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

350 GLOSSARY
are entered directly into a computer via a keyboard attached to the
terminal. The major advantages of these procedures are that they
allow researchers to design questionnaires with very complex skip
instructions, to communicate in real time with interviewers if an
impossible answer is entered, and to eliminate intermediate
steps—which speeds up data processing. The computer is programmed
not only to present the next question after a response is
input but also to determine from the response exactly which question
should be asked next; that is, the computer branches automatically
to the next question according to the filter instructions.
(See also skip instructions.)
closed-ended and open-ended questions Closed-ended questions
give the alternative answers to the respondent, either explicitly
or implicitly. They may have two alternatives (dichotomous
questions), such as “yes” or “no” or “male” or “female,” or they may
have multiple choices, such as “Democrat,” “Republican,” or
“Independent,” or “strongly agree,” “agree,” “disagree,” and
“strongly disagree.” In contrast, an open-ended question does not
provide answer categories to the respondent. An example would
be “What do you think is the most serious problem facing the
nation today?”
codebook A list of each of the codes used to record the answers to
questions in quantitative form on a spreadsheet. Usually codebooks
record each item in a location designated by column. (See also
deck, precolumning.)
coding The processing of survey answers into numerical form for
entry into a computer so that statistical analyses can be performed.
Coding of alternative responses to closed-ended questions can be
performed in advance, so that no additional coding is required. This
is called precoding. If the questionnaire is mostly precoded, then
coding refers only to the subsequent coding of open questions. (See
also closed-ended and open-ended questions, field coding.)