About the Book

Questionnaires are the digging tools of social science. They are one of the principal means of finding out what people think about their world, what is their experience, their characteristics, their reported behaviour, their dispositions, their attitudes and their orientations to future action. Asking questions and getting answers is a difficult, complex and methodologically challenging task. This outstanding collection presents the ideas of leading authorities in the field to provide the researcher and student with a panoramic view of this area of social science research and provides a complete guide to the key methodological issues on the collection of social data by means of asking people questions. The volumes provide: * An overview of questionnaire measurement in social science * A review of different approaches to questionnaire construction * Discussion of problems of validity and measurement of theoretical concepts * Consideration of methodological problems involved in using the questionnaire method * The latest developments in Computer Assisted Survey Information Collection and its impact upon questionnaires Volume 1 is intended to provide an introduction to the use of questionnaires, to introduce principles of question construction, to show different types of questionnaire and exemplify its use as a digging tool for social science. Principles of social measurement are introduced and the relationship between expressed attitudes and social behaviour is raised. Volume 2 covers the principal types of questionnaire and attitude scale. It raises issues about question form, question wording, question order and how to broach sensitive subjects as well as covering the asking of questions in qualitative research, the use of vignettes and oral communication. Volume 3 is concerned with problems of validity, the extent to which researchers succeed in measuring what they want to measure, and the relationship between the tools which they use and the underlying theoretical constructs. It includes discussion on measurement problems, social interaction in the interview, the nature of verbal encounters, the effects of cultural context on communication and techniques for exploring the validity of responses.

Table of Contents:
VOLUME ONE Editor′s Introduction Questionnaires - An Overview PART ONE: ORIENTATION PART ONE: GENERAL Asking and Answering - David Reisman and Mark Benney Why Ask? - Jerry R Hobbs and Jane J Robinson What′s in a Question? - Jacob Shamir, Neta Ziskind and Shoshana Blum-Kulka A Content Analysis of Survey Questions The Formulation of Questions - Robert L Kahn and Charles F Cannell Interviews versus Questionnaires - Frank K Gibson and Brett W Hawkings Comparisons of Interviews with Questionnaires for Measuring Mothers′ Attitudes toward Sex and Aggression - Robert R Sears Effects of Questionnaire Design on the Quality of Survey Data - Maria Elena Sanchez Asking the Age Question - Robert A Peterson A Research Note Checks to Ensure that Questions Work as Intended - William Foddy SECTION TWO: OPEN AND CLOSED Who Left It Open? - Stanley L Payne A Description of the Free-Answer Question and its Demerits The Controversy Over Detailed Interviews - Paul F Lazarsfeld An Offer for Negotiation Strong Arguments and Weak Evidence - Jean M Converse The Open/Closed Questioning Controversy of the 1940s The Open and Closed Question - Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser Two Problems in the Use of the Open Question - Albert A Campbell Polling, Open Interviewing and the Problem of Interpretation - Angus Campbell SECTION THREE: OPINIONS AND ATTITUDES Attitudes versus Actions - Richard T LaPiere Problems in the Use of the Survey Questions to Measure Public Opinion - Howard Schuman and Jacqueline Scott The Meaning of Opinion - David Riesman and Nathan Glazer No Opinion, Don′t Know and Maybe No Answer - Leo Bogart SECTION FOUR: MEASUREMENT The Measurement of Social Attitudes - L L Thurstone Vague Quantifiers - Norman M Bradburn and Carrie Miles Teaching Data Collection in Social Survey Research - George W Brown How Comparative Is Comparative Research? - Roger Jowell The In-Depth Testing of Survey Questions - William Foddy A Critical Appraisal of Methods Bringing Partiality to Light - G[UM]un R Semin and Christianne J De Poot Question Wording and Choice as Indicators Of Bias VOLUME TWO PART TWO: QUESTION CONSTRUCTION Experimental Evidence on Question Design - Jean M Converse and Stanley Presser The Quintamensional Plan of Question Design - George Gallup Experiments in the Wording of Questions - Hadley Cantril and S S Wilks Does the Question Form Influence Public Opinion Poll Results? - Albert B Blankenship Consumer and Opinion Research - Sydney Roslow, Wallace H Wulfech and Philip G Corby Experimental Studies on the Form of the Question How Interviewer Effects Operate Through Question Form - Herbert Stember and Herbert Hyman The Effect of Question Order on Responses - Norman M Bradburn and William M Mason Effects of Question Order on Survey Responses - Sam G Mcfarland Question Order and Fair Play - Frederick O Lorenz, John Saltiel and Danny R Hoyt Evidence of Even-Handedness in Rural Surveys It Was Party Identification All Along - Anthony Heath and Roy Pierce Question Order Effects on Reports of Party Identification in Britain Question-Order Effects on Presidential Popularity - Lee Sigelman Measuring Levels of Party Identification - Ian McAllister and Martin P Wattenburg Does Question Order Matter? Measuring the Third-Person Effect of News - Vincent Price and David Tewksbury The Impact of Question Order, Contrast and Knowledge Impact of Question Order on Third-Person Effect - Michel Dupagne, Michael B Salwen and Bryant Paul Question Order Effects on Subjective Measures of Quality of Life - Fern K Willits and John Saltiel Part-Whole Question Order Effects - Fern K Willits and Bin Ke Views of Rurality Question Wording and Reports of Survey Results - Jon A Krosnick The Case of Louis Harris and Associates and Aetna Life and Casualty Question Wording and Public Support for Contra Aid, 1983-1986 - Brad Lockerbie and Stephen A Borrelli Wanted - Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann Rules for Wording Structured Questionnaires Symbols in Survey Questions - Joan Flynn Fee Solving the Problems of Multiple Word Meanings The Measurement of a Middle Position in Attitude Surveys - Stanley Presser and Howard Schuman The Effects of Offering a Middle Response Option with Opinion Questions - G Kalton, Julie Roberts and D Holt Experiments with the Middle Response Alternative in Survey Questions - George F Bishop Asking Comparative Questions - Michaela W[um]anke, Norbert Schwarz and Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann The Impact of the Direction of Comparison The Acquiescence Quagmire - Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser Measuring Attitudes - William Foddy VOLUME THREE PART THREE: METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES SECTION ONE: SENSITIVE QUESTIONS Asking the Embarrassing Question - Allen H Barton The Use of Leading Questions in Non-Schedule Interviews - Stephen A Richardson A Use for Leading Questions in Research Interviewing - Barbara Snell Dohrenwend and Stephen A Richardson How to Ask Questions about Drinking and Sex - Ed Blair, Seymour Sudman, Norman M Bradburn and Carol Stocking Response Effects in Measuring Consumer Behavior Reducing Refusal Rates in the Case of Threatening Questions - Hans-J Hippler and Gabriele Hippler The `Door-in-the-Face′ Technique Question Threat and Response Bias - Norman M Bradburn, Seymour Sudman, Ed Blair and Carol Stocking A Classification of Biased Questions - Eugene Litwak Asking Sensitive Questions on Surveys - Raymond M Lee SECTION TWO: FICTITIOUS QUESTIONS May We Presume? - Stanley L Payne A Lecture on Taking Too Much for Granted Opinions on Fictitious Issues - George F Bishop, Alfred J Tuchfarber and Robert W Oldendick The Pressure to Answer Survey Questions SECTION THREE: VARIOUS DESIGN ISSUES Context Effects on Survey Responses to Questions about Abortion - Howard Schuman, Stanley Presser and Jacob Ludwig The Effect of Response Categories on Questionnaire Answers - Todd H Rockwood, Roberta L Sangster and Don A Dillman Context and Mode Effects Political Information Processing - George F Bishop, Robert W Oldendick and Alfred J Tuchfaber Question Order and Context Effects Equivalence of Questionnaire Items with Varying Response Formats - David A Frisbie and Dale C Brandenburg Effects of Filter Questions in Public Opinion Surveys - George F Bishop, Robert W Oldendick and Alfred J Tuchfaber The Yes-No Question Answering System and Statement Verification - M Michael Akiyama, William F Brewer and Edward J Shoben Effects of Presenting One Versus Two Sides of an Issue in Survey Questions - George F Bishop, Robert W Oldendick and Alfred J Tuchfaber An Application of Rasch Analysis to Questionnaire Design - Elizabeth A Martin, Pamela C Campanelli and Robert E Fay Using Vignettes to Study the Meaning of `Work′ in the Current Population Survey Testimony Validity as a Function of Question Form, Atmosphere and Item Difficulty - Kent H Marquis, Jean Marshall and Stuart Oskamp Attitudes and Non-Attitudes - Philip E Converse Continuation of a Dialogue PART FOUR: VALIDITY Fixed-Choice Questionnaires - Aaron V Cicourel Learning How To Ask - Charles L Briggs Native Metacommunicative Competence and the Incompetence of Fieldworkers Validity of Responses to Survey Questions - Hugh J Parry and Helen M Crossley Has Racism Declined in America? It Depends on Who Is Asking and What Is Asked - John B McConahay, Betty B Hardee and Valerie Batts The Random Probe - Howard Schuman A Technique for Evaluating the Validity of Closed Questions VOLUME FOUR PART ONE: SURVEYS IN THE WORLD Data Construction - Nicholas Bateson Basic Concepts SECTION ONE: MEMORY AND RECALL The Limitations of Human Memory - Alan Baddeley Implications for the Design of Retrospective Surveys Retrospective Data in Survey Research - Peter Meneer The Retrospective Question - Raymond Fink Leading Questions and the Eye Witness Report - Elizabeth F Loftus Since the Eruption of Mount St Helens, Has Anyone Beaten You Up? Improving the Accuracy of Retrospective Reports with Landmark Events - Elizabeth F Loftus and Wesley Marburger My Memory - William A Wagenaar A Study of Autobiographical Memory Over Six Years SECTION TWO: STRIVING TO IMPROVE QUESTIONS AND QUESTIONNAIRES Predicting Test-Retest Reliability From Behavior Coding - Jennifer Hess, Eleanor Singer and John Bushery Latent Class Analysis of Survey Questions That Include Don′t Know Responses - Lawrence F Feick Monitoring Maternity Services by Postal Questionnaire - Claudia J Martin Congruity Between Mothers′ Reports and their Obstetric Records New Quantitative Techniques for Pretesting Survey Questions - Charles Cannell, Floyd J Fowler, Graham Kalton, Lois Oksenberg and Katherine Bischoping Pretesting in Questionnaire Design - Nina Reynolds, Adamantios Diamantopoulos and Bodo Schlegelmilch A Review of the Literature and Suggestions for Further Research An Empirical Evaluation of In-Depth Probes Used To Pretest Survey Questions - William Foddy Improving Coding Reliability for Open-Ended Questions - Andrew C Montgomery and Kathleen S Crittenden SECTION THREE: GRAPPLING WITH QUESTION DESIGN IN THE REAL WORLD Diagnostics for Redesigning Survey Questionnaires - Elizabeth Martin and Anne E Polivka Measuring Work in the Current Population Survey Measurement in Subjective Health Assessment - Crispin Jenkinson, Martin Bardsley and Kate Lawrence Themes and Prospects Analysing Drug Abuse with British Crime Survey Data - Ziggy MacDonald and Stephen Pudney Modelling and Questionnaire Design Issues SECTION FOUR: NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN A CHANGING WORLD Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing in Survey Research - Jean Martin and Tony Manners Technological Innovations in Data Collection - Edith de Leeuw and William Nicholls II Acceptance, Data Quality and Costs Web Survey Design and Administration - Mick P Couper, Michael W Traugott and Mark J Lamias Navigating the Rapids of Change - Don A Dillman Some Observations on Survey Methodology in the Early Twenty First Century