Hand Cards and Design

Question previous-question-# Computer Check DOES RESPONDENT CLAIM RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE?         (IS ANSWER TO A PREVOUS QUESTION = YES?) Default Next Question

The questions in this set may be asked if the respondent claims any religious preference in the response to some previous question, like the one shown inhe coding frame to the right, e.g., '"Do you claim any religious preference?" "Yes!"

The purpose of this exercise is to find out what the religious environment of the respondent is, then to tailor subsequent moral, ethical, and religious practice questions via textual substitutions to this particular environment.

The following design circumstances portray an actual problem that the designer might encounter when converting a pencil and paper survey to a CAPI survey. "Whether to use a Hand Card in the field or to design a series of question on-line that will gather the same information."

• The Hand Card is expedient, cuts down on interviewer time and on the number of questions used, but there is more chance for error when transferring an answer from a sheet into the computer; reading it correctly; finding the appropriate choice; etc.
• The CAPI solution reduces error to almost zero, but it involves more questions (both on-screen and machine checks) for the interviewer and the designer. If time or fatigue is a concern ...

The designer or design team must decide which solution is better for any given field situation.

The spectrum of some choices, e.g., religious preferences, can be quite extensive. One method of focusing in on extensive information is to use a list (or table). This list can be printed on a card and handed to the respondent. The respondent would then be asked to choose a response from the list and the interviewer would record that response. Usually, the interviewer would record the numeric equivalent of the respondent's answer. The figure on the right illustrates such a list called a "hand card". The numeric equivalences are to the left of the responses.

There are several disadvantages to a "hand card":

• It cannot conveniently be read to the respondent, therefore, the respondent must have the ability to read the card.
• Items in the middle of the list (or details) may tend to be ignored by the respondent.
• The interviewer may lose control of the flow of the interview while the respondent attempts to decipher the information on the list.
• The interviewer may tend to make mistakes when recording the response.
• The interviewer must carry extra "props" and this requires the interviewer to introduce the right prop at the right time.
• The Manager record does not document the question material which reverses one of the innovations (the question as a self-documenting item, i.e., meta-datum) of the OSU CAPI system.

 The design of the "hand card" follows traditional methodology of pencil and paper. At one time this was the best design, but with CAPI, convenient design of this question can overcome all of the "hand card" disadvantages.

In the OSU CAPI Manager program the design of this question could be managed in several ways.

• The "hand card" method could be retained and an Numeric Entry question type used to record the value of the response.
• The "hand card" method could be retained and a Text Entry used to record the textual verbatim of the response.
• The question could be designed as Text Entry that requires the respondent to supply the religious preference by "calling it to mind" and stating it to the interviewer. Depending on the orthodoxy of the response and the standards under which the "text" is recorded, difficulties may arise later on when an attempt is made to evaluate the response (was the text spelled correctly?) and skip accordingly.
• The list of choices could be "structured" to include the major religious divisions in the initial question and a value assigned to them. Then, according to the initial selection, branches to religious subdivisions could be made with focus on more detail within each subdivision until final determination is made. (The numerical divisions of the "hand card" already reflect this structure.)

The CAPI solution will use the last of the above choices, a 'structured design method' and illustrate the necessary question types to use.

The first question in the section on religion will determine if the respondent claims any religious preference. If not, it will not be necessary to ask for detailed religious information, but questions about values or moral practice might still be applicable.

The list of preferences and the skip patterns are detailed in the coding frame.

This design method has the following benefits over the "hand card":

• It allows the interviewer to read a short list of responses;
• It assures that the interviewer remains in control on the question flow; and
• It structures the respondent’s reply so that the focus of the instrument is maintained.

The Manager form of this question would look like the figure below.

The DCode (Pick List) field contains the name of the record that makes up the pick list of religious choices shown in the above coding frame.

Depending on the choice made from the list, the skips exhibited in the Cond. Jump fields can be quite detailed.

To view the DCode (Pick List) record, double click on the DCode (Pick List) field.

To create a DCode (Pick List) record on the fly,

• double click on DCode (Pick List) field;
• press the new record button 0n the navigation bar or the Pick List record;
• type in the necessary fields, making sure to give the DCode (Pick List) record a unique name.

The figure below illustrates the DCode (Pick List) record named in the DCode (Pick List) field.

Note the use of the sequential numbering scheme in the SeqNum field used to control the order of the choices that will be displayed in the pick list of the Survey program.

The correspondence between the values in the Value field and the sequential numbering is purely coincidental.

The Survey screen for this Select Option question type is displayed in the figure below.

The list of choices specified in the DCode (Pick List) field is displayed in the order of the sequential numbers. If the list were too long to be completely displayed, a scroll box would appear in the scroll bar.

 

Suppose the respondent declares a religious preference of Protestant in question Relg-1. (Value = 2.).

The instrument will then go on to focus on specific Protestant preferences by branching to question Relg-1Prot. The new list of choices would determine which Protestant preference the respondent had.

 

 

 

The Manager record for this question would look like the figure below.

The DCode (Pick List) field would contain the name of the pick list, the Cond. Jump field would contain the skip instructions depending on the value of the answer chosen from the pick list.

The window "Selection Option--Protestant Preference in Survey" displays the Select Option in the Survey program. The distribution code record specified in the DCode (Pick List) appears as a list.

Suppose the respondent declares a Protestant preference of Baptist in question Relg-1Prot. The instrument will then go on to focus on specific Baptist preferences by branching to question Relg-1Bapt.

This coding frame for the Select Option that would focus on the Baptist preference would look like the figure on the right.

 

 

The Manager record would look familiar with the customary selection option fields filled in.

Once the final detail of the religious preference has been determined, the instrument will branch to the next default question (Relg-2) in the instrument.

The Survey screen for this Select Option should now be familiar and look like the window in "Select Option -- Baptist Preference."

Following the focus on religious preference, the next set of religious questions will determine religious practice and beliefs, if applicable. Machine-operation question types will be introduced to control the flow of the instrument and select the religious questions to be asked.

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