Improving Survey Questions
Design and Evaluation
- Floyd J. Fowler, Jr. - Center for Survey Research, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA
Applied Social Research Methods
What is a good question? Although there are several potential sources for error in survey data, the validity of surveys depends on the design of the questions asked. This book shows how to word and format a question, write questions that will evoke the kind of answers for which they were designed, and empirically evaluate survey questions. In addition, the book covers topics such as how to write good questions aimed at collecting information about objective facts and events, how to measure subjective phenomena, some alternative methods for attacking common measurement problems; shows how to evaluate the extent to which questions are consistently understood and administered, and explains how to evaluate the data resulting from a set of questions. A clearly written book, Improving Survey Questions enables researchers and practitioners to write better survey questions and helps users of survey data to evaluate their data more critically.
Although this book provides detailed guidance to students regarding development and validation of surveys, the concepts are probably too detailed for a Masters level dissertation. The price of the text is also rather high.