A structured technique for data collection that consists of a series of questions, written or verbal, that a respondent answers.
Double-Barreled Question
A single question that attempts to cover two issues. Such questions can be confusing to respondents and results in ambiguous responses.
Filter Questions
An initial question in a questionnaire that screens potential respondents to ensure they meet the requirements of the sample.
Unstructured Questions
Open-ended questions that respondents answer in their own words.
Structured Questions
Questions that prespecifiy the set of response alternatives and the response format. A structured question could be multiple choice, dichotomous, or a scale.
Order or Position Bias
A respondent's tendency to check an alternative merely because it occupies a certain position or is listed in a certain order.
Dichotomous Question
A structured question with only two response alternatives such as yes or no.
Leading Question
A question that gives the respondent a clue as to what answer is desired or leads the respondent to answer in a certain way.
Acquiescence Bias (Yea-Saying)
This bias is the result of some respondents' tendency to agree with the direction of a leading question (yea-saying).
Implicit Alternatives
An alternative that is not explicitly expressed.
Classification Information
Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics used to classify respondents.
Identification Information
A type of information obtained in a questionnaire that includes name, postal address, email address, and phone numbers.
Funnel Approach
A strategy for ordering questions in a questionnaire in which the sequence starts with general questions that are followed by progressively specific questions in order to prevent specific questions from biasing general questions.
Branching Questions
Questions used to guide an interviewer through a survey by directing the interviewer to different spots on the questionnaire depending on the answers given.
Precoding
In questionnaire design, assigning a code to every conceivable response before data collection.