Scales, Open-Ended

Definition

An open-ended scale consists of items in which no fixed answer is provided. Rather, participants are able to provide a response that is undirected. For example, participants in an open-ended survey centered on fear of public speaking may be asked to describe in as much detail as possible a time when they were very nervous to speak in public. In this instance, the response offered by the participant will be unique to his or her own experiences with public speaking and is not limited to a predetermined set of answers, but rather may be interpreted by the participant. Due to the flexibility of the response, researchers may obtain more information on the participants’ experiences in relation to the phenomena under study. By analyzing data obtained in the previous example, researchers may gain a clearer understanding of what factors created by a public speaking experience impact the level of nervousness of the speaker. Open-ended scales are often used by communication researchers during an exploratory phase of a research topic when scholars are seeking to better understand the phenomena under study. Asking open-ended questions and analyzing the resulting data allows researchers to identify the most common conditions and themes that may then be integrated into a quantitative or closed-ended survey instrument.

There are many important reasons to consider the use of open-ended scales within a research endeavor. The versatility of responses offered by participants provides a rich data set that can be analyzed by researchers to help better understand how individuals’ experiences shape their perceptions of a specific issue. Furthermore, investigators discover responses individuals give spontaneously, providing insights into the most common responses to the posed question and helping identify themes and categories for further exploration. Unanticipated responses may also indicate an unclear question or misunderstanding, ambiguity to participants that help researchers restructure their questions. Using an open-ended scale as part of a pilot study allows researchers to delve further into an exploratory study of the issue and avoid potential biases offered by predetermined responses to survey items.

In addition to the benefits presented by the use of open-ended scales, researchers must also carefully consider the limitations. The most significant limitation centers on the fact that the responses represent only the experiences of the participants and cannot be generalized to a larger population. [Page 1558]In this manner, researchers using open-ended scales often seek to understand the experiences of a specific set of participants within a certain context of communication. Another limitation lies in the self-reporting nature of open-ended scale item responses. Respondents are asked to recall experiences and opinions influenced by perceptions of the issue at hand. The nature of such recall exercises relies on the accuracy of the memories associated with such experiences that may not be clear due to the passage of time. Additional limitations to consider are associated with the process of completing a survey that requires the development of unique answers to the posed questions and scenarios. Participants may decide to stop the completion of the survey if the tool takes too much time or effort to complete. For example, if participants believe the survey will take 20 minutes to finish but find each answer takes much longer than anticipated, they may elect to end the survey, leaving missing data and detracting from the overall effectiveness of the data collection project. The process of analyzing open-ended data is much more extensive than closed-ended scale evaluation. Researchers often embark on extensive coding practices involving multiple stages of demarcation, thematic analysis, categorical development, and evaluation. Such efforts may be hampered by encountering larger item nonresponse issues due to the effort involved in responding to open-ended scale items.

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