Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research

Features the essential methodologies and statistical tools for developing reliable and valid survey questionnaires

Modern survey design requires the consideration of many variables that will ultimately impact the quality of the collected data. Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research outlines the important decisions that researchers need to make throughout the survey design process and provides the statistical knowledge and innovative tools that are essential when approaching these choices. Over fifteen years of survey design research has been referenced in order to conduct a meta-analysis that not only unveils the relationship between individual question characteristics and overall questionnaire quality, but also assists the reader in constructing a questionnaire of the highest relevance and accuracy.

Among the book's most outstanding features is its introduction of Survey Quality Prediction (SQP), a computer program that predicts the validity and accuracy of questionnaires based on findings from the meta-analysis. Co-developed by the authors, this one-of-a-kind software is available via the book's related Web site and provides a valuable resource that allows researchers to estimate a questionnaire's level of quality before its distribution.

In addition to carefully outlining the criteria for high quality survey questions, this book also:

• Defines a three-step procedure for generating questions that measure, with high certainty, the concept defined by the researcher

• Analyzes and details the results of studies that used Multitrait-Multimethod (MTMM) experiments to estimate the reliability and validity of questions

• Provides information to correct measurement error in survey results, with a chapter focusing specifically on cross-cultural research

• Features practical examples that illustrate the pitfalls of traditional questionnaire design

• Includes exercises that both demonstrate the methodology and help readers master the presented techniques

Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research succeeds in illustrating how questionnaire design influences the overall quality of empirical research. With an emphasis on a deliberate and scientific approach to developing questionnaires, this book is an excellent text for upper-level undergraduate or beginning graduate-level survey research courses in business and the social sciences, and it also serves as a self-contained reference for survey researchers in any field.

Willem E. Saris is Professor at Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE) in Barcelona, Spain. He was Laureate of the 2005 Descartes Prize for Best Collaborative Research and has over thirty years of teaching experience in the field of survey methodology.

Irmtraud N. Gallhofer is Senior Researcher of projects for the European Social Survey (ESS) at ESADE in Barcelona, Spain. The recipient of the 2005 Descartes Prize for Best Collaborative Research, she has extensive teaching and research experience in text analysis and has been an invited lecturer at numerous universities.