Improving Survey Questions

Floyd J. Fowler, Jr. is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1966. A Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston since 1971, he was Director of the Center for 14 years. Dr. Fowler is the author or co-author of four textbooks on survey methods, including Survey Research Methods, Improving Survey Questions, Standardized Survey Interviewing (with Mangione), and Survey Methodology (with Groves, Couper, Lepkowski, et. al), as well as numerous research papers and monographs. His recent work has focused on studies of question design and evaluation techniques and applying survey methods to studies of medical care.

Although this book provides detailed guidance to students regarding development and validation of surveys, the concepts are probably too detailed for a Masters level dissertation. The price of the text is also rather high.

• Questions as MeasuresAn OverviewDesigning Questions to Gather Factual DataQuestions to Measure Subjective StatesSome General Rules for Designing Good Survey InstrumentsPresurvey Evaluation of QuestionsAssessing the Validity of Survey QuestionsQuestion Design and Evaluation Issues in Perspective