Behavior_coding
Behavior coding
Behavior coding, or behavioral coding, is a research method for evaluating questionnaire design and survey interviewer performance and interaction.
Behavior coding has three main uses:[1][2]
- Pretesting to assess respondent cognitive processing of survey questions
- Detection of problematic survey interviewer behaviors
- Interaction analysis to study how interviewer and respondent interact
Standardized codes are assigned to overt interviewer and/or respondent behaviors during the question and answer sequence in the survey interview, such as when the respondent asks for clarifications.[3][4] The coding scheme is developed based on the research objective, but usually includes data collection-related variables such as question wording and interviewer styles.[5] The coding is done using audio recordings of the interview, written transcripts of audio recordings, or via automated text analysis. Live interview coding is less practiced.[3]