Qual Quant (2013) 47:1397–1411 DOI 10.1007/s11135-011-9597-8
A comparison of open-ended and closed questions in the prediction of mental health Oddgeir Friborg · Jan H. Rosenvinge
Received: 2 March 2011 / Accepted: 24 August 2011 / Published online: 6 September 2011 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract The statistical benefit of adding open-ended questions to closed questions was evaluated in a survey of 643 participants. The construct of coping was chosen as the measurement domain. Open and closed questions were used to predict mental health a year later. Verbatim responses to open questions were reliably coded (ICC = 0.92), but they did not increase the statistical prediction of measures of mental health beyond the contribution of closed questions. Open-ended questions provided more in-depth information than closed questions, but at the cost of more missing data and less degrees of freedom. The benefit of using open-ended in addition to standard closed questions was thus practically nil, hence questioning the use of qualitative information gathering in surveys for the purpose of statistical prediction. Keywords
Survey questions · Open-ended · Closed · Statistical prediction
1 Introduction The question of whether to use “closed” versus “open” questions in survey or questionnaire research is an old one, but research substantiating the choice of either one is remarkably scarce. The debate started during the 1930s when federal governments in the USA discovered the benefit of using surveys as opinion polls to assist politicians and decision makers. The debate at the time was quite fierce (Converse 1984), and divided into two camps each advocating the singular use of either closed or open questions. One interesting observation is that Rensis Likert represented the group that fiercely advocated the use of open format questions, which is a bit surprising given his earlier recommendation of the closed response format (Likert 1932), widely known as the Likert scale. His purpose of using open questions O. Friborg (B) · J. H. Rosenvinge Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway e-mail:
[email protected] O. Friborg Psychiatric Research Centre of North Norway, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway
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