Chapter 7

Focus group

An interview with a group of 6 to 10 individuals brought together for a period of usually 2-3 hours. -Can explore any topic -Primarily used in industry -Since it is time consuming and expensive, participants usually receive some type of compensation

Negative wording

Avoid phrasing with negative words -Agreement with question means disagreement with the proposal -Thus, results in confusion and inaccurate answers from respondents

Survey as a conversation

-Order survey questions in a way that would follow the natural progression of topics in a conversation with someone you just met

Survey lifebar

-Respondents have a lifebar when it comes to survey -Each question asked brings down their lifebar; short questions bring down a bit, long questions bring down a lot -Structure survey around selected respondents lifebar so they do not get tired and bored and start to give inaccurate answers

Dillman's survey principles

-Simplicity -Use complete sentences to ask questions -Avoid specificity that exceeds potential for having a ready made answer -Use equal number of positive and negative categories for scalar questions -Use response categories that are mutually exclusive -Avoid questions that ask respondents to make unnecessary calculations

Face to face interviews

Interview between the researcher and the respondent -Tend to be expensive and time-consuming, therefore they are best utilized when the sample size is fairly small and there are clear benefits to a face-to-face interaction

Double barreled questions

Questions that ask respondents to answer two questions at once

Loaded questions

Questions that include emotionally charged words -Might sway respondents answer -If such words are unavoidable, soften the blow with instructions or previous questions

Open-ended questions

Questions where the respondents are free to answer in any way they like -Most useful when researcher needs to know what people are thinking and how they naturally view their world -However, less structure and therefore require more time and resources to categorize and code the responses

Closed ended questions

Questions where there are only a limited number of response alternatives can be given -A more structured approach, they are easier to code and the response alternatives are the same for everyone.

Graphic rating scale

Response which requires a mark along a continuous 100mm line that is anchored with descriptions at each end.