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JournalofHappinessStudies
February2015,Volume16,Issue1,pp77101
Date:09Jan2014

VeryHappyisNotAlwaysEquallyHappyontheMeaningof
VerbalResponseOptionsinSurveyQuestions
Abstract
Surveyresearchisbasedonquestioningandrespondentstypicallyanswertoquestionsbypickingoneofseveral
responseoptions.Theseresponseoptionsarelabelledverballywithtermssuchasveryhappyorfairlyhappy.
Responsescalesdifferinthenumberandwordingofresponseoptionsandthiscouldaffectthedegreeof
happinessdenotedbysuchwords.Ifso,scoresondifferentlywordedquestionsonthesametopiccannotbe
comparedandthisreducestheopportunitiesforresearchsynthesisgreatly.Severalmethodsfortransformation
havebeendevelopedfordealingwiththatproblem,amongwhichtherecentlyproposedscaleintervalmethod
inwhichjudgesratetheintervaldenotedbyverbalresponseoptionsonacontinuous010scale.Thismethod
allowsaviewonthesizeoftheproblem.Applicationofthescaleintervalmethodtocommonlyusedsurvey
questionsonhappinessinDutchlanguagerevealsconsiderabledifferences.Theimplicationsofthisforresearch
synthesisarediscussed.
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AboutthisArticle
Title
VeryHappyisNotAlwaysEquallyHappyontheMeaningofVerbalResponseOptionsinSurvey
Questions
Journal
JournalofHappinessStudies
Volume16,Issue1,pp77101
CoverDate
20150201
DOI
10.1007/s1090201394979
PrintISSN
13894978
OnlineISSN
15737780

Publisher
SpringerNetherlands
AdditionalLinks
RegisterforJournalUpdates
EditorialBoard
AboutThisJournal
ManuscriptSubmission
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,The
Netherlands
5.Biostatistics,ErasmusMC,Rotterdam,TheNetherlands

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