Survey resources focus on what surveys are and how they are constructed but does not provide guidance on how or what to translate from literature review or other research inputs into a survey.
Are there any good literature on framing the "what" of surveys?
I suggest this source; it is discussed in several sections of this book.
Julie Pallant (2001) SPSS Survival Manual: a Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS for Windows. Open University Press.
I suggest that you don't bother with SPSS right now. You need to engage in a little qualitative research if you aren't sure what questions to put on a survey. Get a couple of focus groups together and find out from them what are the important questions. Draft your survey, then invite participants to complete the survey as an interview, talking about the questions and their thoughts while answering them.
I agree that there is remarkably little work on determining the actual content of survey items (as opposed to the large body of research about how to format those items, once they are written).
For better or worse, Ronan's advices about doing preliminary focus groups is about as good as it gets.
I would also check out the lit in your field and how well items have been tested. I made the mistake of assuming that published items are good ones - that is not always the case. Look for surveys that have been published with measures of statistical reliability and especially where the theory to method link is clear.
In addition to the focus groups, you may want to consider the following:
1. for demographic questions, use your country's census as a guide. These are tested and understood by the general public
2. have a survey expert give you feedback on your survey
3. use focus groups of experiential people (i.e., your target group) to provide comments on feedback in addition to 10-20 pilot tests
4. there might be good surveys in a parallel field--for instance, i'm doing work on service use among fracture patients--which has been greatly influenced by my work on the services needs of recently arrived immigrants--two very different research questions and populations--but both have 'needs'.
Good luck with your research.
I think Jonathan and Lori have given good insights. In addition to all that have been said, one good start point are the objectives of the study - they will sure guide the type of questions to ask.
Best.
What questions to ask in survey depends on the study itself, the topic, the participants.
of course the literature are the best source, but you can validate the suitablility of your questions by expert in the field, and by piloting it.
Ask yourself or your client: what decisions are going to be made on the basis of the answers to the questions? The questions should all add to helping make a decision, whether it is on a practical matter, e.g. should I put on produce this product or not, or in solving a research problem, e.g. is my hypothesis supported by the data? Build a logic model that traces the steps from the data to some action which is the reason for doing the research. Once you have determined the research questions, you can look at examples of actual questions to translate the research questions into actual questions you can ask real people.
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