Identyfikacje z klasą średnią w pytaniu zamkniętym i otwartym

Abstract

This analysis provides additional empirical support for a thesis that "open" and "closed" questions show to be two different but complementary forms of asking questions. I compare, here, self-identifications with social classes declared by respondents when asked in an open and in closed way in the two surveys carried out on representative random samples in 1994 and in 1995. It appears that self-identifications as received by a close question ("upper, upper-middle, upper, middle, working, lower") better correlate with objective class position of respondents than the identifications expressed "freely", in respondents' own terms. I argue that it has nothing to do with the validity of both questions. It simply proves that open and closed questions used to represent different social facts. Hence, recommended by some researchers strategy to employ the open questions in order to diagnose and pilot researched problem in preliminary stage of research may produce in some circumstances confusing results.