The AsiaBarometer Survey questionnaire of 2006 focuses on the daily lives of ordinary people in Asia. The idea behind this project is that without knowing at least some aspects of people's daily lives, it would be less productive to register the array of social scientist's concerns about their norms, values, identities, beliefs, and their relationships to societal and political action. Furthermore, in order to carry out any comparative and cross-national analysis in Asia, the questions must be able to be answered in the first place. Such topics as economic conditions, political institutions, and public policy do not constitute the core of their life. To ordinary people, matters of daily life are more important and easier to answer than those questions that the scientists are interested in. Asia is a region of full of diversity and is changing fast. There is no other region in the world that is more diverse and fast changing. By looking at the daily lives of ordinary people we are able to perceive and assess ordinary people's concerns, including in relationship to the larger social entities such as patriotism and confidence in government performance (Inoguchi, Reference Inoguchi2004).
The AsiaBarometer project strives to follow four guiding principles in formulating the questionnaire (Inoguchi, Reference Inoguchi2005). These principles are: (1) unobtrusiveness, (2) clarity and concreteness, (3) cultural and linguistic sensitivity, and (4) formulation of the questionnaire with the support of local experts.
1. Unobtrusiveness – Survey research is inherently obtrusive. It attempts to penetrate the minds of people. It sometimes asks questions that many people do not like to be asked. Minimizing obtrusiveness should be a fundamental principle when undertaking cross-cultural survey research in such a diverse region as Asia.
2. Clarity and concreteness – Social scientists tend to use technical jargon when discussing abstract and often vague concepts. This vocabulary should be used minimally. We must reach out to the minds of people. Therefore, we must be utterly plain and clear. One of the inherent difficulties of cross-national survey research is that in an effort to ask the same questions in as many nations as possible, some questions violate this principle.
3. Cultural and linguistic sensitivity – In North America and Western Europe as well as in the Indo-European language speaking areas, this is not so much a problem as it is in Asia. Nor is it a critically difficult problem in Latin America and Africa, thanks in part to the influence of colonial heritage. In Asia it is. We must appreciate this cultural and linguistic distinction. Out of the five largest religions including Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Confucianism each have the largest number of believers in Asia. Linguistic diversity is immense, sometimes even in one nation. The problem is aggravated at times by peculiarities of English language.
4. Formulation of the questionnaire with the support of local experts – The participation of local experts from each country is very important, for they can help finely tune questions that will help identify local realities. Such exercises are carried out during annual workshops. Not only are country profile analysis and cross-cultural analysis placed on the table each year, but also the questionnaire is meticulously revised as we eye the AsiaBarometer for the following year. The thrust of a question may not be fully or accurately translated into local languages until culturally and linguistically proficient experts offer critical feedback into this process.
With these principles in mind, the questionnaire can be sorted into nine clusters: (1) social infrastructure, (2) patterns of economic life, (3) patterns of daily life, (4) values and norms in daily life, (5) values and norms associated with social behavior, (6) identities, (7) views on social and political issues and institutions, (8) health conditions, and (9) sociological attributes of respondents. These questions require roughly 45–60 minutes to be completed. These questions constitute the common core of the questionnaire. They do not vary much across years or across the countries surveyed. Each year some questions are dropped, whereas other questions are brought in. The common core questions are all in English but local languages are used in the face-to-face interviews.Footnote 1 The comparability of questionnaire is assured, although the numbers attached to the questions sometimes differ from year to year.
Here is an attempt to classify questions into the above categories, using the questionnaire of the 2006 survey. See the appendix that follows for the actual wording of the questionnaire.
(1) Social infrastructure: This category consists of the questions about public utilities the respondents’ households have (Q1) and the kinds of residence the respondents reside in (Q42).
(2) Patterns of economic life: The questions in this category are about how frequently the respondents use the Internet and mobile phones (Q2), view Internet web pages (Q2-1), send or receive e-mails by computers (Q2-2), and send or receive messages by mobile phones (Q2-3). Question 3 asks how internationally the respondents lead their economic and daily lives. Another question is about one's income in case the main breadwinner becomes unable to work (Q16). Question 35 asks the respondents how they shape opinions about social and political issues and what kind of media influences their opinions.
(3) Patterns of daily life: Questions 2 and 3 in the previous category also belong to this category. Another question asks how often the respondents pray or meditate (Q23). The other kind of question is about diet. Question 40 is about the eating patterns for breakfast and the evening meals, and question 41 asks for favorite foods of the respondents.
(4) Values and norms in daily life: The questions in this category are about happiness in general (Q4), happiness about the respondents’ life (Q5), satisfaction in general (Q6), and satisfaction regarding social, economic, and daily aspects of the respondents’ life (Q7). Another question inquires about the standard of living (Q8). Question 9 is about values that the respondents have in terms of several areas on daily life, social, economic, and environmental aspects and conditions. Another kind of question is about children and education. Question 10 asks what the respondents wish their children to be in the future. Question 14 asks whether the respondents would adopt a child in order to continue their family line. And question 44 asks the respondents about the qualities that their children are encouraged to learn at home. Question 46 is about the sentiments of the respondents regarding the development of technology and the respect for traditional authority. Question 48 asks the respondents whether they think many things happen for no particular reason at all or if everything happens for a reason. The last kind of question in this category asks the respondents if they believe in an unseen spiritual world that can influence events in the world (Q49).
(5) Values and norms associated with social behavior: Question 7 regarding satisfaction and question 9 concerning values also belong to this category. Other kinds of question belong to this category are about sense of trust in general (Q11, Q12) and sense of community (Q13). Question 15 is about trust for the relatives of the respondents. Question 16 in the second category is also about trust for community. Question 37 inquires about attitudes toward authorities and corruption. Another kind of question is about the values the respondents have in terms of the involvement of religion in social events such as weddings and festivals. Question 45 asks the respondents about values regarding human rights. Another question asks the respondents about political attitudes for certain political actions (Q47). Question 50 asks about the respondents’ opinions on corruption, homosexuality, and abortion. Questions 46, 48, and 49 from the previous category also fall into this category.
(6) Identities: The questions belonging to this category are about national identity (Q17) and pride in their own nationality (Q18). Question 20 asks the respondents if they can recite the national anthem by heart. Question 19 asks the respondents about the identity of another transnational group or regional group, such as Asia, ethnicity, language, and religion. The other type of identity is asked in question 21, which is about social circles or groups such as family, relatives, place of work, political party, and religious group.
(7) Views on social and political issues and institutions: Those questions that fall into this category are about the respondents’ perceptions regarding the influence of other countries on their own country (Q26) and domestic and international problems such as terrorism, crime, and economic recession (Q25). Another question that falls into this category asks about respondents’ sentiments on the types of political systems that govern such as autocracy, military government, and domestic political system (Q38). Another kind of question inquires about how respondents consider social issues, such as inequality (Q22, Q27, Q25), and education (Q28). The question as to how strongly respondents trust their central and local governments, the legal system, the political party, the public education system, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations also falls into this category (Q29). Questions 33 and 34 ask about the voting behavior and the political attitudes toward elections, respectively. Question 39 is about the respondents’ satisfaction regarding political issues. Question 30 asks the respondents about what kinds of policy they prefer to be decided by domestic governments and international institutions such as ASEAN and the United Nations. The last kind of question in this category asks the respondents how well they think the national government deals with such problems as corruption, crime, the economy, environment (Q31), and how they consider spending policies and economic policies set by the government (Q32, Q36).
(8) Health conditions: Question 7 asks the respondents if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with their health condition. Question 9 asks if health is important to them. Question 7 concerning satisfaction and question 9 regarding values also belong to the fourth and fifth categories. Question 25 asks the respondents if health issues cause them great worry. Question 32, on the other hand, asks whether respondents would like their government to increase spending on health. Questions 25 and 32 also fall into the seventh category. Q43-3 inquires about how many members of their family need special care due to illness.
(9) Sociological attributes of respondents: The questions that fall into this category are about the number of members in the family (Q43-1) and about the family structure of the respondents (Q43-2).
Finally, the background information about the respondents such as age, gender, income, marital status, English proficiency, and occupation are asked in questions F1 to F9.
