Closed-ended question
Ordinal Scale questions
Respondents are asked to decide where they fit along a scale continuum. These questions contain an ordered set of answers. A common ordinal scale ask about levels of satisfaction.[1]
Other examples
A closed-ended question contrasts with an open-ended question, which cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no", or with a specific piece of information, and which gives the person answering the question scope to give the information that seems to them to be appropriate. Open-ended questions are sometimes phrased as a statement which requires a response.
Examples of open-ended questions:
- Tell me about your relationship with your supervisor.
- How do you see your future?
- Tell me about the children in this photograph.
- What is the purpose of government?
- Why did you choose that answer?
At the same time, there are close-ended questions which are sometimes impossible to answer correctly with a yes or no without confusion, for example: "Have you stopped taking heroin?" (if you never took it), see "Loaded question".
See also
- A-not-A question
- Yes-no question
References
- Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser (October 1979). "The Open and Closed Question". American Sociological Review 44 (5): 692–712.