Item non-response in open-ended questions: Who does not answer on the meaning of left and right?

Scholz, Evi; Zuell, Cornelia

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.07.006

Cited by 40 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Although age and sex are often used as demographic predictors in empirical research, their influence in the analyses of the open-ended questions is negligible and will not be examined (for example, Scholz and Zuell, 2012: based on the same data base).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is Willing to Answer Open-ended Questions on the Meaning of Left and Right?

Zuell¹,

Scholz

2015

Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/Bulletin de Méthodologie S

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Ré suméQui est prê t à ré pondre à des questions ouvertes sur le sens d'ê tre de gauche ou d'ê tre de droite? La dimension gauche-droite joue un rôle important dans un large éventail d'études en sciences politiques, et les analyses sont parfois basées sur les réponses à des questions ouvertes sur le sens de gauche ou de droite. En raison d'une non-réponse considérable à ces questions dans l'Enquête sociale générale allemande 2008, la valeur des données doit être évaluée, et une analyse des réponses est recommandée en fonction des croyances idéologiques de l'Allemagne. Cet article examine si les traits de personnalité, les capacités cognitives, la socialisation, la motivation et l'auto-positionnement gauche-droite des répondants affectent le comportement de réponse à nos questions ouvertes. Nous avons trouvé plusieurs variables explicatives : un auto-positionnement gauche-droite, l'orientation idéologique, une socialisation d'origine de l'Allemagne de l'Est, un niveau d'éducation élevé et un fort intérêt politique. Ces résultats indiquent que, en plus des questions méthodologiques, des variables importantes jouent dans le comportement de réponse en termes de techniques et d'idéologies, les analystes devraient examiner si leurs résultats peuvent être généralisés pour l'ensemble de la population allemande. AbstractThe left-right dimension plays an important role in a wide range of political science studies, and analyses are sometimes based on responses to open-ended survey questions about the meaning of left and right. Due to a considerable non-response to these questions on the Downloaded from evaluated, and response analysis is recommended before Germany's ideological beliefs are analysed. This paper investigates whether or not respondents' personality traits, cognitive abilities and socialisation, motivation, and left-right self-placement affect response behaviour to our open-ended questions. We found several explanatory variables: a left-right self-placement, its ideological direction, an Eastern German socialisation background, a high level of education and a strong political interest. These findings indicate that, in addition to methodological issues, substantial variables matter in response behaviour in technical terms, and ideological analysts should consider if their findings can be generalised for the entire German population.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is Willing to Answer Open-ended Questions on the Meaning of Left and Right?

Zuell¹,

Scholz

2015

Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/Bulletin de Méthodologie S

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“…The research presented here sheds new light on an ongoing debate regarding whether the very general concept of left-right political orientation might be understood quite differently among people from different social groups within a country and between people of different countries (Scholz and Zuell 2012;Bauer et al 2014). This is important, as left-right political orientation has been one of the most frequently used constructs to explain political attitudes and voting in political science.…”

Section: General Discussion and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 79%

‘The Left is Right’: Left and Right Political Orientation across Eastern and Western Europe

Ad¹,

Cislak²,

Schmidt³

2019

Preprint

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The left-right political auto-identification has been used widely in the socio-political research for interpreting and organizing political attitudes and opinions. In this paper we analyse whether the meaning of the left-right orientation is the same in Eastern and Western Europe after the transformation in 1989. Using data from two big European survey programmes – European Social Survey & European Values Study – we show that while citizens’ support for economic liberalism is positively related to their left-right political auto-identification, citizens’ support for cultural liberalism is negatively related to it. Importantly, however, we also found evidence for the regional diversity hypothesis, which shows this pattern was more prominent among the citizens of Western European countries than among the citizens of Eastern European countries. Presented results confirm the specificity of Eastern Europe when it comes to relations between political auto-identification and other beliefs linked to it traditionally and imply that the concept of left-right political auto-identification cannot be transferred mechanically between Eastern and Western Europe.

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“…Feedback comments offer participants an opportunity to voice their concerns and opinions about a particular policy, especially when the policy at stake is controversial or subject to emotional debates (cf. Scholtz and Zuell, 2012). The core ICCQ did not contain any closed questions about attitudes to cannabis policy, and only three countries (Australia, Denmark, and the United Kingdom) included one extra question on this topic.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The challenges and benefits of analyzing feedback comments in surveys: Lessons from a cross-national online survey of small-scale cannabis growers

Decorte

Malm

Sznitman

et al. 2019

Methodological Innovations

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It is common practice in survey questionnaires to include a general open and non-directive feedback question at the end, but the analysis of this type of data is rarely discussed in the methodological literature. While these open-ended comments can be useful, most researchers fail to report on this issue. The aim of this article is to illustrate and reflect upon the benefits and challenges of analyzing responses to open-ended feedback questions. The article describes the experiences of coding and analyzing data generated through a feedback question at the end of an international online survey with small-scale cannabis cultivators carried out by the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium. After describing the design and dataset of the web survey, the analytical approach and coding frame are presented. The analytical strategies chosen in this study illustrate the diversity and complexity of feedback comments which pose methodological challenges to researchers wishing to use them for data analyses. In this article, three types of feedback comments (political/policy comments, general comments of positive and negative appreciation, and methodological comments) are used to illustrate the difficulties and advantages of analyzing this type of data. The advantages of analyzing feedback comments are well known, but they seem to be rarely exploited. General feedback questions at the end of surveys are typically non-directive. If researchers want to use these data for research and analyses, they need a clear strategy. They ought to give enough thought to why they are including this type of question, and develop an analytical strategy at the design stage of the study.

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Item non-response in open-ended questions: Who does not answer on the meaning of left and right?

Cited by 40 publications

References 22 publications

Who is Willing to Answer Open-ended Questions on the Meaning of Left and Right?

Who is Willing to Answer Open-ended Questions on the Meaning of Left and Right?

‘The Left is Right’: Left and Right Political Orientation across Eastern and Western Europe

The challenges and benefits of analyzing feedback comments in surveys: Lessons from a cross-national online survey of small-scale cannabis growers

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