I don't want to go into detail but would you use a questionnaire that hasn't been tested a great deal and that has been shown to be flawed (it's still in development) as a major part of your PhD? I was told by an academic to stick by the tried and tested and I'm inclined to agree but my supervisor wants me to use this questionnaire (IMO they have a vested interest).

No. I'm using questionnaires and validating a new question is such a big job I needed to use one that had already been through those stages. Some people make the development and validation process part of the PhD but if you don't want to do that - 'stick by the tried and tested'.

Tried and tested everytime.

You need to come up with a clear argument about why you will be using the validated questionnaire to convince your sup.

Good luck!

A

Many thanks for the replies which confirm my thoughts. I'd actually contacted my supervisor almost immediately and expressed my concerns and argued my case but haven't heard anything back yet. However, my supervisor seems reasonable and so hopefully things should work out.

I made up my own questionnaire, but based the questions on another one because I want to compare the results, but the original one(s) are not really suitable for mine because of the built in bias in the other ones, so I had to go it alone. I suppose it depends what your questions are for, if yours are, as you say, for a major part of your PhD, then it would just be another thing they could pick up at viva. Mine is just for a minor part and is supplemented with other info etc from different sources. If you have reservations, and can point to literature which proves your point, I think you could argue that you don't want to rely on a potentially flawed method - is there any chance you could use it for a minor part though, as a bit of a compromise? perhaps they could find some money for you to 'pilot' the questionnaire for them? - then perhaps you could write it up as a paper for a journal! :-)

Thanks Joyce. You hit the nail on the head. I made the point that I would only do what I felt comfortable with because it would be up to me to defend my work at Viva. I did offer a compromise and I hope my supervisor goes for it.