Closed-ended question
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A closed-ended question is a form of question which can normally be answered using a simple "yes" or "no", a specific simple piece of information, or a selection from multiple choices.
Examples include:
- Question: Do you know your weight?
Answer: Yes.
- Question: What is your weight?
Answer: 167 lbs.
Close-ended questions can be used for clarifiying facts, verifying information already given or controlling a conversation, among other things.
Examples of closed-ended questions:
- Do you get along with your supervisor?
- Is that a photograph of your children?
- Are you leaving right at 5:00 today?
- Are you awake?
A closed-ended question contrasts with an open-ended question, which cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no", or with a specific piece of information, and which give the person answering the question scope to give the information that seems to them to be appropriate. Open-ended questions are sometimes phrased as a statement which requires a response.
Examples of open-ended questions:
- Tell me about your relationship with your supervisor.
- How do you see your future?
- Tell me about the children in this photograph.
- What is the purpose of government?
- Why did you choose that answer?
At the same time, there are close-ended questions which are sometimes impossible to answer correctly with a yes or no without confusion, for example: "have you stopped taking heroin?" (if you never took it), see "Loaded question".
References:
Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser. "The Open and Closed Question." American Sociological Review, Vol. 44, No. 5 (Oct., 1979), pp. 692-712. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2094521
