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Designing Ethical Questionnaires

The document outlines the process of designing a questionnaire, emphasizing ethical considerations such as informed consent, the right to withdraw, and the importance of confidentiality. It highlights the need for methodological rigor to ensure reliability and validity, as well as the potential impact of sensitive questions on respondents. Overall, it stresses that respondents should be treated as active participants rather than passive data providers.

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johnnicholecesario0213
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4 views5 pages

Designing Ethical Questionnaires

The document outlines the process of designing a questionnaire, emphasizing ethical considerations such as informed consent, the right to withdraw, and the importance of confidentiality. It highlights the need for methodological rigor to ensure reliability and validity, as well as the potential impact of sensitive questions on respondents. Overall, it stresses that respondents should be treated as active participants rather than passive data providers.

Uploaded by

johnnicholecesario0213
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Methods of Data

Collection
Questionnaires
The chapter follows a sequence in designing a
questionnaire, thus:
 ethical issues
 planning the questionnaire
 types of questions
 avoiding pitfalls in question writing sequencing questions
and the layout of the
 questionnaire
 covering letters/sheets and follow-up letters
 piloting the questionnaire
 administering questionnaires
 processing questionnaire data
Ethical issues
The questionnaire will always be an intrusion into the
life of the respondent, be it in terms of time taken to
complete the instrument, the level of threat or
sensitivity of the questions, or the possible invasion of
privacy.
Questionnaire respondents are not passive data
providers for researchers; they are subjects not objects
of research.
Respondents cannot be coerced into completing a
questionnaire. They might be strongly encouraged, but
the decision whether to become involved and when
(and if) to withdraw from the research is entirely theirs.
Ethical issues
Their involvement in the research is likely to be a
function of:
 their informed consent;
 their rights to withdraw at any stage or not to
complete particular items in the questionnaire;
 the potential of the research to improve their
situation (the issue of beneficence)
 the guarantees that the research will not harm them
(the issue of non-maleficence)
 the guarantees of confidentiality, anonymity, and
non-traceability in the research;
 the degree of threat or sensitivity of the questions
(which may lead to respondents’ over-reporting or
Ethical issues
 factors in the questionnaire itself, for example, its
coverage of issues, its ability to catch what
respondents want to say rather than to promote the
researcher’s agenda, i.e. the avoidance of bias and
the assurance of validity and reliability in the
questionnaire – methodological rigour and fairness.
Methodological rigour is an ethical not simply a
technical matter, and respondents have a right to
expect reliability and validity; the
 reactions of the respondents. For example, they may
react strongly if they consider an item to be
offensive, intrusive, misleading, biased, misguided,
irritating, inconsiderate, impertinent or abstruse.

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