Chapter 10 Asking questions

Question 1

Open questions (definition)

Answer 1

Questions where respondents can reply however they wish

Question 2

Open questions (advantages)

Answer 2

• Allow unusual responses to be derived
• Respondents can answer in their own terms
• The questions do not suggest certain kinds of answers
• Useful for exploring new areas where one has limited knowledge

Question 3

Open questions (disadvantages)

Answer 3

• Time-consuming
• Have to be coded (Time-consuming)
• Require greater effort from respondents
• Variability between interviewers

Question 4

Closed questions (definition)

Answer 4

Questions where respondents are presented with a set of fixed alternatives from which they have to choose an appropriate answer

Question 5

Closed questions (advantages)

Answer 5

• Easy to process answers
• Comparability
• May help to clarify the meaning of the question
• Easy for interviewers and respondents to complete
• Reduce the possibility of variability in the recording of answers

Question 6

Closed questions (disadvantages)

Answer 6

• Loss of spontaneity in answers
• Difficult to make forced-choice answers mutually exclusive
• Difficult to make forced-choice answers exhaustive
• Options could be interpreted differently by different respondents

Question 7

General rules of thumb for designing questions (3)

Answer 7

• Always bear in mind your research questions
• What do you want to know?
• How would you answer it?

Question 8

Vignette questions (definition)

Answer 8

A type of question that present participants with a short scenario or story about a hypothetical situation. The purpose of vignettes is to elicit participants’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors related to a specific topic by providing a context that stimulates their thinking and reasoning.