The Very Brief Guide to Types of Survey Questions (from Writing Science: a DIY Manual
for the Social Sciences, writing-science.wikidot.com)
Age, Gender, SES, Ethnicity, etc. – demographic information used as necessary
Yes/No (Binary) Questions
• Force a choice between items
• Example -- Ice Cream is the best sweet treat.
yes
no
[pros: clear answer choices for participant; easy to record results / cons: very annoying to answer if situation is complex;
not a good “trick” question]
Likert-Type Scale
• Measure how much, How often
a lot often sometimes not often rarely
Example -- How often do you eat ice cream?
1
2
3
4
5
[pros: very familiar; range of responses makes participants more comfortable with complex questions / cons: difficult to
create questions; lots of work to analyze; possibility of no pattern or all middle responses if question not well-formed]
Ranking Questions
• Compare, Reveal preferences among different choices
Example -- Rank the following desserts in order of preference where 1 is most preferred and 5 is least preferred:
ice cream ( ) brownies ( ) cake ( ) jello ( ) cookies ( )
[pros: participants familiar with question type; good “trick” question / cons: complex to analyze; can only choose items
that makes sense to rank]
Guttman-Type Scale Questions
• Reveal thresholds within a category
Example -- Mark with an X the statement that is most true of your relationship to ice cream.
Ice cream is essential to my survival. ( )
Ice cream is important to my happiness. ( )
Ice cream is a pleasant way to spend an hour. ( )
Ice cream is not that important to me. ( )
Ice cream is a waste of calories that could be spent on doughnuts. ( )
[pros: effective way to gauge complex situations, especially where likert-type scales are unrevealing / cons: complex to
construct]
Semantic Differential
• Reveal attitudes towards an item
Example -- For each pair below, mark on the scale where you fall.
Ice Cream is…
Good
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) Bad
Safe
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) Dangerous
Beautiful ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) Ugly
[pros: very effective means of getting info where other question types fail; good “trick” question / cons: difficult to
construct meaningfully]
A “trick” question is not one where you are fooling participants; rather, it is a question that helps researchers get
around the pitfalls of self-report.