NDLI: ‘Very Happy’ is Not Always Equally Happy on the Meaning of Verbal Response Options in Survey Questions

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	DeJonge, Tineke Veenhoven, Ruut Arends, Lidia
Copyright Year	2014
Abstract	Survey research is based on questioning and respondents typically answer to questions by picking one of several response options. These response options are labelled 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 transformation 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 0–10 scale. This method allows a view on the size of the problem. Application of the scale interval method to commonly used survey questions on happiness in Dutch language reveals considerable differences. The implications of this for research synthesis are discussed.
Starting Page	77
Ending Page	101
Page Count	25
File Format	PDF
ISSN	13894978
Journal	Journal of Happiness Studies
Volume Number	16
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15737780
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2014-01-09
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Happiness Satisfaction with life Subjective wellbeing Response scales Scale interval method Research synthesis Quality of Life Research Personality and Social Psychology Economics/Management Science Philosophy Positive Psychology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Social Sciences

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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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