In: Psychology
Identify and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each of the following:
a. open-ended questions
b. closed-ended questions
The strengths of open ended questions is that they not just allow for complex and detailed responses from participants but allow have almost unlimited ways in which the question can be answered. The participants also have an opportunity to clarify and elaborate on their answers when needed. However, the weakness of open ended questions is mainly that comparison of such responses between the participants are challenging because they are never uniform. It is also very time consuming for the researcher to interpret and derive conclusions based on them.
On the other hand, the strengths of close ended questions is that it is much easier and quicker for participants to respond to them. For the researcher, the statistical analysis is also much easier as there are limited number of responses only. Additionally, such responses are uniform and thus participants can be compared to one another. However, the weaknesses of close ended questions is that they offer very limited perspectives on issues and may thus miss capturing an important element of the phenomenon.