Two experiments compare simpler with more complex response categories in a telephone survey. The first experiment develops a method for predicting the effects of changing modifiers in labels for response categories. The experiment compares two response scales for rating the friendliness of parent-parent and parent-child relationships. The second experiment examines a flexible, self-documenting, procedure for recording answers to open questions about the frequency of events by comparing this procedure to a closed-frequency question. The open format for recording the frequency of events preserves more information about contact patterns than the closed question. Data are from 400–500 parents who participated in the Wisconsin Survey of Children, Income, and Program Participation, a random-digit-dialing household survey conducted in the spring of 1985.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlwinDuane F.1989. “Problems in the Estimation and Interpretation of the Reliability of Survey Data.”Quality and Quantity23: 277–331
2.
AlwinDuane F.KrosnickJon A., 1989. “The Reliability of Attitudinal Survey Data: The Impact of Question and Respondent Characteristics.” Paper presented at the May 1989 annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. St. Petersburg, Florida
3.
American National Election Study. 1984. American National Election Study, 1984: Appendix: Notes and Questionnaire. Conducted by the Center for Political Studies of the Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan and the National Election Studies, under the overall direction of MillerWarren E. 2nd ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
4.
AndrewsFrank M.1984. “Construct Validity and Error Components of Survey Measures: A Structural Modeling Approach.”Public Opinion Quarterly48: 409–442
5.
BabbieEarl. 1973. Survey Research Methods. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
6.
BachmanJerald G.O'MalleyPatrick M.1981. “When Four Months Equal A Year: Inconsistencies in Student Reports of Drug Use.”Public Opinion Quarterly45: 536–548
7.
BassBernard M.1968. “How to Succeed in Business According to Business Students and Managers.”Journal of Applied Psychology52: 254–262
8.
BassBernard M.CascioWayne F.O'ConnorEdward J.1974. “Magnitude Estimation of Expressions of Frequency and Amount.”Journal of Applied Psychology59: 313–320
9.
BendigA. W.1953. “The Reliability of Self-Ratings as a Function of the Amount of Verbal Anchoring and of the Number of Categories on the Scale.”Journal of Applied Psychology37: 38–41
10.
BlairEdward. 1982. “Comment on ‘When Four Months Equal a Year.’”Public Opinion Quarterly46: 288–290
11.
BlairEdwardBurtonScot. 1987. “Cognitive Processes Used by Survey Respondents to Answer Behavioral Frequency Questions.”Journal of Consumer Research14: 280–288
12.
BlairEdwardBurtonScot. 1986. “Processes Used in the Formulation of Behavioral Frequency Reports in Surveys.”American Statistical Association 1986 Proceedings of the Section on Survey Research Methods. Washington, DC: American Statistical Association
13.
BlairEdwardSudmanSeymourBradburnNorman M.StockingCarol. 1977. “How to Ask Questions About Drinking and Sex: Response Effects in Measuring Consumer Behavior.”Journal of Marketing Research14: 316–321
14.
BradburnNorman M.1983. “Response Effects.” Pp. 289–329 in Handbook of Survey Research, edited by RossiPeter H.WrightJames D.AndersonAndy B., Orlando, FL: Academic
BradburnNorman M.SudmanSeymourand Associates1979. Improving Interview Method and Questionnaire Design. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
17.
ChaseClinton I.1969. “Often is Where You Find It.”American Psychologist24: 1043
18.
CliffNorman. 1959. “Adverbs as Multipliers.”Psychological Review66: 27–44
19.
ConverseJean M.PresserStanley. 1986. Survey Questions: Handcrafting the Standardized Questionnaire. Sage University Paper series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, series no. 07–063. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications
20.
DavisJames A.1989. General Social Survey 1980: Questionnaire. Principal Investigator, DavisJames A.; Associate Study Director, SmithTom W. NORC ed. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center (producer)
21.
DohrenwendBarbara S.1965. “Some Effects of Open and Closed Questions on Respondents' Answers.”Human Organization24: 175–184
22.
FinnR. H.1972. “Effects of Some Variations in Rating Scale Characteristics on the Means and Reliabilities of Ratings.”Educational and Psychological Measurement32: 255–265
23.
FreedmanDeborahThorntonArlandCamburnDonaldAlwinDuane F.Young-DeMarcoLinda1988. “The Life History Calendar: A Technique for Collecting Retrospective Data.” Pp. 37–68 in Sociological Methodology, edited by CloggClifford C., Washington, DC: American Sociological Association
24.
FurstenbergFrank F.MorganS. PhilipAllisonPaul D., 1987. “Paternal Participation and Children's Well-Being After Marital Dissolution.”American Sociological Review52: 695–701
25.
GeerJohn G.1988. “What Do Open-Ended Questions Measure?”Public Opinion Quarterly52: 365–371
26.
Institute for Survey Research, Temple University. 1987. National Survey of Families and Households. Study 540-381-01. Larry Bumpass and James Sweet, Principal Investigators. Philadelphia, PA: Institute for Survey Research, Temple University
27.
JonesCalvinSheatsleyPaul B.StinchcombeArthur L., 1979. Dakota Farmers and Ranchers Evaluate Crop and Livestock Surveys. NORC Report No. 128. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center
28.
JonesLyle V.ThurstoneL. L.1955. “The Psychophysics of Semantics: An Experimental Investigation.”Journal of Applied Psychology39: 31–36
29.
KaneEmilySchumanHoward. 1991 (forthcoming). “Open Survey Questions as Measures of Personal Concern with Issues: A Reanalysis of Stouffer's Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties.” Pp. 81–96 in Sociological Methodology 1991, edited by MarsdenPeter. Oxford: Basil
30.
KrosnickJon A.BerentMatthew K., 1990. “The Impact of Verbal Labeling of Response Alternatives on Attitude Measurement Reliability in Surveys.” Unpublished manuscript. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
LodgeMiltonCrossDavidTurskyBernardTannenhausJosephReederRichard. 1976. “The Psychophysical Scaling of Political Support in the ‘Real World.’”Political Methodology3: 159–182
33.
MacDonaldMaurice. 1986. “Objectives, Procedures, and Sampling Results for CHIPPS.” Unpublished manuscript. Madison, Wisconsin: Institute for Research on Poverty.
34.
MaddenJoseph M.1960. “A Comparison of Three Methods of Rating Scale Construction.” USAF WADD Personnel Laboratory Technical Note, No. 60–262
35.
MaddenJoseph M.BourdonRoger D., 1964. “Effects of Variations in Rating Scale Format on Judgment.”Journal of Applied Psychology48: 147–151
36.
MangenDavid J.MillerRichard B., 1988. “Measuring Intergenerational Contact in the Family.” Pp. 98–125 in Measurement of Intergenerational Relations, edited by MangenDavid J.BengtsonVern L.LandryPierre H.Jr.Newbury Park: Sage
37.
MosierCharles I.1941. “A Psychometric Study of Meaning.”Journal of Social Psychology13: 123–140
38.
PetersDavid L.McCormickEarnest J., 1966. “Comparative Reliability of Numerically Anchored versus Job-Task Anchored Rating Scales.”Journal of Applied Psychology50: 92–96
39.
PohlNorval F.1981. “Scale Considerations in Using Vague Quantifiers.”Journal of Experimental Education49: 235–240
40.
SchaefferNora Cate. 1989. “The Frequency and Intensity of Parental Conflict: Choosing Response Dimensions.”Journal of Marriage and the Family51: 759–766
41.
SchaefferNora Cate. 1991. “Hardly Ever or Constantly: Group Comparisons Using Vague Quantifiers.”Public Opinion Quarterly, forthcoming
42.
SchaefferNora CateBradburnNorman M., 1989. “Respondent Behavior in Magnitude Estimation.”Journal of the American Statistical Association84: 402–413
43.
SchriesheimChester A.SchriesheimJanet F., 1978. “The Invariance of Anchor Points Obtained by Magnitude Estimation and Pair-Comparison Treatment of Complete Ranks Scaling Procedures: An Empirical Comparison and Implications for Validity of Measurement.”Educational and Psychological Measurement38: 977–983
44.
SchumanHowardPresserStanley. 1981. Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys: Experiments on Question Form, Wording, and Context. Orlando, FL: Academic
45.
SchumanHowardScottJacqueline. 1987. “Problems in the Use of Survey Questions to Measure Public Opinion.”Science236: 957–959
46.
SchwarzNorbert. 1990. “Assessing Frequency Reports of Mundane Behaviors: Contributions of Cognitive Psychology to Questionnaire Construction.” Pp. 98–119 in Research Methods in Personality and Social Psychology, edited by HendrickClydeClarkMargaret S., Newbury Park: Sage
47.
SchwarzNorbertStrackFritzMullerGesineChasseinBrigitte. 1988. “The Range of Response Alternatives May Determine The Meaning of the Questions: Further Evidence on Informative Functions of Response Alternatives.”Social Cognition6: 107–117
48.
SchwarzNorbertHipplerHans-J.DeutschBrigitteStrackFritz. 1985. “Response Scales: Effects of Category Range on Reported Behavior and Comparative Judgments.”Public Opinion Quarterly49: 388–395
49.
SheatsleyPaul. 1983. “Questionnaire Construction and Item Writing.” Pp. 195–230 in Handbook of Survey Research, edited by RossiPeter H.WrightJames D.AndersonAndy B., Orlando, FL: Academic
50.
SeltzerJudith A.BianchiSuzanne M., 1988. “Children's Contact with Absent Parents.”Journal of Marriage and the Family50: 663–677
51.
SpectorPaul E.1976. “Choosing Response Categories for Summated Rating Scales.”Journal of Applied Psychology61: 374–375
52.
SudmanSeymourBradburnNorman M., 1974. Response Effects in Surveys: A Review and Synthesis. Chicago: Aldine
53.
SudmanSeymourBradburnNorman M., 1975. Response Effects in Surveys: 1975 National Study. Leisure Activity Study Questionnaire. Seymour Sudman and Norman M. Bradburn, Principal Investigators. Survey 5059. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center
54.
SudmanSeymourBradburnNorman M., 1982. Asking Questions: A Practical Guide to Questionnaire Design. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
55.
SweetJamesBumpassLarryCallVaughn. 1988. “The Design and Content of the National Survey of Families and Households,” NSFH Working Paper No. 1. Madison, WI: Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
56.
WallersteinJudith S.HuntingtonD. S.1983. “Bread and Roses: Nonfinancial Issues Related to Father's Economic Support of Their Children Following Divorce.” Pp. 135–155 in The Parental Child-Support Obligation, edited by CassettyJudith. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books
57.
ZillNicholas. 1988. “Behavior, Achievement, and Health Problems Among Children in Stepfamilies: Findings from a National Survey of Child Health.” Pp. 325–368 in Impact of Divorce, Single Parenting, and Stepparenting on Children, edited by HetheringtonE. MavisArastehJosephine D., Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
