What this lesson teaches
I can choose a sampling method and collect primary data with questionnaires, interviews and mental maps.
Syllabus K226, Topic 1.3, Key Question 2. How to collect primary data?
I can judge the reliability and validity of an investigation and say how to improve it.
Syllabus K226, Topic 1.3, Key Question 3 (part). How to process and analyse data?
Make a guess
A survey asks, "Do you agree that our excellent park deserves more money?" What will this wording most likely do?
- Give a fair picture of what residents think.
- Make people more likely to say no.
- Make no difference, since people answer honestly.
- Push people towards saying yes.
Show the answer
Push people towards saying yes.
The word "excellent" invites agreement. A leading question tells you more about the wording than about people's real views.
Clear, neutral questions with answer options that do not overlap make responses easy to compare.
A good question asks one thing and does not push people towards an answer. "Is the park safe and clean?" asks two things at once. Asking whether "our excellent park" deserves more money is leading, because the word excellent invites agreement.
Closed questions give fixed, short answers, so responses are easy to compare. Choose the answer format that fits what you want to find out. A Likert scale asks how much you agree, from strongly disagree to strongly agree. A frequency scale asks how often something happened in a set period. A ranking asks people to put choices in order. It shows order, not how much more one is preferred.
Answer options should cover all realistic answers and must not overlap. For weekly visits, use 0, 1-2, 3-4 and 5 or more. The options 0-2 and 2-4 overlap, because both include 2.
Explain the purpose, offer "prefer not to say" where needed, and pilot the questions first with people like your target group to check they make sense.
- Leading question
- Pushes people towards an answer.
- Double-barrelled
- Asks two things at once.
- Likert scale
- Strongly disagree to strongly agree.
Step by step
Link to the variable
Ask only what helps answer your question.
Remove bias
Neutral words, one idea, a clear time period.
Pilot it
Check people understand the choices.
Worked example: Split a double question
Replace "Is the route safe and convenient?" with two statements: "I feel safe using this route in daylight" and "This route is a convenient way to reach the park." Now someone can say it is safe but inconvenient.
Watch out for this
Ranking first means twice as popular as ranking second.
Ranks show order, not size of preference. You need another measure for that.
Check your understanding
Which frequency scale avoids overlap?
- 0; 1-2; 3-4; 5 or more visits in the past seven days.
- Often; quite often; a lot, with no time period.
- 0-2 visits; 2-4; 4-6; 6 or more, in the past seven days.
Show the answer
0; 1-2; 3-4; 5 or more visits in the past seven days.
Yes. Each answer fits exactly one option.