Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

SURVEY RESEARCH

Each question form has advantages and disadvan-
tages (see Table 3). The crucial issue is not which
form is better, but which form is most appropriate
for a specific situation. Your choice of an open- or
closed-ended question depends on the purpose and
the practical limits of a study. The demands of
using open-ended questions requiring interviewers
to write verbatim answers followed by time-con-

suming coding may make them impractical for

many studies.

We use closed-ended questions in large-scale

surveys because they are faster and easier for both

respondents and researchers, yet we can lose some-

thing important whenever we force an individual’s

beliefs and feelings into a few fixed, predetermined

categories. To learn how a respondent thinks and

discover what is important to him or her or for ques-

tions with numerous answer categories (e.g., age),

open questions are best.

You can reduce the disadvantages of a ques-

tion format by mixing open-ended and closed-

ended questions in a questionnaire. Mixing them

also offers a change of pace and helps interviewers

establish rapport. Periodic probes (i.e., follow-up

questions by interviewers, discussed later) with

closed-ended questions can reveal a respondent’s

reasoning. Having interviewers periodically use

probes to ask about a respondent’s thinking can

check on whether the respondent understands the

questions as you intended. However, probes are not

substitutes for writing clear questions or creating a

framework of understanding for the respondent.

Unless carefully stated, probes might influence a

respondent’s answers or obtain answers for respon-

dents who have no opinion, yet flexible or con-

versational interviewing (discussed later in this

chapter) encourages many probes. For example, to

the question “Did you do any work for money last

week?” a respondent might hesitate and then reply,

“Yes.” An interviewer probes, “Could you tell me

exactly what work you did?” The respondent may

reply “On Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent a cou-

ple of hours helping my buddy John move into his

new apartment. For that he gave me $40, but I

didn’t have any other job or get paid for doing

anything else.”If your intention is to get reports of

only regular employment, the probe revealed a

misunderstanding. We also use partially open ques-

tions(i.e., a set of fixed choices with a final open

choice of “other”), which allows respondents to offer

an answer other than one of the fixed choices.

A total reliance on closed questions can dis-

tort results. For example, a study compared open

and closed versions of the question “What is the

major problem facing the nation?” Respondents

EXPANSION BOX 5

Example of a Contingency Question

QUESTION VERSION 1(NOT CONTINGENCY
QUESTION)
In the past year, how often have you used a seat belt
when you have ridden in the backseat of a car?

QUESTION VERSION 2(CONTINGENCY
QUESTION)
In the past, have you ridden in the backseat of a car?

No [Skip to next question]

Yes →When you rode in the backseat, how often did

you use a seat belt?

Partially open question A type of survey research

enquiry in which respondents are given a fixed set of

answers to choose from, but the addition an “other”

category is offered so that they can specify a different

answer.

Results Always Use Never Use

Version 1 30% 24%
Version 2 42 4

During pilot testing, researchers learned that
many respondents who answered “never” to Version
1 did not ride in the backseat of a car. Version 1 cre-
ated ambiguity because respondents who never rode
in the backseat plus those who rode there but did not
use a seat belt both answered “Never.” Version 2
using a contingency question format clarified the
question.

Source:Adapted from Presser, Evaluating Survey Question-
naires,Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. (2004). Reprinted by permission of
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.