Improving Survey Questions: Design and Evaluation (Applied Social Research Methods) - Hardcover

Fowler, Floyd J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803945825 ISBN 13: 9780803945821

Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc, 1995

Synopsis

What is a good question? Although there are several potential sources for error in survey data, the validity of surveys depends on the design of the questions asked. This book shows how to word and format a question, write questions that will evoke the kind of answers for which they were designed, and empirically evaluate survey questions. In addition, the book covers topics such as how to write good questions aimed at collecting information about objective facts and events, how to measure subjective phenomena, some alternative methods for attacking common measurement problems; shows how to evaluate the extent to which questions are consistently understood and administered, and explains how to evaluate the data resulting from a set of questions. A clearly written book, Improving Survey Questions enables researchers and practitioners to write better survey questions and helps users of survey data to evaluate their data more critically.

About this title

About the Author

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 evaluation techniques and applying survey methods to studies of medical care.

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803945825
• ISBN 13: 9780803945821
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200