RE: Discussion Post 4.1

Discussion Post 4.1

Your Name

Institution

Survey Questions

While designing a survey, it is vital the objective of the concerned survey is clear. This way, the individual conducting the survey remains on-point regarding what is necessary. Furthermore, irrelevant parameters, selected on a whim, do not affect the results obtained through the survey ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"WUVkE1Kr","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Dolnicar, 2013)","plainCitation":"(Dolnicar, 2013)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":616,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/0omESN17/items/UC29YZLP"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/0omESN17/items/UC29YZLP"],"itemData":{"id":616,"type":"article-journal","title":"Asking good survey questions","container-title":"Journal of Travel Research","page":"551-574","volume":"52","issue":"5","author":[{"family":"Dolnicar","given":"Sara"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Dolnicar, 2013). Apart from objective, one also needs to be clear on how to write a question in your survey. It can alter the respondent’s perspective on the subject and even, unintentionally, force them to answer in a biased manner ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"OQx0koDF","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Ponto, 2015)","plainCitation":"(Ponto, 2015)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":617,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/0omESN17/items/EISY83BA"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/0omESN17/items/EISY83BA"],"itemData":{"id":617,"type":"article-journal","title":"Understanding and evaluating survey research","container-title":"Journal of the advanced practitioner in oncology","page":"168","volume":"6","issue":"2","author":[{"family":"Ponto","given":"Julie"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Ponto, 2015).

For instance, the table given below shows how a well-worded question can keep a respondent from giving a biased answer.

S.No

Bad Questions

Good Questions

Reason

1

How short was the candidate?

How would you describe the candidate’s height?

The question is leading and can change the perspective of the respondent.

2

Should concerned parents invest in infant car seats?

What is your opinion on special car seats for infants?

Unnecessary additions in the questions can prove to be misleading

3

Are you satisfied, or dissatisfied, with the pay and benefits offered by your current job?

Are you satisfied, or dissatisfied, with the pay offered by your current job?

Are you satisfied, or dissatisfied, with the work benefits offered by your current job?

Use of double-barreled questions can mislead the respondent and ruin survey results. This is because one can never be sure which part of the question is being answered.

Reliability in psychological research

Reliability is the consistency of the research study or measuring. If the research data is showing the same results, then the data is reliable. A reliable test shows great positive correlations. In psychological research, three types of consistency are considered; Test-retest reliability, internal reliability, inter-rater reliability. Test-retest reliability is over the time consistency of data. For example, a person who is intelligent at the present time will also be intelligent next month. This channels that if we measure the intelligence of a person with time, it will show a consistent result. Same can be done with the group of people, measuring and testing the group again and again to check the consistency of result.

In internal reliability, consistency of data is checked across the items. Like test-retest consistency, internal consistency can be assessed by analyzing data. Another way of reliability is inter-rater reliability which is check between different researches. In external validity, the data from research is compared to a different group of people. For example, if you have performed research on a certain group of people, the validity of your research is then checked over a different group of people. For instance, the research was on the effect of cognitive therapy on young people. The result obtained from this research is then compared with the effect of cognitive therapy on elderly. Reliability of research is then checked after the comparative analysis between different group of people.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Dolnicar, S. (2013). Asking good survey questions. Journal of Travel Research, 52(5), 551–574.

Ponto, J. (2015). Understanding and evaluating survey research. Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology, 6(2), 168.