A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions or other types of prompts that aims to collect information from a respondent. It is a tool used to gather data from respondents about their attitudes, experiences, or opinions. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of close-ended questions and open-ended questions. Close-ended questions have a set of predefined answers, while open-ended questions allow the respondent to elaborate on their thoughts. Questionnaires can be used to collect both qualitative and quantitative information. They can be conducted online, by phone, on paper, or face-to-face, and questions don’t necessarily have to be administered with a researcher present.
Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of survey tools in that they are cheap, do not require as much effort from the questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data. However, such standardized answers may frustrate users as the possible answers may not accurately represent their desired responses.
Questionnaires can be an effective means of measuring the behavior, attitudes, preferences, opinions, and intentions of relatively large numbers of subjects more cheaply and quickly than other methods. They are commonly used in market research as well as in the social and health sciences.
