P.Mean: Don't write your own questionnaire (created 2012-10-04). News: Sign up for "The Monthly Mean," the newsletter that dares to call itself average, www.pmean.com/news.

Someone asked for general guidance on how to write your own questionnaire. I wrote a rather negative response.

I Short answer: don't do it!

Long answer: the research field is plagued with people who invent their own questionnaires of dubious validity. It weakens the individual research study, but even worse, it makes the process of meta-analysis next-to-impossible.

Before you invent your own questionnaire, see if there is something already out there that you can use. It may not be perfectly suited for your needs, but the meta-analysts of the world will thank you. If nothing is available, you're still better off if you borrow bits and pieces of someone else's questionnaire. The questions are "battle-tested" and are less likely to blow up in your face than something that you design yourself.

Did I dissuade you yet? No? You still want to design your own questionnaire? If you have to design your own questionnaire, there is an excellent book by Alreck and Settle, The Survey Research Handbook.

One last comment. Pilot testing is absolutely vital for a home-grown questionnaire.

This page was written by Steve Simon and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Need more information? I have a page with general help resources. You can also browse for pages similar to this one at Incomplete pages.