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

ASKING AND RECORDING QUESTIONS 167
Figure 5.3. Ranking Complete Preferences of Job Qualities.
Would you please look at this card and tell me which one thing on this list
you would most prefer in a job? (Circle one code in Column A.)
Which comes next ? (Circle one code in Column B.)
Which is the third most important? (Circle one code in Column C.)
Which is the fourth most important? (Circle one code in Column D.)
A B C D
Most Next Third Fourth
1. High income 1 2 3 4
2. No danger of being fired 1 2 3 4
3. Working hours are short, lots of free time 1 2 3 4
4. Chances for advancement 1 2 3 4
5. Work important and gives a feeling
of accomplishment 1 2 3 4
Source: National Opinion Research Center, 1980.
each end of the distribution (the best and the worst). The respondent
ranks the most important and the least important only, allowing
the middle part to be left unranked. This seems to be a sensible
procedure, since most people have fairly clear ideas of what they
would rank high and what they would rank low but are rather
uncertain about the rankings in the middle. Indeed, with ranking
tasks of more than four or five items, respondents often complain of
the difficulty of the task and the uncertainty of their preferences for
the middle rankings.
Ranking Extreme Preferences
Another method for obtaining ranks of a rather large number of
attributes is shown in Figure 5.4, which contains thirteen qualities
thought to be desirable in children. The respondents are not asked to
rank all thirteen. Instead, they are asked to select the three qualities