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Thisabstractwaspresentedatthesymposium“Traumaassessment2.0:Usingcustomized
computerappsinclinicalresearchandpraxis”attheXIIICongressofEuropeanSocietyof
TraumaticStressStudies(ESTSS)Conference,Bologna,Italy
AGENERICQUESTIONNAIREFRAMEWORKSUPPORTING
PSYCHOLOGICALSTUDIESWITHSMARTPHONETECHNOLOGIES
J.Schobel1,M.Ruf‐Leuschner2,R.Pryss1,M.Reichert1,M.Schickler1,M.Schauer2,R.Weierstall3,
D.Isele3,C.Nandi3andT.Elbert2
1–InstituteofDatabasesandInformationSystems,UniversityofUlm,Ulm,Germany;
2–DepartmentofPsychology,UniversityofKonstanz&vivointernational,Konstanz,Germany;
3–DepartmentofPsychology,UniversityofKonstanz,Konstanz,Germany
Manypsychologicalstudiesareperformedwithspecificallytailored ‘‘paper & pencil’’‐
questionnaires. Such a paper‐based approach usually results in a massive workload for
evaluatingandanalyzingthecollecteddataafterwards,e.g.,to transfer data to electronic
worksheets or any statistics software. To relieve researchers from such manual tasks and to
improve the efficiency of data collection processes, we realized smart device applications for
existingpsychologicalquestionnaires(e.g.,theKINDEX,PDS,orCAPSquestionnaire).
Basedontheseapplications,wewereabletodemonstratetheusefulnessofsmartdevices(e.g.,
smartphonesortablets)formobiledatacollectioninthecontext of psychological
questionnaires.Althoughtheimplementedapplicationsalreadyhaveshownseveraladvantages
inrespecttodatacollectionandanalysis,theyhavenotbeensuitableforpsychologicalstudiesin
thelargescaleyet,e.g.,duetothehighmaintenanceeffortsforthepsychologists.Moreprecisely,
changestoaquestionnaireoritsstructurestillmustbeaccomplishedbycomputer scientists,
sinceitsimplementationishard‐coded.
Whatisneededinsteadisaneasy‐to‐useandself‐explainingframeworkforcreating,running,
andevolving thequestionnairesof psychological studieson mobileandsmartdevices.In this
context,supportingthecompletequestionnairelifecycleisessential,i.e.,ITsupportforcreating,
using, evaluating, and archiving questionnaires is required to assist end‐users having no
programmingbackground.
Wepresentourgenericquestionnaireframework,whichencompassesthefollowingthreeparts:
a questionnaire configurator to create the questions and questionnaires, a way of integrating
mobiledevicestodeploy,runandlogquestionnaires,andamiddlewareenablingasecuredata
exchange.Finally, wediscusshow smartphone technology andmobile devices canbe used to
suitablysupportpsychologistsintheirdailyworkwithquestionnaires.Asmajorbenefitofthe
framework,betterdataquality,shorterevaluationcycles,andsignificantdecreasesinworkload
willresult.