When you ask people how often they have engaged in a given ...

[Hungry!]

When you ask people how often they have engaged in a given activity, what potential problems do you need to consider in how you word your question?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

How can you expand the number of relevant citations in a PsycINFO search?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[jharrington11]

Answer to Question 1

Do not ask for details of mundane activities that are beyond a person's ability to remember (e.g., How many people are usually in the library when you study there?).
If possible when you ask people how frequently they have engaged in a behavior, request the respondent to provide as specific a number as possible.
If you need to ask about specific periods of time, make sure that the respondent can accurately gauge behaviors in the time frame you specify.
Avoid questions that have vague quantifiers (e.g., rarely or sometimes); instead, use more specific quantifiers (e.g., twice a week).
Avoid questions that require overspecific quantifiers (e.g., How many times have you eaten at a restaurant in the past year?); instead give ranges (e.g., 0-1 times, 2-3 times, etc.).
Do not ask questions using words that might distract the respondent (e.g., offensive or inflammatory words).

Answer to Question 2

a. use a wild card added to the stem of the word (e.g., adopt to get adoptive, adoption, etc.)
b. use the PsycINFO thesaurus to identify broader terms
c. use the PsycINFO index to identify categories for searching