Which among the following is NOT an advantage of open-ended questions in…
2023
Which among the following is NOT an advantage of open-ended questions in survey research?
Answer: D. They are easy for the interviewers and/or respondents to complete. — CONCEPTOpen-ended questions do not restrict respondents to preset response categories. They are designed to capture respondents’ own wording, explanations,…
- A.
They are useful for explaining areas in which researcher has limited knowledge.
- B.
Respondents can answer in their own terms.
- C.
They allow unusual responses to be derived.
- D.
They are easy for the interviewers and/or respondents to complete.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
CONCEPT
Open-ended questions do not restrict respondents to preset response categories. They are designed to capture respondents’ own wording, explanations, and unexpected themes, but that flexibility shifts more effort to answering, recording, and coding the responses.
APPLICATION
Apply that distinction to the listed statements:
Useful where the researcher has limited prior knowledge: unrestricted responses can reveal dimensions that a fixed list might omit.
Respondents answer in their own terms: the format preserves their wording and framing.
Unusual responses can emerge: answers are not confined to anticipated categories.
Easy to complete: producing, recording, and coding free-text responses generally requires more effort than selecting a preset response.
CONTRAST
Limited prior knowledge, respondents’ own terms, and unusual responses all concern the exploratory breadth of open-ended questions. Ease of completion concerns respondent/interviewer workload, which open-ended formats generally increase rather than reduce.
RESULT
Therefore, “They are easy for the interviewers and/or respondents to complete” is the statement that is not an advantage.