Use Of Absolutes in Survey Questions
Hi,
I am creating a survey, and the preliminary list of questions contains absolutes, such as always. The issue is whether or not absolutes are an issue in surveys when the responses are not “yes” or “no” but instead they are on a scale of “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” What is the best plan of action, or what does the literature say on this issue?
Thank you.
+11Do you mean something like "I always go to the store on Friday" and then the choices being Strongly Disagree, Somewhat disagree, Neither disagree or agree, Somewhat agree, Strongly agree?
Yes, I would say there would be an issue with that: it will likely confuse your respondents.
I'd recommend something instead that is a specific time-bound like, "How many times did you go to a store on a Friday in the last month" and have ranges.
@JenCX
That makes sense. What if it is more along the lines of, "I feel my opinion is always valued?" Would having the always with the Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree scale still be problematic? What would be the best way to address this while keeping the agreement scale for the responses?
+11In that case, I would recommend doing "I feel my opinion is valued..." with choices Always, Most of the time, About half the time, Sometimes, Never.
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