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Open and Closed Questionnaires

Both the forms of questionnaires (open and closed) have certain merits and demerits of their own.  Whereas the closed questionnaires are useful in the quantitative research, the open forms yield better results in the qualitative research.  The closed forms are easy to fill out for the respondents but they require a great care on the part of the designers since they have to count for all the possible responses. The open forms on the other hand do not need meticulous effort while framing the question statements but are a bit lengthy to fill up. Moreover, they are difficult to analyze as the replies differ from person to person and are subjective in nature.  The structured are though easy to analyze and tabulate, but the pre-decided choices can condition the replies.  The respondents often come to know what the answer should be rather than answering as they really feel!  Thus, at times, the closed forms with conditioned replies cannot be relied upon.  However, the closed forms ensure the uniformity in all the answers and focus on the subject.  They are relatively objective and so have bias-free responses.  The closed forms yield better returns where the open form do not work with the respondents who cannot express themselves well in written language.  The open forms are helpful once the primary stage of the research is completed and the respondents are mature and responsible.

Sometimes even the third form of the questions is used.  The third form of questions is the Pictorial Form.  Though this form is used very rarely, it has its own benefits in certain conditions.  The pictorial form is helpful particularly with children and the adults with the limited reading capability.  The pictures lessen the resistance and thus increase the chances of the responses.  Moreover, visuals are also able to hold the attention better than the words.  The pictorial figures can depict some peculiar situations where words may not present them adequately.  Thus this form is used to gather the data that cannot be gathered by any other procedures.   The pictorial data is difficult to standardize and analyze and so can be used only in situations involving distinguishable and understandable visual characteristics.