Survey, questionnaire and types of questions

What is a survey

A survey is a quantitative technique that consists of research carried out on a sample of subjects, representative of a broader group, that is carried out in the context of everyday life, using standardized questioning procedures in order to achieve quantitative measurements. about a large number of objective and subjective characteristics of the population.

Advantages of the survey:

• The most widely used technique that allows obtaining information from almost any type of population. It allows obtaining information on past events of the respondents. Great ability to standardize data, allowing computer processing and statistical analysis. Relatively cheap for the information obtained with that.

Disadvantages of the survey:

• It does not allow complex subjects to be analyzed in depth (resort to discussion groups).

What is a survey questionnaire

The survey questionnaire is a rigorously standardized data collection instrument that operationalizes the variables that are the object of observation and investigation, therefore the questions in a questionnaire constitute the indicators of the survey.

Types of survey questionnaires

1. Personal interview questionnaires. They require the use of personal interviewers. Questionnaires by mail. They are sent by mail, it is a cheaper method than the previous one, but it has the drawback of a low response rate, so successive waves must be made, which can make the sample not representative. Telephone questionnaires. The respondent is not controlled, it is an inexpensive way to conduct surveys. Self-study questionnaires. They are made to an already captive population or people who are proven to use a certain product or service.

Types of questions in a survey questionnaire

Kind of questions
According to reply	According to function	According to content
Open or iconic	Closed	Filter Battery Control Shock absorbers	Identification Action Intention Opinion Information Reasons
Dichotonics	Categorized
Spontaneous response Suggested response Valuation

1. According to the answer they admit:
   1. Open. Questions that only ask the questions, without establishing response categories. They should be used very little in surveys because after the survey they have to be closed and then standardized. Closed.
      • Dichotonics. They establish only 2 response alternatives, Yes or No and sometimes Ns / Nc. They should be used only for very well defined topics that allow these 2 alternatives in response. Categorized. In addition to the question, they establish the response categories. In turn they are subdivided into:
        • Spontaneous response. The interviewer should not read the answer to the respondent. Suggested answer. The interviewer reads the questions to the respondent. The interviewer reads a scale of increasing or decreasing intensity of response categories.
   According to their role in the questionnaire:
   1. Filter. They are widely used in questionnaires to eliminate those people who are not affected by certain questions, that is, they mark whether or not to ask subsequent questions. Battery. All the questions are about the same topic and they should always go together in the questionnaire in the form of a battery, starting with the + simple ones and then the + complex ones. This is called a “question funnel”. Of control. They are used to check the veracity of the respondents' answers and normally what is done in these cases is to place the same question but written differently in places separated from each other. Shock absorbers. They mean that when we are asking difficult subjects or we think that they will be reluctant to answer, we must ask by softening the question and not ask abruptly and directly.
   According to its content:
   1. Identification. They place the conditions in the social structure. Eg age, sex, profession. Action. They deal with the actions of the interviewees. Eg Do you go to the movies? Do you smoke ?. Intention. They inquire about the intentions of the respondents. Eg Are you going to vote? Opinion. They deal with the opinion of the respondents on certain topics. Eg what do you think about…? Information. They analyze the degree of knowledge of the respondents on certain topics. Reasons. They try to know the reason for certain opinions or acts.

Rules for formulating questions in a questionnaire

1. The questionnaires should not be excessively long, because in long questionnaires (+100 questions) the percentage of answers decreases. The questions must be simple and written in such a way that they can be easily understood (do not use technical terms). They must not incorporate terms moral (value judgments). Never suggest the answer, inciting to answer more in one sense than in the other. All must refer to a single idea. All those that are within the same topic must go together in the questionnaire in the form of a battery.Do not join questions whose answer to one of them influences the answer of the other, called the “halo” effect.

Recommendations or Deformations when creating a questionnaire

1. Conservative deformation. People are more likely to answer "yes" than to answer "no". A question receives a higher percentage of accessions when it is asked to answer "yes" than when it is asked to answer "no". Predisposing influence of certain words. There are certain words with a great ideological burden. Avoid references to certain public personalities.

Organization and preparation of the questionnaire

Phases

1. Formulate hypotheses. Establish the intermediate variables (dimensions that we want to analyze) Operationalize the intermediate variables, giving rise to the questions that would be the indicators.

Building

1. Introduction (who commissioned us to study, the anonymous nature of the answers, etc.) Questions:
   1. Identification questions (sex, age,…) Simple questions to introduce the + complex and end with simple ones. Facilitate the transition from one topic to another in the questionnaire and you must write in it. Avoid many open questions.
   Prepare or decide on the formal aspects. Prepare certain decisive elements (interviewers' cover letter) Train the interviewers and prepare an instruction guide to carry out the questionnaire. Doing a pretest (test the questionnaire before its final launch) is object to see if the questions are understood, if there are problems in the writing,… and it always has to be done. The results of this pretest are not interesting. 150 people are representative of the testCodify the questionnaire

Through the following video, by Professor Gessler Lupi, the steps to design a good survey questionnaire for commercial research are explained.