Two Experiments in Simplifying Response Categories: Intensity Ratings and Behavioral Frequencies

In: Sociological perspectives, Volume 34, Issue 2, p. 165-182

Abstract

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.