Editing response and subject lists
Responses are the texts that make up the list of possible responses to a categorical question or a categorical grid question. Subjects apply to categorical and numeric grid questions and are the sub-questions that you want to ask. For example, in a grid that asks the respondent to rate a number of brands, the brands are the subjects and the ratings, which are the same for all brands, are the responses. The facilities for editing responses and subjects are the same.
Each response or subject has a text and a name. The text is the text that you specify when you add the response or subject to the question, and it is what appears in the questionnaire that is used for interviewing. The same text can appear in a number of different questions.
The name is a label that uniquely identifies a particular text. Build generates these labels automatically, basing them on the response or subject text. The labels are used as variable names for storing data in the case data file, to ensure that variables, responses and subjects are consistent across different versions of the script. Any response that has the same name in all versions of a questionnaire is treated as being the same response even if the response texts have changed between versions. For example, if version 1 of the questionnaire has the response text ‘Red’ with the name Red and you change the response text to ‘Reddish colors’, there is no need to change the name in version 2 because this is still the same response. However, if you replace ‘Red’ with ‘Blue’ you must also change the name to ‘Blue’ otherwise the interviewing and analysis activities will treat Blue as if it were Red.
In general, although you might want to change response and subject texts, you should not need to change the names.
To insert responses or subjects
▪Select the response or subject above or below which the new response is to be inserted, and then click Insert Above Selection or Insert Below Selection as appropriate.
A new line is added to the list.
▪In the Text column, replace the New Response text with the response text and then make any other adjustments that are necessary. For example, it is usually a good idea to replace the default name with a unique name that matches or is similar to the text in the Text column.
To append responses or subjects
▪Click Append.
A new line is added to the end of the list.
▪In the Text column, replace the New Response text with the response text and then make any other adjustments that are necessary.
To delete responses or subjects
Select the responses’ check boxes and then click Delete Selected. (To select all responses for deletion, click the check box at the start of the responses menu bar.)
To move responses or subjects
Select the response’s check box and then click Move Up or Move Down.
To insert responses or subjects
Select the responses whose response type you want to change and then click Change to Single or Change to Multi.
Change to Multi is available only if the question allows multiple responses to be chosen.
To switch the question type between single and multiple response
In Question Type, click Single or Multi as appropriate.
This changes all the individual response types in the Responses list to match the new question type, as well as changing the overall data type for the question.
See also