RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS 323
device for subsequent questions, for example: ‘If
you answered ‘‘yes’’ to question X, please go to
question Y; if you answered ‘‘no’’ to question X,
please go to question Z’ (see the section below
on contingency questions). Sudman and Bradburn
(1982: 89) suggest that if dichotomous questions
are being used, then it is desirable to use several
to gain data on the same topic, in order to reduce
the problems of respondents’ ‘guessing’ answers.
On the other hand, the researcher must ask, for
instance, whether a ‘yes’/‘no’ response actually
provides any useful information. Requiring
respondents to make a ‘yes’/‘no’ decision may be
inappropriate; it might be more appropriate to
have a range of responses, for example in a rating
scale. There may be comparatively few complex
or subtle questions which can be answered with
asimple‘yes’or‘no’.A‘yes’ora‘no’maybe
inappropriate for a situation whose complexity is
better served by a series of questions which catch
that complexity. Further, Youngman (1984: 163)
suggests that it is a natural human tendency to
agree with a statement rather than to disagree
with it; this suggests that a simple dichotomous
question might build in respondent bias. Indeed
people may be more reluctant to agree with a
negative statement than to disagree with a positive
question (Weems et al.2003).
In addition to dichotomous questions (‘yes’/‘no’
questions) a piece of research might ask
for information about dichotomous variables,
for example gender (male/female), type of
school (elementary/secondary), type of course
(vocational/non-vocational). In these cases only
one of two responses can be selected. This enables
nominal data to be gathered, which can then
be processed using the chi-square statistic, the
binomial test, the G-test and cross-tabulations
(see Cohen and Holliday (1996) for examples).
Dichotomous questions are treated as nominal
data (see Part Five).
Multiple choice questions
To try to gain some purchase on complexity,
the researcher can move towards multiple choice
questions, where the range of choices is
designed to capture the likely range of responses
to given statements (see http://www.routledge.
com/textbooks/9780415368780 – Chapter 15, file
15.5. ppt). For example, the researcher might
ask a series of questions about a new chemistry
scheme in the school; a statement precedes a set
of responses thus:
The New Intermediate Chemistry Education (NICE)
is:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
a waste of time
an extra burden on teachers
not appropriate to our school
a useful complementary scheme
a useful core scheme throughout the school
well-presented and practicable.
The categories would have to be discrete (i.e.
having no overlap and being mutually exclusive)
and would have to exhaust the possible range of
responses. Guidance would have to be given on
the completion of the multiple-choice, clarifying,
for example, whether respondents are able to tick
only one response (a single answer mode) or several
responses (multiple answer mode) from the list. Like
dichotomous questions, multiple choice questions
can be quickly coded and quickly aggregated to
give frequencies of response. If that is appropriate
for the research, then this might be a useful
instrument.
The layout of a multiple choice question can be
thus:
Number of years in teaching 1–5 □ 6–14 □
15–24 □ 25+ □
Which age group do you teach at present (you
may tick more than one)
Infant
Primary
Secondary (excluding sixth form)
Sixth form only
□
□
□
□
Just as dichotomous questions have their parallel
in dichotomous variables, so multiple choice
questions have their parallel in multiple elements
of a variable. Forexample,theresearchermaybe
asking to which form a student belongs – there
being up to, say, forty forms in a large school, or
Chapter 15