Qualitative Testing of Questionnaires on Existential, Spiritual, and Religious Constructs: Epistemological Reflections

Abstract

Quantitative methodologies using questionnaires are widely utilised across the health and social sciences, including when assessing difficult-to-measure constructs such as existential, spiritual, or religious constructs. The validity of the questionnaire is crucial to secure good research. Qualitative methods are essential to assess the validity of questionnaires, including a range of measurement properties such as comprehensiveness, comprehensibility, and content validity—properties that quantitative measures have difficulty addressing. Cognitive and semi-structured interviews are the most common qualitative methods to evaluate these properties when testing questionnaires. However, the choice of interview method and subsequent analysis also reflects a negotiation between epistemologies, influencing how the data are interpreted and applied. Based on experience with cognitive and semi-structured interviews to test a questionnaire on existential, spiritual, and religious constructs, this paper critically discusses the opposing epistemological premises for cognitive and semi-structured interviews. It is a relevant methodological discussion for researchers working with questionnaires in health sciences, not the least in relation to religious studies broadly speaking.