How to Ask Survey Questions

by Arlene Fink

This volume guides readers in determining a feasible number of survey questions, preparing appropriately worded questions for participants and standardizing the response choice. It also covers issues such as: how to understand a survey′s cultural, psychological, economic, and political context; how to ask questions about knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; how to avoid negative phrasing and biasing words; and how to distinguish among response formats that use nominal, ordinal, and numerical measurement.

120 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 1995

About the author

Arlene Fink (Ph.D.) is Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and president of the Langley Research Institute. Her main interests include evaluation and survey research and the conduct of research literature reviews as well as the evaluation of their quality. Dr. Fink has conducted scores of literature reviews and evaluation studies in public health, medicine, and education. She is on the faculty of UCLA's Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and is a scientific and evaluation advisor to UCLA's Gambling Studies and IMPACT (Improving Access, Counseling & Treatment for Californians with Prostate Cancer) programs. She consults nationally and internationally for agencies such as L'institut de Promotion del la Prevention Secondaire en Addictologie (IPPSA) in Paris, France, and Peninsula Health in Victoria, Australia. Professor Fink has taught and lectured extensively all over the world and is the author of over 135 peer-reviewed articles and 15 textbooks.