LookInsideGetAccessFindouthowtoaccesspreviewonlycontentJournalofHappinessStudiesFebruary2015,Volume16,Issue1,pp77101Date:09Jan2014

VeryHappyisNotAlwaysEquallyHappyontheMeaningofVerbalResponseOptionsinSurveyQuestionsAbstractSurveyresearchisbasedonquestioningandrespondentstypicallyanswertoquestionsbypickingoneofseveralresponseoptions.Theseresponseoptionsarelabelledverballywithtermssuchasveryhappyorfairlyhappy.Responsescalesdifferinthenumberandwordingofresponseoptionsandthiscouldaffectthedegreeofhappinessdenotedbysuchwords.Ifso,scoresondifferentlywordedquestionsonthesametopiccannotbecomparedandthisreducestheopportunitiesforresearchsynthesisgreatly.Severalmethodsfortransformationhavebeendevelopedfordealingwiththatproblem,amongwhichtherecentlyproposedscaleintervalmethodinwhichjudgesratetheintervaldenotedbyverbalresponseoptionsonacontinuous010scale.Thismethodallowsaviewonthesizeoftheproblem.ApplicationofthescaleintervalmethodtocommonlyusedsurveyquestionsonhappinessinDutchlanguagerevealsconsiderabledifferences.Theimplicationsofthisforresearchsynthesisarediscussed.

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AboutthisArticle

TitleVeryHappyisNotAlwaysEquallyHappyontheMeaningofVerbalResponseOptionsinSurveyQuestions

JournalJournalofHappinessStudiesVolume16,Issue1,pp77101

CoverDate20150201

DOI10.1007/s1090201394979

PrintISSN13894978

OnlineISSN15737780

PublisherSpringerNetherlands

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Topics

QualityofLifeResearch

PersonalityandSocialPsychology

Economics/ManagementScience,general

QualityofLifeResearch

Philosophy

PositivePsychology

Keywords

Happiness

Satisfactionwithlife

Subjectivewellbeing

Responsescales

Scaleintervalmethod

Researchsynthesis

IndustrySectors

ConsumerPackagedGoods

Finance,Business&Banking

Authors

TinekeDeJonge(1)

RuutVeenhoven(1)(2)

LidiaArends(3)(4)(5)

AuthorAffiliations

1.ErasmusHappinessEconomicsResearchOrganization,ErasmusUniversityRotterdam,Rotterdam,TheNetherlands

2.NorthWestUniversity,Potchefstroom,SouthAfrica

3.InstituteofPsychology,ErasmusUniversityRotterdam,Rotterdam,TheNetherlands

4.InstituteofPedagogicalSciences,ErasmusUniversityRotterdam,Rotterdam,TheNetherlands

5.Biostatistics,ErasmusMC,Rotterdam,TheNetherlands

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