Closed-Ended Question

(noun)

A closed-ended question asks the respondent to pick an answer from a given number of options.

Related Terms

Examples of Closed-Ended Question in the following topics:

  • Conducting Polls

    • A distinction is made between open-ended and closed-ended questions.
    • An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his or her own answer; a closed-ended question asks the respondent to pick an answer from a given number of options.
    • The response options for a closed-ended question should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive.
    • Four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are as follows:
    • The types of questions (closed, multiple-choice, open) should fit the statistical data analysis techniques available and the goals of the poll.

  • Constructing Public Opinion Surveys

    • A distinction is made between open-ended and closed-ended questions.
    • An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his or her own answer, while closed-ended questions have the respondent choose an answer from a given number of options.
    • The response options for a closed-ended question should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive.
    • The four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are:
    • Structured surveys, particularly those with closed-ended questions, may have low validity when researching effective variables.

  • Decisions, Decisions!

    • There are two very important questions of "ought" that come up in thinking about politics:
    • Unfortunately, these questions are frequently confused with each other.
    • It is very important that we recognize them as separate, even though they are often closely related.
    • These are all questions about what ought to be.
    • Although the two questions appear to be very similar, deciding what ought to be does not tell us what ought to be done.

  • The Confirmation Process

    • During this process, a committee called the Senate Judiciary Committee conducts hearings, questioning nominees to determine their suitability.
    • At the close of confirmation hearings, the Committee votes on whether the nomination should go to the full Senate with a positive, negative, or neutral report.
    • The modern practice of the Committee questioning every nominee on their judicial views began with the nomination of John Marshall Harlan II in 1955.
    • One indication of the politicized selection process is how much time each nominee spends being questioned under the glare of media coverage.
    • Before 1925, nominees were never questioned; after 1955, every nominee has been required to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee and answer questions.

  • Issue Voting

    • Issue voting is the process by which voters select candidates based on how closely their views on certain issues match the voter's own.
    • These issues can relate to any questions of public policy that are a source of debate between political parties.
    • For instance, many stances can be taken on issues and voters must settle for the candidate whose views most closely match their own.
    • The public can go away to another media source, so it is in the media's commercial interest to try to find an agenda which corresponds as closely as possible to peoples' desires.

  • Judicial Activism and Restraint

    • The question of judicial activism is closely related to constitutional interpretation, statutory construction and separation of powers.
    • In deciding questions of constitutional law, judicially-restrained jurists go to great lengths to defer to the legislature.

  • Federal Jurisdiction

    • Generally, state courts hear cases involving state law, although they may also hear cases involving federal law so long as the federal law in question does not grant exclusive jurisdiction to federal courts.
    • For subject matter jurisdiction, the claims in the case must either: raise a federal question, such as a cause of action or defense arising under the Constitution; a federal statute, or the law of admiralty; or have diversity of parties.
    • The Justices will closely question both parties.

  • Analyzing Data

    • A very important tool in data analysis is the margin of error because it indicates how closely the results of the survey reflect reality.
    • The larger the margin of error, the less faith one should have that the poll's reported results are close to the "true" figures—the figures for the whole population .
    • It does not represent other potential sources of error or bias such as a non-representative sample-design, poorly phrased questions, people lying or refusing to respond, the exclusion of people who could not be contacted, or miscounts and miscalculations.
    • The more people that are sampled, the more confident pollsters can be that the "true" percentage is close to the observed percentage.
    • The margin of error is a measure of how close the results are likely to be.

  • Types of Polls

    • Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by asking a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities from responses in ratio or within confidence intervals.
    • It is akin to an opinion poll in the sense that it asks who the voter plans to vote for and other similar questions.
    • Widespread criticism of exit polling has occurred in cases, especially in the United States, where exit-poll results have appeared and/or have provided a basis for projecting winners before all real polls have closed, thereby possibly influencing election results
    • In all such polls, the pollster asks leading or suggestive questions that "push" the interviewee towards adopting an unfavorable response towards the political candidate.
    • In meetings subject to rules of order, impromptu straw polls often are taken to see if there is enough support for an idea to devote more meeting time to it, and (when not a secret ballot) for the attendees to see who is on which side of a question.

  • Immigration and Border Security

    • The challenge of illegal immigration is closely linked with that of border security, the concept of which is related to the persistent threat of terrorism.
    • Border security includes the protection of land borders, ports, and airports and after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, many questioned whether the threat posed by the largely unchecked 3,017 mile Canadian border, the 1,933 mile Mexican border, and the many unsecured ports.