The Research Process

Essay by porcupinetreeUniversity, Master'sA+, August 2008

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Compare open-ended, multiple-choice, and Likert-scales items in surveys.

Introduction Suverys may be conducted using various styles. I will be discussing three styles that are open-ended, multiple-coice and likert-scales.

Discussion Open-ended questions are often used in research to clarify closed questions or as а means of generating ideas. In both cases it is generally assumed that the longer and more detailed the response to an open-ended question the better (Graziano et al, 2000). However, relatively little is known about the effect of factors such as question wording or questionnaire design on the response to open-ended questions.

Multiple choice items are taken as the most significant and common type of questions that are used in almost every survey as they are basically more easy for а person to answer and its also easier to examine them when investigating the survey. In а survey if repondents are asked questions which they are unaware of or which might cause some confusion between them, it is likely that they get very irriatated and refuse to answer further.

For instance:What brand of computer do you own?А. IBM PCB. AppleА Likert-style questionnaire consists of compontents that you should be capable to verify that every one item of the questionnaire has а parallel psychological 'weight' in the respondent's psyche, and that every one point is assembling а statement about the equivalent construct.

Conclusion Therefore, Likert scaling maybe very complicated to get correct but once you have the results it is way too easy to accumulate for example between different opinions from 'completely against' to 'completely for' according to the context that you are measuring.

Name and define the measures of central tendency and of variability.

Introduction Measures of central tendency are measures which are representative of а sample or population. They provide the means for one to be...