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Improving Survey Questions
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Improving Survey Questions
Design and Evaluation



July 1995 | 200 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
What is a good question? Although there are several potential sources for error in survey data, the validity of surveys is dependent upon the design of the question asked. This invaluable book shows how to word and format questions that will evoke the kind of answers for which they are designed and how to evaluate empirically survey questions. In addition, the book covers: how to write good questions aimed at collecting information about objective facts and events; measuring subjective phenomena; some alternative methods for attacking common measurement problems; how to evaluate the extent to which questions are consistently understood and administered; and how to evaluate the data resulting from a set of questions.
 
Questions as Measures
An Overview

 
 
Designing Questions to Gather Factual Data
 
Questions to Measure Subjective States
 
Some General Rules for Designing Good Survey Instruments
 
Presurvey Evaluation of Questions
 
Assessing the Validity of Survey Questions
 
Question Design and Evaluation Issues in Perspective

Although this book provides detailed guidance to students regarding development and validation of surveys, the concepts are probably too detailed for a Masters level dissertation. The price of the text is also rather high.

Dr Hayley Hutchings
College of Medicine, Swansea University
May 23, 2014

Floyd J. Fowler, Jr.

Floyd J. Fowler, Jr. is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1966. A Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston since 1971, he was Director of the Center for 14 years. Dr. Fowler is the author or co-author of four textbooks on survey methods, including Survey Research Methods, Improving Survey Questions, Standardized Survey Interviewing (with Mangione), and Survey Methodology (with Groves, Couper, Lepkowski, et. al), as well as numerous research papers and monographs. His recent work has focused on studies of question design and... More About Author

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ISBN: 9780803945838
$116.00