Chapter 4

Research Design
 1. Research Design
• Having decided what you want to study, you now need to
determine how you are going to conduct your study.
• There are a number of questions that need to be answered
before you can proceed with your research journey.
– What procedures will you adopt to obtain answers to
research questions?
– How will you carry out the tasks needed to complete the
different components of the research process?
– What should you do and what should you not do in the
process of undertaking the study?
• Basically, answers to these questions constitute the core of
a research design.
• A research design is the road map that you decide to follow
during your research journey to find answers to your research
questions as validly, objectively, accurately and economically as
possible.
• It is a procedural-cum-operational plan that details what and
how different methods and procedures to be applied during the
research process.
• A research design is a plan, structure and strategy of
investigation so conceived as to obtain answers to research
questions or problems.
• The plan is the complete scheme or program of the research.
• It includes an outline of what the investigator will do from
writing hypotheses and their operational implications to the final
analysis of data.
• A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection
and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance
to the research purpose with economy in procedure.
 1. Research Design...
• A research design is a plan that contains decisions:
– Study design you plan to use (case study, cross-sectional,
experimental, descriptive, etc.)
– How you select your respondents (sampling)
– How to collect information from your respondents
– How the information collected is analyzed
– How you communicate your findings
• Through a research design you:
– conceptualize an operational plan to undertake the various
procedures and tasks required to complete your study
– ensure that these procedures are adequate to obtain valid,
objective and accurate answers to the research questions.
 2. Sampling
• Let us take a very simple example to explain the concept of
sampling. Suppose you are interested in the mean age of the
students in your class.
• There are two ways of finding this out.
• The first method is to contact all students in the class, find out
their ages, add them up and then divide this by the number of
students.
• The second method is to select a few students from the class,
ask them their ages, add them up and then divide by the number
of students you have asked.
• From this you make an estimate of the average age of the class.
• Similarly, suppose you want to find out the average income of
families living in a city.
• Imagine the amount of effort and resources required to go to
every family in the city to find out their income.
 2. Sampling…
• You could instead select a few families as the basis of your enquiry.
• Then, from what you have found out from the few families, make
an estimate of the mean income of families in the city.
• Therefore, sampling is the process of selecting a few (a sample)
from a bigger group (the sampling population) as the basis for
estimating or predicting the prevalence of an unknown information,
situation or outcome regarding the bigger group.
• A sample is a subgroup of the population that you are interested in.
• The focus of your study is to find answers to your research
questions as they relate to the total study population and not the
sample.
• However, through the process of sampling you attempt to estimate
what is likely to be the situation in the total study population.
• This process of selecting a sample from the total population has
advantages and disadvantages.
• The advantages are that it saves time as well as financial and
human resources.
• The disadvantage is that you do not obtain information about the
population's characteristics but only estimate or predict them on
the basis of what you found out in your sample.
• Hence, there is the possibility of an error in your estimation.
 2. Sampling…
• Therefore, sampling is a trade-off between certain benefits and
disadvantages.
• While on the one hand, you save time and resources, on the
other hand you may compromise the level of accuracy in your
findings.
• Through sampling you only make an estimate about the actual
situation prevalent in the total population.
• If you ascertain a piece of information from the total sampling
population, if your sample truly represents the study population
and if your method of enquiry is correct, your findings should
be reasonably accurate.
• But the possibility of an error is always there.
• Tolerance of this possibility of error is an important
consideration in selecting a sample.
 2. Sampling…
• A sample is a subgroup of the population which is the
focus of your research enquiry.
• It is selected in such a way that it represents the study
population.
• We collect the required information from sample.
• It is done to save time, money and other resources.
• In majority of cases where sampling is done, there will be
a difference between the sample and population statistics,
which is attributable to selection of units in the sample.
• The greater the sample size, the more accurate the estimate
of the true population mean.
 2. Sampling…
• The selection of samples in quantitative and qualitative research
is guided by different philosophies.
• In quantitative research, we select a sample in such a way that it
is unbiased and represents the population.
• In qualitative research, a number of considerations influence it:
– The ease in accessing the potential respondents
– Our judgement that the person has extensive knowledge about the
event, or situation of interest
– How typical the case is of a category of individuals
– Simply that it is totally different from others
• In quantitative research, the purpose of sampling is to draw
inference about the population from which the sample is
selected from.
• In qualitative research, it is designed to gain in-depth knowledge
about a situation or event.
 2. Sampling
• Regarding sample size, quantitative research is guided by
predetermined sample size.
• In qualitative research, we don’t have predetermined
sample size but during data collection, we wait for point of
data saturation.
• In quantitative research, randomization is used to ensure
that a sample is selected in such a way that it represents the
study population to avoid bias.
• In qualitative research, no such attempt is made.
• Here, we purposely select ‘information-rich’ respondents
who will provide the information we need.
 2. Sampling...
• A sample should be representative of the population
interest.
• A representative sample closely matches the characteristics
of the population.
• A sample that is not representative of the population is
called biased sample.
• The various strategies in quantitative research can be
categorized as:
– Probability sampling
– Non-probability sampling
– Mixed sampling
 2. Sampling...
1. Probability sampling
• In probability sampling, every member of the population has
an equal and independent chance of appearing in the sample.
• A participant is included in the sample based on chance
alone.
• Probability sampling eliminates the possibility that the
sample is biased by the preferences of the person selecting
the sample.
• In addition, random sampling affords some assurance that the
sample does not bias itself.
• Sampling is typically done without replacement.
• Once an individual is chosen for your sample, he or she
cannot be chosen a second time for that sample.
 2. Sampling…
• The three most common ways of selecting a random sample are:
– The fishbowl draw: if the population is small, number each
element using a slip of paper for each element, put all slips
into a bowl and then pick them out one by one without
looking. Do this until the number of slips selected equals the
sample size.
– A computer program: there are a number of programs that
can help you to select a random sample.
– A table of randomly generated numbers: most books on
research methodology and statistics include a table of
randomly generated numbers in their appendices. You can
select your sample using these tables.
 2. Sampling…
A. Simple random sampling
• This method is randomly selecting a certain number of
individuals from the population.
• It is randomly selecting a certain number of individuals from the
population.
• This is the most commonly used method of selecting a
probability sample.
• Here, every member of the population have an equal chance of
being included in the final sample.
• Simple random sampling requires a population list (sampling
frame) in order to select sample.
• The elements can be selected using the fishbowl draw, a
computer program, or a table of randomly generated numbers.
 2. Sampling…
• Random sampling reduces the possibility of systematic bias in
your sample.
• However, it does not guarantee a representative sample.
• You could, quite at random, select participants who represent
only a small segment of the population.
• To illustrate simple random sampling, let us take this class as
example.
– There are 80 students in a class, and so the first step is to
identify each student by a number from 1 to 80.
– Suppose you decide to select a sample of 20 using the simple
random sampling technique.
– Use the fishbowl draw, the table for random numbers or a
computer program to select the 20 students.
– These 20 students become the basis of your enquiry.
 2. Sampling…
B. Stratified sampling:
• Stratified sampling provides one way to obtain a representative
sample.
• You begin by dividing the population into segments, or strata.
• In this method, the researcher stratifies the population in such a
way that the population within a stratum is homogenous with
respect to stratification characteristic.
• The population is divided into segments or strata.
• The stratification characteristic should be clearly identifiable in
the study population.
• For example, you could divide the population of a town into
whites, blacks, and Hispanics.
• Next, we select a separate random sample from each stratum.
• Because individuals are selected from each stratum, we guarantee
that each segment of the population is represented in the sample.
 2. Sampling…
• Stratification variables can be categorical variables (e.g., gender,
ethnicity, personality type) or quantitative variables (e.g.,
intelligence, height, age), and more than one stratification
variable can be used.
2. Sampling…
 2. Sampling…
C. Cluster sampling
• Simple random and stratified sampling are based on a
researcher’s ability to identify each element in a population.
• It is easy to do this if the total population is small.
• But if the population is large, as in the case of city, state or a
country, it becomes difficult and expensive to identify each
sampling unit.
• In such cases, the use of cluster sampling is more appropriate.
• To make sampling more manageable, you could identify
naturally occurring groups of participants (clusters) and
randomly select certain clusters.
• For example, you might be interested in surveying children in a
large school district.
• You could randomly select certain departments or classes from
which to sample.
 2. Sampling…
• In cluster sampling, the researcher randomly selects clusters
rather than individual units in the first stage of sampling.
• A cluster is a collective type of unit that includes multiple
elements - it has more than one unit in it.
• Some examples of clusters are neighborhoods, schools,
classrooms, families, and work teams.
• All of these collective-type units include multiple individual
elements or units.
• In this case, the researcher divides the population into groups
called cluster based on visible or easily identifiable
characteristics.
• Clusters can be formed on the basis of geographical proximity
or a characteristic that has a correlation with the main variable
of study.
 2. Sampling…
• We briefly explain two types of cluster sampling: one stage and
two stage.
• In one-stage cluster sampling, to select a sample, you randomly
select a sample of clusters.
• After that, you include all of the individual units in the randomly
selected clusters in your final sample.
• The second type of cluster sampling is two-stage cluster sampling.
• In the first stage, you randomly select a sample of clusters.
• In the second stage, you draw a random sample from the elements
in each of the clusters selected in the first stage.
• For example, in stage one you might randomly select 30 physics
classrooms and in stage two randomly select 10 students from
each of the 30 physics classrooms.
• Elements from cluster are selected using simple random sampling.
 2. Sampling…
D. Systematic random sampling
• This technique involves sampling every kth element after a
random start.
• The first element is selected at random in the range of 1 to k.
• The kth element, or skip interval, is determined by dividing the
sample size into the population size to obtain the skip pattern
applied to the sampling frame.

• The major advantage of systematic sampling is its simplicity

and flexibility.
•
2. Non-probability sampling
• This does not follow the theory of probability in the choice of
elements from the sampling population.
• In such situations, the selection of elements is dependent upon other
considerations.
• In this type of sampling, items for the sample are selected deliberately
by the researcher; his choice concerning the items remains supreme.
• For instance, if economic conditions of people living in a state are to
be studied, a few towns and villages may be purposively selected for
intensive study on the principle that they can be representative of the
entire state.
• Thus, the judgement of the organizers of the study plays an important
part in this sampling design.
• The are many non-probability sampling:
– Quota sampling
– Accidental sampling
– Convenience sampling
– Judgmental or purposive sampling
– Expert sampling
– Snowball sampling
 2. Sampling…
A. Convenience sampling
• Convenience sampling is primarily guided by the convenience
of the researcher, whatever that may be.
• It could be easy accessibility, geographical proximity, known
contacts, ready approval for the undertaking of the study, or
being part of a group.
• In convenience sampling, we select individuals into our sample
based on their availability to the investigators.
• As a result, the extent to which the sample is representative of
the target population is not known.
• For example, we might approach patients seeking medical care
at a particular hospital in a waiting room or reception area.
• Convenience samples are useful for collecting preliminary or
pilot data, but they should be used with caution for statistical
inference, since they may not be representative of population.
 2. Sampling…
B. Purposive sampling
• In purposive sampling, the researcher deliberately hand-picks
the sample, choosing instances that are likely to produce
valuable data to meet the purpose of the research.
• Instead of choosing a cross-section of people to represent the
wider population, the researcher would choose instances
offering a wide variety, possible even extreme cases.
• In a non-probabilistic survey of attitudes to online purchasing
for example, you might deliberately choose people you know
who regularly be online & people who never shop online.
• The primary consideration in purposive sampling is your
judgement as to who can provide the best information for your
study.
• You select those people who have the required information and
be willing to share it with you.
 2. Sampling…
C. Quota sampling
• In quota sampling, the researcher sets quotas which are the
number of the kinds of people you want in the sample.
• Then the researcher locates the numbers of people needed to
meet the quotas.
• For example, a set of quotas might be as follows: 25 black
males, 25 white males, 25 black females, and 25 white females.
• You could use convenience sampling to find the people.
• The key is to obtain the right number of people for each group
quota.
• Quota sampling means to take a very tailored sample that is in
proportion to some characteristic or trait of a population.
• For example, you could divide a population by the state they
live in, income or education level, or sex.
 2. Sampling…
• The population is divided into groups and samples are
taken from each group to meet a quota.
• Quota sampling is the non-probability version of stratified
sampling.
• Then convenience or judgment sampling is used to select
the required number of subjects from each stratum.
• For example, an interviewer may be told to sample 200
females and 300 males between the age of 45 and 60.
 2. Sampling…
D. Snowball sampling
• Snowball sampling is the process of selecting a sample
using networks of people.
• To start with, a few individuals in a group/organization are
selected.
• After collecting information from them, they are asked to
identify other people in the group/organization and these
people also become part of the sample.
• This process could continue until a saturation point has
been reached in terms of the information being sought.
• This technique relies on referrals from initial subjects to
generate additional subjects.
 3. Levels of Measurement
• Measurement is central to any enquiry.
• To perform statistical analysis of data, it is important to first
understand variables and how to measure these variables.
• Why is level of measurement important?
• First, knowing the level of measurement helps you decide how
to interpret the data of that variable.
• When you know that a measure is nominal, then you know that
the numerical values are just short codes for the longer names.
• Second, knowing the level of measurement helps you decide
what statistical analysis is appropriate for the values.
• If a measure is nominal, then you know that you would never
average the data values or do a t-test on the data.
• Whenever we assign a value to a variable, we are, in a sense,
“measuring” it.
• All forms of measurement fall into one of four categories, or scales:
– nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
• The scale of measurement will ultimately dictate the statistical
procedures that can be used in processing the data.
• The four levels of measurement are each based on the characteristics
or properties of the data.
• These properties include identity, magnitude, equal unit size, and
absolute zero.
• When a measure has the property of identity, objects that are different
receive different scores.
• For example, if participants in a study who have different political
affiliations, they would receive different scores.
• Measurements have the property of magnitude (also called ordinality)
when the ordering of the numbers reflects the ordering of the variable.
• In other words, numbers are assigned in order so that some numbers
represent more or less of the variable being measured than others.
• Measurements have an equal unit size when a difference of 1 is
the same amount throughout the entire scale.
• For example, the difference between people who are 164 and
165 centimeters tall is the same as the difference between people
who are 172 and 173 centimeters tall.
• The difference in each situation (1 centimeter) is identical.
• Measures have an absolute zero when assigning a score of zero
indicates an absence of the variable being measured.
• For example, time spent studying has the property of absolute
zero because a score of zero on this measure means an
individual spent no time studying.
• However, a score of zero is not always equal to the property of
absolute zero.
• For example, think about the Celsius temperature scale.
• The thermometer can read 0 degrees; however, that does not
indicate an absence of temperature.
• It indicates a very cold temperature and hence, it does not have
the property of absolute zero.
 3. Levels of Measurement…
i. Nominal Scales
• A nominal scale enables the classification of individuals, objects
or responses based on a common/shared property or
characteristic.
• These people, objects or responses are divided into a number of
subgroups in such a way that each member of the subgroup has
a common characteristic.
• A variable measured on a nominal scale may have one, two or
more subcategories depending upon the extent of variation.
• For example, the variable ‘gender’ can be classified into two
subcategories: male and female.
• Political parties in Australia can be classified into four main
subcategories: Labor, Liberal, Democrats and Greens.
 3. Levels of Measurement…
• Those who identify themselves by membership or belief as
belonging to the Labor Party are classified as ‘Labor’, those
identifying with the Liberals are classified as ‘Liberal’, and so
on.
• The name chosen for a subcategory is notional, but for effective
communication it is best to choose something that describes the
characteristic of the subcategory.
• Classification by means of a nominal scale ensures that
individuals, objects or responses within the same subgroup have
a common characteristic or property as the basis of
classification.
• The sequence in which subgroups are listed makes no difference
as there is no relationship among subgroups.
 3. Levels of Measurement…
• Nominal scales have the characteristic of identity but lack the
other properties.
• Variables measured on a nominal scale are often referred to as
categorical variables because the measuring scale involves
dividing the data into categories.
• Even if we assign unique numbers to each value, for instance 1
for male and 2 for female, the numbers don’t really mean
anything (i.e., 1 is not less than or half of 2) and could have
been easily been represented non-numerically, such as M for
male and F for female.
• Nominal scales merely offer names or labels for different
attribute values.
• The appropriate measure of central tendency of a nominal scale
is mode, and neither the mean nor the median can be defined.
• Permissible statistics are chi-square and frequency distribution.
ii. Ordinal Scales
• With an ordinal scale, we can think in terms of greater than (>) and
less than (<).
• Thus, we can compare various pieces of data in terms of one having
greater value than the other.
• An ordinal scale allows us to rank-order data—hence the term ordinal.
• Ordinal data are often referred to as ranked data because the data are
ordered from highest to lowest, or biggest to smallest.
• Ordinal scales measure rank-ordered data, such as the ranking of
students in a class as first, second, third, and so forth, based on their
grade point average or test scores.
• As an example, we can roughly assess members of a workforce by
grades of proficiency: unskilled, semiskilled, or skilled.
• Likewise, we can indicate people’s level of education by classifying
them as being unschooled, having completed an elementary, high
school, college, or graduate education.
• Many high schools rank their graduates in terms of overall
achievement levels: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and so forth.
 3. Levels of Measurement…
• An ordinal scale expands the range of statistical techniques we
can apply to our data.
• In addition to the statistics we can use with nominal data:
– we can determine the median, or halfway point, in a set of data
– We can use a percentile rank to identify the relative position of any
item or individual in a group.
– And we can determine the extent of the relationship between two
characteristics by means of Spearman’s rank-order correlation.
• An ordinal scale has all the properties/characteristics of a
nominal scale, in addition to its own.
• Subcategories are arranged in order of the magnitude of the
property/characteristic.
• Also, the ‘distance’ between the subcategories is not equal as
there is no quantitative unit of measurement.
 3. Levels of Measurement…
iii. Interval Scales
• In interval measurement, the distance between attributes does
have meaning.
• An interval scale is characterized by two features:
– it has equal units of measurement, and
– its zero point has been established arbitrarily
• In an interval scale, the units of measurement (intervals)
between the numbers on the scale are all equal in size.
• When you use an interval scale, the criteria of identity,
magnitude, and equal unit size are met.
• The Fahrenheit (F) and Celsius (C) scales for measuring
temperature are examples of interval scales.
• The intervals between any two successive numbers of degrees
reflect equal changes in temperature, but the zero point doesn’t
indicate a total absence of heat.
 3. Levels of Measurement…
• Interval scales of measurement allow statistical analyses that aren’t
possible with nominal or ordinal data.
• Because an interval scale reflects equal distances among adjacent
points, any statistics that are calculated using addition or
subtraction can now be used.
– for instance, means, standard deviations, and Pearson product-moment
correlations
• Many people who conduct surveys use rating scales to measure
certain intangible characteristics, and they often assume that the
results such scales yield are interval data.
• But are they really interval data?
• In some cases, they might be, but in other situations they might
not.
• For example, many universities ask students to use rating scales to
evaluate the teaching effectiveness of various professors.
• The following is an example of an item from one university’s
• Notice that the scale includes points ranging from 0 to 100.
• At five points along the scale are descriptive labels that can help
students determine how they should rate their professor’s availability.
• The numbers themselves reflect equal intervals, but the specific ratings
that students assign may not.
• For instance, is the difference between “never available” and “seldom
available” equivalent to the difference between “available by
appointment only” and “generally available”?
• Not necessarily: Some students may think of the word seldom as being
almost as bad as the word never, or they might think of “generally
available” as being quite a bit better than “available by appointment
only.”
• If this is true, then the rating scale is really yielding ordinal rather than
interval data.
iv. Ratio Scales
• In ratio measurement there is always an absolute zero that is
meaningful.
• This means that you can construct a meaningful fraction (or ratio)
with a ratio variable.
• Ratio scale is an absolute scale – the difference between the
intervals is always measured from a zero point.
• This means the ratio scale can be used for mathematical
operations.
• Two commonly used measurement instruments—a thermometer
and a tape measure—might help you understand the difference
between the interval and ratio scales.
• If we have a thermometer that measures temperature on the
Celsius scale, we cannot say that 80°C is twice as warm as 40°C.
• Why?
– Because this scale doesn’t originate from a point of absolute 0; a
substance may have some degree of heat even though its measured
temperature falls below zero.
• With a tape measure, however, the beginning of linear
measurement is absolutely the beginning.
• If we measure a desk from the left edge to the right edge, that’s it.
• There is no more desk in either direction beyond those limits.
• A measurement of “zero” means that there’s no desk at all, and a
“minus” desk width isn’t even possible.
• More generally, a ratio scale has two characteristics:
– equal measurement units (similar to an interval scale) and
– an absolute zero point, such that 0 on the scale reflects a total
absence of the entity being measured.
• What distinguishes the ratio scale from the other three scales is
that the ratio scale can express values in terms of multiples and
fractional parts, and the ratios are true ratios.
• A tape measure can do that:
– A meter is a multiple (by 100) of a 1-centimeter distance;
– An inch is one-twelfth (a fractional part) of a foot.
– The ratios are 100:1 and 1:12, respectively.
• Ratio scales outside the physical sciences are relatively rare.
• When we cannot measure a phenomenon in terms of a ratio
scale, we must refrain from making comparisons such as
– “this thing is three times as great as that” or “we have only half as
much of one thing as another.”
• Only ratio scales allow us to make comparisons that involve
multiplication or division.
 4. Instrument Design
• A research instrument is a tool used to obtain, measure, and
analyze data from subjects around the research topic.
• Research instruments are the tool used to collect data.
• You need to decide the instrument to use based on the type of
study you are conducting: quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-
method.
• Commonly used instruments include:
– Questionnaire
– Interview
– Observation
– Checklist
– Test, etc.
• These instruments should be valid and reliable.
 4. Instrument Design…
1. Questionnaire
• A questionnaire is a written list of questions, and the
respondents give answers to these questions.
• It is a series of questions designed to elicit information,
which is filled by all participants in the sample.
• This can be gathered whether by oral interview or by
written questionnaire.
• It is the most common type of research instrument.
• In questionnaire, as there is no one to explain the meaning
of questions to respondents, it is important that the
questions are clear and easy to understand.
 4. Instrument Design…
• A questionnaire can be administered in a number of ways:
– The mailed questionnaire – the questionnaire is mailed to the
respondents. Before deciding to use this approach, make sure the
address of the respondents is available. One of the major problem
with this method is low response rate.
– Collective administration – in this case, the researcher has the
participants convene in a group setting. This could be students in a
classroom, people attending a function, participants in a program
or people assembled in one place.
– Online questionnaire – in this case, you post the questionnaire
either on a website or attach to email for potential respondents to
access it and respond.
– Administration in a public place – you can administer in public
place such as a shopping center, health center, hospital, school or
pub.
 4. Instrument Design…
2. Interview
• An interview involves an interviewer reading questions to
respondents and recording their answers.
• It is a verbal interchange, often face to face, in which the
interviewer tries to elicit information, beliefs or opinion from
another person.
• An interview is a situation where the interviewer asks the
interviewee a series of questions.
• Interviews are conducted in face-to-face situations and over the
telephone.

• Interviews can be either structured or unstructured.

 4. Instrument Design…
• Structured interview:
– The researcher asks a predetermined set of questions, using the
same wording and order of questions as specified in the interview
schedule.
– An interview schedule is a written list of questions.
– The researcher designs the questions to be asked prior to interview.
– The questions are asked orally face-to-face or telephone interview.
• Unstructured interview
– Interviewer has complete freedom in terms of its structure,
contents, question wording and order.
– It is more conversational and long sometimes
– It is useful for exploring intensively and extensively and digging
deeper
 4. Instrument Design…
• Unstructured interviews are extremely useful in exploring
intensively and extensively and digging deeper into a situation,
phenomenon, issue or problem.
• They provide varied and in-depth information and are best
suited to identifying diversity and variety.
• However, their disadvantage lies in the high level of skills they
require in conducting them.
• Unstructured interviews are predominantly used in qualitative
research.
• One of the main advantages of the structured interview is that it
provides uniform information, which assures the comparability
of data.
• Structured interviewing requires fewer interviewing skills than
does unstructured interviewing.
 4. Instrument Design…
3. Observation
• It is a way of watching and listening to an interaction or
phenomena as it takes place.
• It is appropriate in situations where full and accurate
information cannot be elicited by questioning.
• It is the best approach when you are interested in the behavior
than perceptions of individuals, or when subjects are so
involved in the interaction that they are unable to provide
objective information about it.
• Two types of observation:
– Participant – the researcher participates in the activities being
observed in the same manner as its members
– Non-participant – the researcher does not get involved in the
activities and remains passive observer.
• It can also be classified as naturalistic or laboratory observation.
4. Focus Group Discussion
• A focus group is a situation where a moderator keeps a small
group focused on the discussion of research topic or issue.
• Focus group sessions generally last between 1 & 3 hours and are
recorded using audio and/or videotapes.
• The focus is on small-group interaction (usually not more than
10 to 12 people) and in-depth discussion among the participants
about the issue studied
• It is especially useful for exploring ideas and obtaining in-depth
information about how people think about an issue.
• A moderator introduces the issues to be discussed, fosters debate
and discussion on the issues, makes sure that no one dominates
the discussion, and keeps people focused on the topic.
• Focus groups can be either homogeneous or heterogeneous.
• Heterogeneous focus groups can be especially helpful as a
means of getting diverse perspectives on a complex issue.
• We use a focus group in qualitative research.
 Questionnaire Design
• A questionnaire is a written list of questions, the answers to
which are recorded by respondents.
• The respondents read the questions, interpret what it says and
then write down the answers.
• The difference between an interview schedule and a
questionnaire:
– In the interview, it is the interviewer who asks the questions
(and if necessary, explains them) and records the
respondent’s replies on an interview schedule.
– In questionnaire, the replies are recorded by the respondents
themselves.
• This distinction is important in accounting for the respective
strengths and weaknesses of the two methods and their
respective use in gathering data.
 Questionnaire Design…
• ln a questionnaire, as there is no one to explain the meaning of
questions to respondents.
• Hence, it is important that the questions are clear and easy to
understand.
• Also, the layout of a questionnaire should be such that it is easy to
read and pleasant to the eyes, and the sequence of questions should
be easy to follow.
• A questionnaire should be developed in an interactive style which
means respondents should feel as if someone is talking to them.
• In a questionnaire, a sensitive question or a question that respondents
may feel hesitant about answering should be prefaced by an
interactive statement explaining the relevance of the question.
• It is a good idea to use a different font for these statements to
distinguish them from the actual questions.
Ways of Administering Questionnaires
• A questionnaire can be administered in a number of ways.
• Your selection of a particular method depends upon the ease in
assessing your respondents and your impressions about how they
would prefer to participate in the study.
• The various ways in which you can administer a questionnaire are:
a. The mailed questionnaire
• The most common approach to collecting information is to send the
questionnaire to respondents by mail.
• This approach presupposes that you have access to their addresses.
• It may not be easy to get addresses, so before you decide to collect
your data through this method, make sure of the availability of
addresses of your respondents.
• Usually, it is a good idea to send a prepaid, self-addressed envelope
with the questionnaire as this might increase the response rate.
• A mailed questionnaire must be accompanied by a covering letter.
• One of the major problems with this method is the low response rate.
• In the case of an extremely low response rate, the findings have very
limited applicability to the population studied.
b. Collective administration
• One of the best ways of administering a questionnaire is to obtain a
captive audience such as students in a classroom, people attending a
function, participants in a program or people assembled in one
place.
• This ensures a very high response rate as you will find few people
refuse to participate in your study.
• Also, you can explain the purpose, relevance and importance of the
study and can clarify any questions that respondents may have.
• It is the quickest way of collecting data, ensures a very high
response rate and saves you money on postage.
c. Online questionnaire
• You can develop a questionnaire in the same way as you normally
do using a program that is designed for this purpose.
• Then, you post it either on a website or provide a link in your email
for potential respondents to access it and respond.
• In the same way you could send the questionnaire to mobile phones.
• You can also analyze the data collected through online
questionnaires using an appropriate program.
 Questionnaire Design…
• Before you use this method, it is important for you to familiarize
yourself with the process and program that you intend to use.
• In case of emailing or sending it to mobile phones, you need to
collect respondents’ email addresses or phone numbers.
d. Administration in a public place
• Sometimes you can administer a questionnaire in a public place
such as a shopping Center, health center, hospital, school, pub, etc.
• This depends upon the type of study population you are looking for
and where they are likely to be found.
• Usually, the purpose of the study is explained to potential
respondents as they approach and their participation in the study is
requested.
• Apart from being slightly more time-consuming, this method has
all the advantages of administering a questionnaire collectively.
 Questionnaire Design…
Advantages of a Questionnaire
• A questionnaire has the following advantages:
• It is less expensive: As you do not interview respondents, you
save time, and human and financial resources.
• Therefore, it is comparatively convenient and inexpensive,
especially when it is administered collectively to a study
population.
• It offers greater anonymity: As there is no face-to-face
interaction between respondents and interviewer, this method
provides greater anonymity.
• In some situations where sensitive questions are asked, it helps
to increase the likelihood of obtaining accurate information.
Disadvantages of Questionnaire
• The prevalence of a particular disadvantage depends on a number
of other factors.
• Some of these disadvantages are as follows:
• a. Limited application. One main disadvantage is that
application is limited to a study population that can read & write.
• It also cannot be used on a population that is very young, very
old or handicapped.
• b. Low response rate. Questionnaires are notorious for their low
response rates which means people fail to return them.
• If you plan to use a questionnaire, keep in mind that because not
everyone will return the questionnaire, your sample size will in
effect be reduced.
• You should consider yourself lucky to obtain a 50% response
rate, and sometimes it may be as low as 20%.
• However, as mentioned, the response rate is not a problem when
a questionnaire is administered in a collective situation.
• c. Self-selecting bias. Since not everyone who receives a
questionnaire returns it, there is a self-selecting bias.
• Those who return their questionnaire may have attitudes,
attributes or motivations that are different from those who do not.
• Hence, if the response rate is very low, the findings may not be
representative of the total study population.
• d. Lack of opportunity to clarify issues. If respondents do not
understand some questions, there is almost no opportunity to
clarify to them.
• If different respondents interpret questions differently, this will
affect the quality of the information provided.
• e. No opportunity for spontaneous responses. Mailed
questionnaires are not appropriate when spontaneous responses
are required.
• Most respondents will glance though the whole questionnaire
before answering.
• This gives them time to reflect before answering, which may
make them change their answers to some questions.
• f. The response to a question may be influenced by the response
to other questions.
• As respondents can read all the questions before answering, the way
they answer a particular question may be affected by their
knowledge of other questions.
• g. Others can influence the answers.
• With mailed questionnaires respondents may consult other people
before responding.
• In situations where an investigator wants to find out only the study
population's opinions, this method may be inappropriate, though
requesting respondents to express their own opinion may help.
• h. A response cannot be supplemented with other information.
• The information gathered by interviewing can sometimes be
supplemented with information from other methods of data
collection such as observation.
• However, a questionnaire lacks this advantage.
 Questionnaire Design…
Questionnaire Instructions
• Every questionnaire should contain clear instructions and
introductory comments where appropriate.
• It is useful to begin every self-administered questionnaire with
basic instructions for completing it.
• Begin by telling them exactly what you want:
– that they are to indicate their answers to certain questions by
placing a check mark or an X in the box beside the
appropriate answer or by writing in their answer when asked
to do so.
• If many open-ended questions are used, respondents should
receive some guidelines about whether brief or lengthy answers
are expected.
• If you wish to encourage your respondents to elaborate on their
responses to closed-ended questions, that should be noted.
• If a questionnaire has subsections (political attitudes, religious
attitudes, background data) introduce each with a short
statement concerning its content and purpose.
• For example, “In this section, we would like to know what
people consider the most important community problems.”
• Demographic items at the end of a self-administered
questionnaire might be introduced thus:
“Finally, we would like to know just a little about you so we
can see how different types of people feel about the issues we
have been examining.”
• Short introductions such as these help the respondent make
sense of the questionnaire.
• They make the questionnaire seem less chaotic, especially when
it taps a variety of data.
• And they help put the respondent in the proper frame of mind
for answering the questions.
 Questionnaire Design…
• Some questions may require special instructions to facilitate
proper answering.
• This is especially true if a given question varies from the general
instructions pertaining to the whole questionnaire.
– When more than one answer applies and still you want a
single answer, indicate this.
– When the respondent needs to rank-order a set of answer
categories, the instructions should indicate this.
– In multiple-part matrix questions, it is useful to give special
instructions unless the same format is used throughout the
questionnaire.
Types of Questions
• The way you formulate a question and the wording you use in
its framing are very important as they influence quality of
information you obtain from respondents.
• The wording and structure of questions should be clear,
succinct, appropriate, relevant and free from any of the
problems.
• There are two types of question commonly used in social
research:
– open-ended questions
– closed-ended questions
• Open-ended questions are questions where the respondent is
asked to provide his/her own answer to the question.
• For example, the respondent may be asked the following
question and provided with a space to write in the answer.
“What do you think is the most serious problem facing the Ethiopia
today?”
 Questionnaire Design…
• In an open-ended question, the possible response categories are
not provided in the research instrument.
• In the case of a questionnaire, the respondent writes down the
answers in his/her own words.
• In case of an interview schedule, the investigator records the
answers either verbatim or in a summary.
• In the case of closed-ended questions, the respondent is asked to
select an answer from among a list provided by the researcher.
• Closed-ended questions are quite popular in survey research
because
– they provide a greater uniformity of responses and
– they are more easily processed than open-ended ones
• In a closed-ended question, the possible answers are set out in the
questionnaire and the respondent ticks the answer.
• It is usually wise to provide a category ‘Other/please explain’ to
accommodate any response not listed.
• The construction of closed-ended questions should be guided by
two structural requirements.
• First, the response categories should be exhaustive.
• They should include all the possible responses that might be
expected.
• Often, researchers ensure this by adding a category such as
“Other (Please specify: ________).”
• Second, the answer categories must be mutually exclusive.
• This means the respondent should not feel compelled to select
more than one answer.
• To ensure that your categories are mutually exclusive, carefully
consider each combination of categories, asking yourself whether
a person could reasonably choose more than one answer.
 Questionnaire Design…
• When deciding whether to use open-ended or closed questions
to obtain information about a variable, visualize how you plan
to use the information generated.
• This is important because the way you frame your questions
determines the unit of measurement which could be used to
classify the responses.
• The unit of measurement in turn dictates
– what statistical procedures can be applied to the data and
– the way the information can be analyzed and displayed.
Figure 2 Example of close ended questions
• Let us take, as an example, the variable ‘income’.
• In closed questions, income can be qualitatively recorded in categories
such as ‘above average/average/below average’, or quantitatively in
categories such as ‘under $10,000/$10,000—$19,999/...’.
• Your choice of qualitative and quantitative categories affects the unit
of measurement for income, which in turn will affect the application of
statistical procedures.
• For example, you cannot calculate the average income from the
responses to question C(a); nor can you calculate the median or modal
category of income.
• From the responses to question C, you can accurately calculate the
modal category of income, but not the mean or the median income.
• From the responses to question C, where the income for a respondent
is recorded in exact dollars, the different descriptors of income can be
calculated very accurately.
• You can precisely calculate the mean, median or mode of income for a
given study group.
 Questionnaire Design…
• In closed questions, having developed categories, you cannot
change them.
• Therefore, you should be very certain about your categories
when developing them.
• If you ask an open-ended question, you can develop any number
of categories in any form at the time of analysis.

Figure 3 open-ended question

 Questionnaire Design…
Advantages and disadvantages of open-ended and close-ended
questions
• Both open-ended and closed questions have their advantages and
disadvantages in different situations.
• To some extent, their advantages and disadvantages depend upon
– whether they are being used in an interview or in a questionnaire
– whether they are being used to seek information about facts or
opinions
• As a rule, closed-ended questions are extremely useful for
eliciting factual information
• Open-ended questions are good for seeking opinions, attitudes and
perceptions.
• The choice should be made according to the purpose for which a
piece of information is to be used, the type of study population
from which information is to be obtained, the proposed format for
• Open-ended questions have the following advantages and
disadvantages:
– Open-ended questions provide in-depth information if used in an
interview by an experienced interviewer. In a questionnaire, open-
ended questions can provide a wealth of information. However,
analysis of open-ended questions is more difficult. The researcher
usually needs to go through another process — content analysis —
in order to classify the data.
– In a questionnaire, open-ended questions provide respondents with
the opportunity to express themselves freely, resulting in a greater
variety of information. Thus, respondents are not ‘conditioned’ by
having to select answers from a list. The disadvantage of free choice
is that, in a questionnaire, some respondents may not be able to
express themselves, and so information can be lost.
– As open-ended questions allow respondents to express themselves
freely, they virtually eliminate the possibility of investigator bias
(investigator bias is introduced through the response pattern
presented to respondents). On the other hand, there is a greater
chance of interviewer bias in open-ended questions.
• Close-ended questions have the following advantages and
disadvantages:
– One of the main disadvantages of closed questions is that the
information obtained through them lacks depth and variety.
– There is a greater possibility of investigator bias because the
researcher may list only the response patterns that s/he is
interested in or those that come to mind at the time of
developing the research instrument. Even if the category of
‘other’ is offered, most people will usually select from the list
of given responses, and so the findings may still reflect
researcher bias.
– In a questionnaire, the given response pattern for a question
could condition the thinking of respondents, and so the answers
provided may not truly reflect respondents’ opinions. Rather,
they may reflect the extent of agreement or disagreement with
the researcher's opinion or analysis of a situation.
– The ease of answering a ready-made list of responses may
create a tendency among some respondents and interviewers to
tick a category or categories without thinking through the issue.
 – Closed questions, because they provide ‘ready-made’ categories
within which respondents reply to the questions asked by the
researcher, help to ensure that the information needed by the
researcher is obtained and the responses are also easier to analyze.

Contingency Questions
• In questionnaires, certain questions will be relevant to some of the
respondents and irrelevant to others.
• In a study of birth control methods, you would probably not want to
ask men if they take birth control pills.
• This sort of situation often arises when researchers wish to ask a
series of questions about a certain topic.
• For example:
• you may want to ask whether your respondents belong to a
particular organization and, if so, how often they attend meetings,
whether they have held office in the organization, and so forth.
• you might want to ask whether respondents have heard anything
about a certain political issue and then learn the attitudes of those
who have heard of it.
 Questionnaire Design…
• Each subsequent question in series such as these is called a
contingency question.
• Whether it is to be asked and answered is contingent on
responses to the first question in the series.
• The proper use of contingency questions can facilitate the
respondents’ task in completing the questionnaire, because they
are not faced with trying to answer questions irrelevant to them.
 Questionnaire Design…
• There are several formats for contingency questions.
• The one shown in the figure above is probably the clearest and
most effective.
• The figure below shows another approach to deal with
contingency questions: giving instructions to jump some
question depending on the answer.
 Questionnaire Design…
Matrix Questions
• Quite often you will want to ask several questions that have the
same set of answer categories.
• This is typically the case whenever the Likert response
categories are used.
• In such cases, a matrix of items and answers is often possible, as
illustrated in the figure below.
 Questionnaire Design…
• This format offers several advantages over other formats.
• First, it uses space efficiently.
• Second, respondents will probably complete such a set of
questions more quickly than other formats would allow.
• In addition, this format may increase the comparability of
responses given to different questions, both for the respondent
as well as for the researcher.
• Because respondents can quickly review their answers to earlier
items in the set, they might choose between, say, “strongly
agree” and “agree” on a given statement by comparing the
strength of their agreement with their earlier responses.
 Questionnaire Design…
Formulating Effective Questions
• The way you ask a question determines the response that you
are likely to get from your respondents.
• Your output in terms of the responses and their quality depends
upon your input in terms of questions you ask of your
respondents.
• The wording and tone of your questions are therefore very
important.
• You should be very careful about the way you formulate
questions.
• The following are some suggestions and considerations to keep
in mind when formulating questions.
 Questionnaire Design…
a. Always use simple and everyday language.
• Your respondents may not be highly educated.
• And even if they are, they still may not know some of the
‘simple’ technical jargon that you are used to.
• Particularly in a questionnaire, take extra care to use words that
your respondents will understand as you have no opportunity to
explain the questions to them.
• A pretest should show you what is and what is not understood
by your respondents.
• For example:
Is anyone in your family a dipsomaniac?
• In this question, many respondents, even who are well educated,
will not understand ‘dipsomaniac’.
• Hence, they do not answer it or answer without understanding.
b. Do not use ambiguous questions.
• An ambiguous question contains more than one meaning and that
can be interpreted differently by different respondents.
• This will result in different answers, making it difficult to draw any
valid conclusions from the information.
• The following questions highlight the problem.

• In the survey, all women were asked this question.

– Those women who were not pregnant ticked ‘No’, meaning no
they were not pregnant
– Those who were pregnant and who ticked ‘No’ meant pregnancy
had not made their work difficult.
• The question has other ambiguities as well
– it does not specify the type of work and the stage of pregnancy.
 Questionnaire Design…
• Are you satisfied with your canteen?
• This question is also ambiguous as it does not ask respondents
to indicate the aspects of the canteen with which they may be
satisfied or dissatisfied.
• Is it with the service, the prices, the physical facilities, the
attitude of the staff or the quality of the meals?
• Respondents may have any one of these aspects in mind when
they answer the question.
• Or the question should have been worded differently — for
example, ‘Overall, are you satisfied with your canteen?’
 Questionnaire Design…
c. Do not ask double-barreled questions.
• A double-barreled question is a question within a question.
• The main problem with this type of question is that you don’t
know which particular question a respondent has answered.
• Some respondents may answer both parts of the question and
others may answer only one of them.
How often and how much time do you spend on each visit?
• This question has two parts: how often do you visit, and how
much time is spent on each visit?
• In this type of question, some respondents may answer the first
part, whereas others answer the second part and some both.
• This question is also ambiguous in that it does not specify ‘how
often‘ in terms of a period of time.
– ls it in a week, a fortnight, a month or a year?
 Questionnaire Design…
Does your department have a special recruitment policy for racial
minorities and women?
• This question asks respondents to indicate whether their office
has a special recruitment policy for two population groups:
racial minorities and women.
• A ‘yes’ response does not necessarily mean that the office has a
special recruitment policy for both groups.
d. Do not ask leading questions.
• A leading question is one which, by its contents, structure or
wording, leads a respondent to answer in a certain direction.
• Such questions are judgmental and lead respondents to answer
either positively or negatively.
 Questionnaire Design…
Unemployment is increasing, isn't it?
Smoking is bad, isn’t it?
• The first problem is that these are not questions but statements.
• Because the statements suggest that ‘unemployment is
increasing’ and ‘smoking is bad’, respondents may feel that to
disagree with them is to be in the wrong.
• This is especially true if they feel that the researcher is an
authority and that if she/he is saying that ‘unemployment is
increasing’ or ‘smoking is bad‘, it must be so.
• The feeling that there is a ‘right’ answer can ‘force’ people to
respond in a way that is contrary to their true position.
 Questionnaire Design…
e. Do not ask questions that are based on presumptions.
• In such questions, the researcher assumes that respondents fit
into a particular category and seeks information based upon that
assumption.
How many cigarettes do you smoke in a day?
What contraceptives do you use?
• Both these questions were asked without ascertaining whether
or not respondents were smokers or married.
• In situations like this it is important to ascertain first whether or
not a respondent fits into the category about which you are
enquiring.
 Questionnaire Design…
A Sample Questionnaire
• The figure below is part of a questionnaire used by the
University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center in its
General Social Survey.
• The questionnaire deals with people’s attitudes toward the
government and is designed to be self-administered, though
most of the survey is conducted in face-to-face interviews.
 Questionnaire Design…
Pretesting the Questionnaires
• Even after the researcher has proceeded along the lines suggested, the
draft questionnaire is a product evolved by one or two minds only.
• Until it has actually been used with respondents, it is impossible to say
whether it is going to achieve the desired results.
• For this reason, it is necessary to pre-test the questionnaire before it is
used in a full-scale survey, to identify any mistakes that need
correcting.
• The purpose of pretesting the questionnaire is to determine:
– whether the questions as they are worded will achieve the desired
results
– whether the questions have been placed in the best order
– whether the questions are understood by all classes of respondents
– whether additional or specifying questions are needed or whether
some questions should be eliminated
– whether the instructions to interviewers are adequate.
 Questionnaire Design…
• Usually a small number of respondents are selected for the pre-
test.
• The respondents selected for the pretest survey should be
broadly representative of the type of respondent to be
interviewed in the main survey.
• If the questionnaire has been subjected to a thorough pretest, the
final form of the questions and questionnaire will have evolved
into its final form.
• All that remains to be done is the mechanical process of laying
out and setting up the questionnaire in its final form.
• This will involve grouping and sequencing questions into an
appropriate order, numbering questions, and inserting
interviewer instructions.