Closed-Ended Question

A closed-ended survey question is one that provides respondents with a fixed number of responses from which to choose an answer. It is made up of a question stem and a set of answer choices (the response alternatives). When administered by a survey interviewer, a closed-ended question is expected to be read exactly as written to the respondent, along with the full set of response alternatives. The set of answer choices must fulfill two properties: they must be (1) mutually exclusive and (2) exhaustive. In being mutually exclusive, no two answers can overlap in conceptual meaning. In being exhaustive, the answer choices must cover all logically possible answers for the question.

The following example of a closed-ended question has answers that are neither mutually exclusive nor are they exhaustive:

How many times in the past 30 days have you entered a grocery store?

(a) 1–5 (b) 6–10 (c) 11–15 (d) 15 or more

In the example, a respondent who entered a grocery store 15 times in the past 30 days would not know if she or he should choose response (c) or (d), because the two are not mutually exclusive, as both contain the number 15. A respondent who never entered a grocery store in the past 30 days should answer “0,” but the response choices do not include that answer and thus they are not exhaustive of all logically possible answers.

With interviewer-administered questionnaires, such as those used in face-to-face and telephone surveys, closed-ended questions typically are constructed so that the interviewer can code a “Don't know/Uncertain” (DK) response when that is appropriate for a given respondent. They also typically include a “Refused” (RF) response choice for the interviewers to code when a given respondent refuses to provide an answer to that question. DK and RF response choices are not provided to the respondent by the interviewer. In self-administered questionnaires, closed-ended questions do not often contain these additional response choices, as their inclusion likely would “open the door” for respondents to avoid providing substantive answers to questions.