Questionnaires

Questionnaires, usually in written form, provide a common way to obtain information on people’s attitudes, beliefs and perceptions on a variety of topics.

The design and construction of a questionnaire requires a great deal of thought and careful attention to detail. Perhaps the biggest potential hazard in using questionnaires is that people may fail to respond to them or may not answer in the way you would wish. Your own experience may help you to understand why this might be. People are short of time, not interested, lose the questionnaire, don’t understand the questions or often want to answer ‘it depends’. Each of these possibilities will need to be addressed in the design and management of the questionnaire and it is important to spend time on this.