Why a Questionnaire?

What do you want to find out?

So questionnaires are a good method of investigation when
- You know what to ask about
- You need to ask a lot of people
- You can ask standard questions that everyone will understand.

What do you want to find out?
a) attitudes, views or opinions
Questionnaires are often used for this – eg election polling, consumer research.

Attitudes, Views or Opinions
Attitudes are usually divided into three components
- beliefs (eg getting sunburnt can increase the risk of skin cancer),
- feelings (eg sunburn is painful)
- intended behaviour (eg I’ll buy some sunblock at the airport).
It’s a good idea to include questions about each of these components.

Personal experience
Another common use is to find out what has happened to people in the past or present and how they have experienced it. Note: a questionnaire is often preceded by a more exploratory method (eg interview, focus group).
Results do depend on the participants’ memory (ie how accurately they can recall what happened and how they felt) and on their willingness to disclose that information (see rlo on “social desirability”)

Self-report
A quantitative measure of current disposition or state
Standardized questionnaires are often devised to measure personality, emotional state or the health of an individual