SEMINAR 4

INSTRUMENTATION:
Designing Questionnaires
 Dichotomous Qs

Check one ans Asking for

Structured from a list factual
Questions info.
Check > 1 ans
from a list
Question-
Response Rank items
Format
Filter Qs
Collect info
Rating scales on opinion,
e.g. Likert Scale perception,
Unstructured attitude, etc
Questions Open-ended Qs

Refer to the module for details, p. 114 - 115

Guidelines On Questionnaire Design

Questions related to objectives

Length of questionnaire
Instructions
Order of questions
Scales
Wordings of questions
- avoid leading qs.
- avoid ambiguous words
-avoid jargons or acronyms
- avoid double barrelled question
- avoid negative questions
Layout and Design Refer to the module for details.
Rating Scale

Study the three sample questionnaires and

discuss their similarities and differences.

• Sample questionnaire 1
• Sample questionnaire 2
• Sample questionnaire 3
Designing An Attitude Test
Attitude refers to a pattern of belief that is enduring and
which may influence behaviour

Example:

Positive Attitude Spend more

towards reading time on reading

 Common instrument – Likert Scale

Statement Scale
Reading is a good way to spend spare time. SD D U A SA

SD = Strongly disagree D = Disagree U = Undecided A = Agree SA = Strongly agree

An attitude test is a cluster of items (20 – 30) that measure a single attitude
The item in isolation has no significance. The attitude questionnaire is a
summated scale.
 Steps in Developing an Attitude Test
(1) Define the construct
Review available literature to define the construct to
be measured (e.g. Attitude towards reading, attitude
towards learning, attitude towards CAT, etc)

(2) Breakdown the construct

Example:
If available literature (e.g. Muller, D., 1982) refers to attitude as
the personal belief & knowledge, personal feeling and
behavioural tendency of a person towards something, and you
are going to use it as the operational definition, items
constructed should focus on these 3 categories

Muller, D. (1982). Measuring attitudes, values and personality traits: A

researcher’s handbook. N.Y. : Columbia University
Examples of Items:
Category Item -/+
Personal Reading is for learning but not for -
Belief enjoyment
Personal Reading is rewarding to me +
Feeling
Behavioural There are many books which I hope +
tendency to read

(3) Brainstorm for items

• Construct more items than the number required for
each category.
• Develop an equal number of + and - statements
(4) Check for content validity
• Ask a group of judges or a panel of experts to
rate each item on a 5-point rating scale as
follows:
1 – strongly does not describe the attitude
2 – somewhat does not describe the attitude
3 – undecided
4 – somewhat describe the attitude
5 - strongly describe the attitude

(5) Decide on the scale

5 – point scale SD D U A SA
4 – point scale SD D A SA
6 – point scale VSD SD D A SA VSA
(6) Pilot-test the instrument

Administer the attitude test to a group of subjects and check for

clarity of items, time needed for responding to items, etc.

Score the items and sum up the scores of all items.

Example:
5-point Likert Scale
For each item: Maximum point = 5 Minimum point = 1
No. of items = 20
Possible Total Score by each respondent : 20 – 100
Mean for each respondent: 1.00 – 5.00

Note:
 Likert Scale is a SUMMATED SCALE.
 Reversed scoring/coding for negative statement.
 (7) Check for Reliability

Method 1: Manual (Visual inspection)

20 high scorer’s responses 20 low scorer’s responses

ITEM SD D U A SA SD D U A SA
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
1 1 3 7 9 8 10 2
+ve
2 4 3 5 3 5 3 3 7 3 4
+ve

3 10 10 8 12
-ve
Reversed SD D U A SA SD D U A SA
Scoring
(5) (4) (3) (2) (1) (5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Method 2 : Cronbach’s alpha

Value of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient : 0 – 1

Acceptable value : .7 (Nunnaly, 1978)

Ref.: Nunnally, J.C. (1978). Psychometric Theory. 2nd Edition. New York:
McGraw-Hill

A hypothetical example:

A 10-item attitude scale was piloted with a group of 20 students.

Conduct a reliability analysis using the data obtained.

(8) Select the final items

Based on the reliability analysis, decide on the final items to be
included in the test
 GOOD LUCK &
HAPPY STUDYING

THANK YOU