Each round of the European Social Survey (ESS) fields two 'rotating' modules that focus on particular topics in depth. The survey is administered face to face (using CAPI or PAPI) in more than 20 countries. During the twenty-month module design process, a range of qualitative and quantitative pre-testing methods is employed.

In ESS Round 6, omnibus testing, cognitive interviewing and Survey Quality Predictor (SQP) coding were used to pre-test items taken from modules measuring personal and social well-being and understandings and evaluations of democracy. Omnibus testing was used to check distributions, item non-response and ordering effects; cognitive interviewing was used to explore how respondents understood the questions and SQP coding was used to predict the quality of the questions in terms of their validity and reliability. Following this early stage of pre-testing in a range of countries, the items were revised and subsequently fielded in a two-nation quantitative pilot.

This paper has two main purposes. Firstly, it will describe the three techniques employed to pre-test questions measuring well-being and democracy and report on the findings from each method using examples from selected questions. Secondly, it will reflect on whether the methods that were used to test the questions produced similar or different findings. Possible reasons to account for these will also be discussed.