Title: Closed questions
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Survey Design

Closed questions

Closed questions are those which provide fixed responses. A number of alternative answers are provided and respondents must select from within the given range of answers. The key draw-back to closed questions is that they can potentially create false views if they do not provide an appropriate range of answers or if they push respondents into providing ‘acceptable’ answers. In addition, closed questions allow no room for qualified responses, meaning respondents’ actual views may not be captured.

It is therefore vital that closed questions are well developed and tested. To produce satisfactory closed questions, we must ensure that we provide a balanced range of answers. Essentially we want to ensure that we have an exhaustive and exclusive range of answers. In other words, the response categories cover all respondents and each respondent falls within one category. At the same time, however, we need to keep our response categories manageable. In circumstances where this balance can be achieved, closed questions have a number of key strengths. Firstly, they produce data that is easy to process as they are easier to code with pre-coding being possible. Secondly, closed questions are less time consuming for respondents to complete; therefore, where a questionnaire is long or where respondents are not particularly interested in completing it, it allows for quicker completion. Finally, closed questions do not require respondents to articulate responses and thereby do not discriminate against those who are incapable or unwilling to do so.

(Example: The chocolate producer 'Super' asks customers which of their flavours they like best.)