Questionnaire Design PDF
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This document provides guidance on questionnaire design for mental health research. Topics covered include the use of self-report scales and questionnaires, their development process, and considerations around validity, bias, and different formats. The document also highlights the importance of clarity, precision, and considering various audiences and stakeholder inputs in the questionnaire design process.
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**[Core Principles In Mental Health Research ]** **[Questionnaire Design]** [Learning Outcomes:] - For students to be aware of the ways in which self-report scales/questionnaires are used in mental health research - For students to understand how to write good questions and items for...
**[Core Principles In Mental Health Research ]** **[Questionnaire Design]** [Learning Outcomes:] - For students to be aware of the ways in which self-report scales/questionnaires are used in mental health research - For students to understand how to write good questions and items for scales/questionnaires - For students to understand how scales and questionnaires and questionnaires are piloted [What are questionnaires and scales?] - Aimed at reliably quantifying experiences, characteristics, behaviours, or attitudes - Questionnaires: any instrument for soliciting information in a standard way, may include closed and open-ended questions - Scales: measuring a specific construct or constructs -- need to show items hang together theoretically and statistically to measure the construct in question [Why use fixed-response scales and questionnaires?] - Validates by research with known properties, developed to measure a clear construct - Can be more objective than a free form assessment: same questions, same way, every time - Can be mailed, delivered over the internet, or left with the person BUT - Can be found constraining, unnatural, miss out subjectivity [What are scales used for in mental health research?] - Diagnosis and Symptom Identification - Measuring psychological processes (e.g., metacognition) - Measuring outcomes (e.g., quality of like, satisfaction with treatment) - Overcoming communication problems (e.g., visual analogue) [Formats:] - Administration - Self-Report: complete the questionnaire yourself - Interviewer-administered: where a clinician or researcher goes through questions with you - Information-based: where someone who knows the person completes the questionnaire or is interviewed - Format - Paper or Online [Thinking of Developing your own measure?] - Very often not a good plan - Most constructs you can think of already have measures - Development, validation & piloting of instruments is lengthy - Invalid measures hard to publish - Adapting an existing instrument may be useful approach BUT - Often needs to write some questions in a study [Development Process:] - Identify constructs to be measured in a scale/scope of a questionnaire - Literature review - Consult stakeholders iteratively - Write questions and select response type - Pilot -- refine cycle - Reliability and validity study - Refine and study further if necessary [Identify Target:] - Why is there a need to develop a standardised questionnaire or scale? - Can you clearly define the scope of what you are aiming to measure in your questionnaire or scale? - Are there new research questions that you will be able to address? - Especially for scales: can construct to be measured be clearly defined and can you describe its theoretical basis? [Literature Review:] - Is there another validated questionnaire or scale that already measured this? Often there is - Are existing measures appropriate and acceptable to the population you want to test? - If you've found a scale that's not quite right, could you adapt it? - If there is no existing scale, do you have a good enough understanding of the concept or phenomenon/enough resources to be able to begin developing your own? [Stakeholder inputs:] - Seen as very important to have input from people with relevant (lived) experience e.g., service users, clinicians - Gather their views before starting e.g., through qualitative interviews - Make sure concepts and language are meaningful to them - Make sure it covers what they feel is most important - Go back to them iteratively to help refine -- maybe through co-production [Some key considerations:] - Coverage: will you be able to make the case that your questionnaire covers important aspects of the construct to be measures? - Stigma: e.g., impact of labels like "personality disorder" - Relevance: e.g., what concepts are relevant to the user? Is it age-appropriate? Is it culturally appropriate? What about people with intellectual disabilities? - Length, layout, technical performance and ease of navigation [Neutrality:] - Avoid questions with an implicit premise built in - This could mean leading questions or descriptions which suggest a value judgement [Clarity and Precision:] [Online tools to check reading level of piece of work] - Questions should be comprehensible to the full range of typical readers Avoid: - Overly complex language - Psychological jargon - Ambiguous descriptions or time frames - Mixed questions - Overlapping categories or answers on different dimensions - Get some specialist advice for groups like kids and people with intellectual difficulties [Group Exercise:] 1\. Emotional problems isn't well defined and could include a range of things -- better to be a little more specific 2\. psychological jargon -- lay audience may not know what hallucinations are 3\. two questions in one, which one are they supposed to answer? 4\. what is categorised as a severe personality disorder? [Framing and Induction:] - Friendly initial explanation of purpose and content of questionnaire - Instructions on completing questionnaire - How long it will take - Demographics -- in form of UK Census categories where possible [Question Format?] - Open Questions (Qualitative Analysis) - Closed Questions (Quantitative Analysis) - Statement Rating: [Response Format:] - Likert Scales - Value Entered - Visual Analogue Scale - Often but not exclusively used with children or people with intellectual disabilities - Yes/No single choice - Can avoid "central tendency" -- people tend not to give middling ratings [Sources of Bias:] - Boredom: repeated filling out of forms may reduce their validity - Translation: some common psychological terms do not directly translate into other languages or cultures - Presentation: social desirability up to outright deception - Acquiescence: keep ticking the same place on the page (reverse scoring may help) [Group Task: ] **[Needle Anxiety]** 1. \"How do you feel when you think about getting a needle?\" (Response format: Visual Analogue Scale -- a child could point to or mark a scale with faces from happy to scare) 2. \"Have you ever felt really scared before getting a needle?\" (Response format: Yes/No) 3. \"Needles hurt a lot.\" (Response format: Likert Scale -- Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree) **[Worry about worrying too much]** 1. \"I get upset because I can't stop worrying about things.\" (Response format: Likert Scale -- Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree) 2. \"When was the last time you felt worried about worrying too much?\" (Response format: Time frame selection -- \"Today,\" \"This week,\" \"This month,\" \"I don't remember.\") **[Feeling Hostility towards others]** 1. \"How often do you feel angry at others for no clear reason?\" (Response format: Likert Scale -- Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often, Always) 2. \"Do you sometimes feel like people are intentionally trying to upset you?\" (Response format: Yes/No) 3. \"When was the last time you felt angry or upset with someone?\" (Response format: Time frame selection -- \"Today,\" \"This week,\" \"This month,\" \"I don't remember.\") **[Self-stigma associated with brain injury]** 1. \"Do you ever feel like people treat you differently because of your brain injury?\" (Response format: Yes/No) 2. \"I feel less capable because of my brain injury.\" (Response format: Likert Scale -- Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree) **[Risk of self-harm]** 1. \"I sometimes feel overwhelmed and don't know how to handle my emotions.\" (Response format: Likert Scale -- Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree) **[Visual hallucinations]** 1. \"I sometimes see shapes, figures, or colours that others don't seem to notice.\" (Response format: Likert Scale -- Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree) [Piloting: ] - Pilot on participants who are representative of your sample, at least in later stages - Are the instructions easy to follow? - Is the wording easy to understand? - Does the questionnaire collect the information you want? - Are all of the response choices appropriate or used? - Do you get a wide range of responses? - How long does it take? [Pilot Process:] - Generally multiple stages, with iterative questionnaire refinement - May use interviews for feedback or focus groups - Explore acceptability and clarity - Ask participants to explain items in their own words - May involve a stakeholder group in iterative refinement of tool [\*other options in questionnaires can be quite hard to analyse]