Be aware that a questionnaire may be viewed differently even inside the same cultural group because not everybody speaks (and understands) the same language. Present the questionnaire to university students and (same age group) carpenters or car mechanics, and it will be received differently, but university students in Switzerland, Morocco, and India may understand it in the same way.

There is alöso what is called "microethnography" for small scale studies

] I agree. But what are the reasons?

If the questionnaire is in the society's language (no language barrier), the factor of education stays ahead of two considerable variables of gender related issues, and the belief system. On the other hand, if the questionnaire appears to be in a different language, the linguistic familiarity (corralations & confidence) could be a precedence element over the education, gender, and religion.   

Your answer lies in your question...that  is cultural factors affects the response to particular question..!! lets see example if we ask question regarding health seeking behavior to three types of community ..Viz..Urban ..Rural and Tribal...then obviously the response given bu them will depend upon their Emic view which attributed to their own cultural norms and value...if same question like fever will be a big problem for Urban community and it may not be a problem for tribal or rural community...because of their own cultural beliefs and their socio-economic/environmental factors. 

in conclusion if we really want to capture the information of different culture ..we should not see the community as Etic but our approach should always be Emic..!!

Hello

U thunk that two factors may effect the study

First, the language. Even if the subjects know the language there may be misunderstanding of some phrases or notions 

Second- objectivity. Minor groups afraid to be stigmatize so they may answer questions in a special style. 

Hi there, 

Indubitably many factors and issues may influence questionnaires across cultures even when using the same language and in the same country. 

Suggest that you look at the work by Norman K. Denzin (1970 Research Act and later versions) and the work of many others.  Your question is addressed by many social disciplines including ethnography and sociology. It is a methodological issue. 

For example, just take the 3 major components in any social situation: actors, activities and place. All of the factors that can influence these can impact a questionnaire.  Social situations may be large and very complex like society in its broadest sense (macro-ethnography) to a single social situation (micro-ethnography). Spradley 1980 (Participant Observation) describes this very well.

Also the type of questionnaire used is at issue (open and closed responses). The more open ended the better .... then you can get the sense of what is actually mean in the response. 

I live and work in a multicultural society with at least 11 official languages. Add to that the varying literacy levels from very low to very high. Can you see the possibility of different interpretations? It is a really complex issue. . 

Finally, it really depends on if a questionnaire is really the correct data collection tool in multicultural situations. It also depends if  the research issue or question warrants this approach. Maybe there are other issues before this one to address.

Good luck! It looks like an exciting journey.

Everything, I'm afraid.

It doesn't help much, but It seems to me to be undeniable. 

Traditions, cultures and belief systems and the over all social developments of the society alter substantially the results. The statistical results are computed based on the answers given and the answers given are based on all the value systems I mentioned.

As a matter of fact, the worst scenario case is that some of the questions may not be even answered at all as they will be considered as either wired or have no social value and purpose at all in their value system and based on their depth of understanding, if it is a very traditional and less developed society.     

In my research I have found that, I may ask the same question to persons from different cultural groups, and the experiential baggage attached to any of the words, where that experience is different from group to group, or between individuals, you will get a different response. 

It is worthwhile to understand that major and minor discourses that drive the two cultures being investigated, and the major and minor discourses driving the lives of the respondents in the sample populations.     

In social research, a questionnaire can only tell you how wide and effect is: closer qualitative inquiry can tell you what it means.  

Dear Nader,

You may find this volume helpful in answering (and dealing with) your question:

Harkness, J. A., van de Vijver, F. J. R. & Mohler, P. P. (2002). Cross-Cultural Survey Methods. New York: Wiley.

Best,

Pradeep

Be aware that a questionnaire may be viewed differently even inside the same cultural group because not everybody speaks (and understands) the same language. Present the questionnaire to university students and (same age group) carpenters or car mechanics, and it will be received differently, but university students in Switzerland, Morocco, and India may understand it in the same way.

Another factor is language itself because language in any culture reflects that culture-- how they view people, the world, nature, etc. Thus, the very same question will be interpreted differently across different cultures.

It's possible to do the adaptation of Questionarys to different cultures. But is necesary to do a validation process, linguistic and cultural.  If you now some references I Could bring taht to yo by mail.

There are many factors that can affect the results of a questionnaire.  In my experience, the largest single factor that psychologists and others have failed to recognize is the differences in social class,  Most questionnaires seem to be aimed at the middle class.  Many of the terms used and ideas behind them are different than those of the working classl.    Even the gender and ethnicity of the interviewer can make a difference.  This can also apply in work with other cultural group.

It is advisable to do a pilot test of the questionnaire with an international sample to help reduce the likely hood of different interpretations of the questions. As stated above, many cultural factors (e.g., language and social class). Here's a short article I did that included cultural differences for international students:

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264347484_How_Much_Multimedia_Should_You_Add_to_PowerPoint_Slides_When_Teaching_Online?ev=prf_pub

Hope this helps!

Debra

Article How Much Multimedia Should You Add to PowerPoint Slides When...

Different people / respondents in different cultures might respond to the same survey questionnaire differently due to:

1) Different interpretation of the questionnaire due to different languages competency e.g. original questionnaire in English might interpret differently by Japanese respondents in which may be expert is required to translate those questionnaire to Japanese language.

2) Translation competency of the expert might also influence how respondents understand & interpret the questionnaire.

3) Different cultures might treat certain practices differently e.g. if the questionnaire is divided into few mini ethical cases, some cultures / countries' respondents might treat sending gifts to customer as unethical but in some countries this is an acceptable practice.

4) Some cultures might treat certain words used in questionnaire as offensive / rude whereas some cultures might perceive those words used are acceptable.

This anecdotal brief is an e.g.  Many years ago, I used a questionnaire that was designed to detect potential child abuse in those who work with children.  It was quite long with almost 200 items. Well, first of all, some researchers decided to use it with parents. Second, it was translated into Spanish.  The questionnaire designers had included items (supposedly) to detect dishonest responses, which they called a "lie test" using statistics. Well, using this questionnaires showed the Spanish-speaking respondents to be liars!  Many of the translated items and the so-called "lie-test" items did NOT translate, culturally.

Some of the factors which may affect the results of a questionnaire is language and norms governing individual interaction in the society/community where you want or intend to administer the tool. Language is very important and may include how the questions have been interpreted or asked. For example,  in some cultures a sentence may mean different thing based on how it is pronounced or asked. In some cultures, men have a big say in the household and dictates what can be revealed to 'strangers'

Language can be one of the most important reasons for creating misunderstanding. Even if they speak the same language. It can mean different in different cultures. For example The Family may mean only the father, mother and children in some culture. But in some other cultures it can include uncles, aunts and cousins.

When the meaning of the question itself is not uniformly understood the responses also would not be comparable.

Cultural categories may vary.  An anecdote:  many years ago, a researcher tried to administer a U.S.-designed sexual-satisfaction questionnaire to male Quechua-speakers in Peru--and failed at it because a key question was whether the subjects found their sex life satisfactory. There was no way to say "sex life" in Quechua, and sexual activity was not seen as a separate category of experience but simply as something one did as appropriate to age and circumstances.  The closest translation possible was "Do you like to rub with a woman?"--and they all did!

Previous answers cover many of the key factors.  Another minor consideration is when, when and how the questions are asked.  The mode effect (interviewer versus self-complete forms) has very large effects as we know from direct studies in follow-up post-enumeration surveys.  But as important is the environment of the questionnaire itself - on a paper form for example the questions immediately preceding the subject question condition the responses to the question - this can be shown by reversing the order of some questions - e.g. asking ancestry (or birthplace) before ethnicity rather than the other way around.  These effects are both culturally sensitive and (in the case of multi-lingual forms) prone to quite different outcomes in different languages.

It's fortunate that the results are different.

Cooperation with anthropologists and sociologists can help you understand the meaning of these differences.

Best wishes.

VB

Yes, but it may be a bit more complicated. Even when the differences are explained, discussed and understood,  the responses may not be what the researcher was looking at or looking for.  When a questionnaire is differently interpreted by the respondents than its purpose or intention, this could upset the entire project.  It is very important, as has been mentioned, to pretest it with the culture of the study and adjustments can be made to the questionnaire, so that it is culturally and linguistically appropriate.  And yes, with the  cooperation of anthropologists and sociologists.

Interesting responses!

Also, questionnaire responses are usually self-report data, therefore, the results would normally be based on how the respondent (s) perceived and interpreted specific questions according to their cultures, environment, and the knowledge of other cultures as well as several other factors.  

Unlike, independent assessment or interviews or observations, which may involve further probing and challenging some of the respondents’ responses, results from questionnaires are based only on the views of the respondent(s).

Hi Nader, this is a very interesting question

I find five basic factors:

• First the language. The translation of the questions may carry different meanings depending on the language that is to be used. It can mean something similar but very different sense of what the interviewer is looking for.
• Second the social context of the groups to be interviewed. Are those the same? Are they similar? Are the groups to be selected similar?
• Third, their socioeconomic conditions such as their mentality, gender, religion.
• Fourth, time. Are you going to apply the questionnaire, the same interview with the same conditions of time?
• And finally, the people who will implement the instruments, Do they have adaptability? Are the same people who are going to apply the interview or questionnaire in both contexts? Can they identify the variables in the field?

Best regards

La diversidad cultural es la que hace establecer distintas posiciones .En una investigacion  con varias sociedades,se podria intentar crear un cuestionario con aspectos basicos (cuestionario de minimos) y otro en el que  despues se realicen comparaciones,aunque siempre respetando precisamente esta diversidad cultural de las sociedades humanas .

One of the difficulties faced by scholars wishing to do cross cultural research has been the lack of equivalent measures. Often, researchers employ the most basic methods to ensure the equivalence of a translated measure—back translation. While this may ensure translation equivalence, it does not necessarily ensure that the translated and original measures perform in psychometrically equivalent ways. We used in our paper, Metric Equivalence of the Bidimensional Acculturation Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Self-Construal Scale across Spanish and English Language Versions,  the methodology described and presented by McCrae, Yik, Bond, and Paulhus (1998) to demonstrate scalar-equivalence for the questionnaires noted above.

There is definite influence of culture on output of questionnaire.The elements like language,tradition,ethics,manners, values can affect the response of the participants for a question taking reference from their own culture

I suggest you take a look at the GLOBE Study findings. The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program was originally conceived by the former Dr. Robert House of the University of Pennsylvania. This three phased, multi-year effort included the participation of individuals from 62 different national cultures accumulating in a large data set which can offer you some foundational thoughts on how to build out a questionnaire for any give culture you are researching.

House, R. J., Dorfman, P. W., de Luque, Mary F Sully, Javidan, M., & Hanges, P. J. (2013). Strategic leadership across cultures Sage.

House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., & Gupta, V. (2004). Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 cultures. Thousand Oaks,

Language is a huge barrier that can affect questionnaires and results. 

Lack of proper understanding of the questions

Debido a la diversidad cultural, y todo lo que la misma conlleva, cada cultura tiene una forma de pensar y expresarse, siendo esto lo que en verdad dificultad el resultado si se quiere hacer un cuestionario en diferentes culturas, se podría intentar diseñar un cuestionario básico para poder hacer un analisis de cada una de las culturas que se quieran concocer.

Gracias Saulo.