Open versus closed survey questions

Author / Creator

Antoun, Christopher, author

Available as

Online

Summary

A survey question can be designed to be open or closed. Open questions (or open-ended questions) permit respondents to answer in their own words, whereas closed questions (or closed-ended questions...

A survey question can be designed to be open or closed. Open questions (or open-ended questions) permit respondents to answer in their own words, whereas closed questions (or closed-ended questions) require respondents to select a response from a fixed set of options. One practical advantage of closed questions is that the answers obtained are automatically stored as numeric values; thus, they do not need to be coded into categories after the survey. It is also easier to program a computerized instrument to take action (e.g., display an error message, skip questions) based on a closed response than an open one. However, closed questions can be problematic from a measurement perspective if the predetermined categories are not exhaustive or if they influence respondents in unintended ways ...

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