• Login
    View Item 
    •   NWU-IR Home
    • Research Output
    • Faculty of Humanities
    • View Item
    •   NWU-IR Home
    • Research Output
    • Faculty of Humanities
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    ‘Very happy’ is not always equally happy: on the meaning of verbal response options in survey questions

    Thumbnail
    Date
    2015
    Author
    De Jonge, Tineke
    Veenhoven, Ruut
    Arends, Lidia
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Survey research is based on questioning and respondents typically answer to questions by picking one of several response options. These response options are labeled verbally with terms such as very happy or fairly happy . Response scales differ in the number and wording of response options and this could affect the degree of  happiness denoted by such words. If so, scores on differently worded questions on the same topic cannot be compared and this reduces the opportunities for research synthesis greatly. Several methods for homogenization have been developed for dealing with that problem, among which the recently proposed Scale Interval Method in which judges rate the interval denoted by verbal response options on a continuous 0 to 10 scale. This method allows a view on the size of the problem. Application to commonly used survey questions on happiness in Dutch language reveals considerable differences, the implications of this for research synthesis are discussed.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10394/20276
    Collections
    • Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences [1414]
    • Faculty of Humanities [2022]

    Copyright © North-West University
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV
     

     

    Browse

    All of NWU-IR Communities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsAdvisorThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsAdvisor

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Copyright © North-West University
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV