Asking Questions - The Definitive Guide To Questionnaire Design ...

166 ASKING QUESTIONS
Figure 5.2. Numerical Rating Scale.
Consider this question from the General Social Survey from NORC (1980):
Some people think that the government in Washington ought to reduce
the income differences between the rich and the poor, perhaps by raising
the taxes of wealthy families or by giving income assistance to the poor.
Others think that the government should not concern itself with reducing
this income difference between the rich and the poor. (Hand respondent
card.)
Here is a card with a scale from 1 to 7. Think of a score of 1 as meaning that
the government ought to reduce the income differences between rich and poor,
and a score of 7 as meaning that the government should not concern itself with
reducing income differences. What score between 1 and 7 comes closest to the
way you feel? (Circle one.)
Government should do
something to reduce
income differences
between rich and poor.
Government should
not concern itself
with income
differences.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
9 = No answer
Source: National Opinion Research Center, 1980.
much more difficult to do complete ranking on the telephone,
although partial rankings may be possible.
Ranking Complete Preferences
Figure 5.3 shows a method of ranking five aspects of a job in order
of preference. The respondent has a card that lists all aspects of the
job to be ranked. That way all the rank categories are visible at
once. Also note that the respondent need rank only four items
explicitly; by elimination, the remaining item is ranked fifth.
We know of no studies on the number of items that can be
ranked by this method before the respondent becomes confused,
although we think that five to seven may be the upper limit. When
there are larger numbers of items that cannot be conveniently
ranked, other methods must be employed. These methods generally
take the form of asking the respondent to rank only those items at