A questionnaire is a kind of survey that scientists use to gather information from many people or groups in a cheap and efficient way (Furr & Bacharach, 2013). It’s a common tool in sports psychology. You can fill out a questionnaire in different ways: in person, on paper, on a computer, or on an adaptive computer program. The questionnaire has a list of questions with choices for answers. Some questions ask for specific information like gender, favorite sports team, or life events. Other questions can be combined to create a score or measure for things like social status, attitudes, or personality traits. A good questionnaire is reliable and valid, which means it follows certain quality standards. It uses clear statements that everyone can understand, avoids asking multiple things in one question, and doesn’t influence answers by how the questions are ordered. Questionnaires are a fast and cost-effective way to gather standardized data from many people, but they may not provide detailed information and could be influenced by social pressures or the way people tend to respond.
Furr, R. M., & Bacharach, V. R. (2013). Psychometrics: An introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
