnaire's consistency (reliability) and whether it accurately measures the intended concept (validity).

The final step in questionnaire development, involving further refinement and testing based on the results of the pilot study and reliability and validity analyses.

A question format where participants choose from a limited set of pre-defined answers (e.g., 'Strongly Agree' to 'Strongly Disagree').

A scale used to measure attitudes or opinions, where participants rate statements on a graduated scale (e.g., 'Strongly Disagree' to 'Strongly Agree').

Visual representations used to measure subjective experiences like pain or mood.

A questionnaire design that incorporates elements of both quantitative and qualitative methods.

A statistical measure that assesses the internal consistency of a set of items in a scale, indicating how well they measure the same underlying concept.

A method to check if two versions of a questionnaire produce similar results, indicating the consistency of the measurement instrument.

A method to check consistency by splitting a single questionnaire into two halves and comparing their correlation.

The degree to which a measurement instrument accurately measures the intended concept.

The simplest form of validity, where experts judge whether a scale appears to measure the right thing.

A more rigorous type of validity where experts assess whether the content of a scale comprehensively covers the relevant concepts.

Ensuring the questionnaire truly measures the intended concept by examining its relationship with other relevant measures.

Testing how well the questionnaire predicts future outcomes or behaviors.

Assessing how well the questionnaire aligns with other established measures or outcomes considered 'gold standard' in the field.

Examining the questionnaire's associations with measures of related concepts to see if they align with expectations.

Exploring the questionnaire's lack of association with measures of unrelated concepts.

A questionnaire asks a series of standardized questions to gather information about opinions, beliefs, behaviors, or characteristics.

Scales are specialized questionnaires designed to measure a specific construct or psychological concept.

Closed questions offer a limited set of pre-defined answers, making them easy to analyze but potentially limiting in their scope.

Open-ended questions allow participants to provide free-form answers, giving researchers richer information but making data analysis challenging.

Scales are validated instruments with known properties, measuring specific constructs such as depression or anxiety.

Scales and questionnaires are used to diagnose and identify symptoms, measure psychological processes, assess treatment outcomes, and improve communication.

Scales and questionnaires can be taken by individuals themselves (self-administered), completed with a clinician (interviewer-administered), or answered by someone who knows the person (informant-based).

It's generally not recommended to create your own scale as existing tools often measure the desired construct adequately.

The development process involves identifying the target construct, reviewing existing literature, gathering stakeholder input, writing questions, pilot testing, reliability and validity studies, and refining the instrument.

A thorough literature review helps ensure that you are not re-inventing the wheel and that the questionnaire covers the most relevant aspects of the target construct.

Stakeholder input is essential to ensure the questionnaire is relevant, understandable, and meaningful to the target population.

Piloting involves testing the questionnaire with a small group of people to identify and address any issues with clarity, format, and content.

Reliability refers to the consistency of the questionnaire's results, while validity indicates how accurately the questionnaire measures the intended construct.

It's important to ensure that the questionnaire's language and concepts are tailored to the target population, considering factors like age, culture, and potential accessibility needs.

Developing a new scale or questionnaire requires a significant investment of time, resources, and expertise, and it's often more practical to adapt or modify existing instruments.

Ensuring that questionnaire wording is clear and easily understood by the intended audience.

A scale is said to be reliable if it produces consistent results when repeated under the same conditions.

Inter-rater reliability is a measure of agreement between two or more raters or observers.

Test-retest reliability examines how stable responses are over time.

Internal consistency looks at how well items within a test or survey designed to measure the same construct produce consistent results.

Feasibility refers to the practical considerations of whether a scale can be administered in a given setting.

Acceptability considers how burdensome or intrusive a scale is for participants.

This type of validity examines the statistical structure of a measure to see if it reflects the intended underlying concept(s). Often tested with factor analysis.