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Iowa State University

Assessment of no opinion and don't know responses to community surveys

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>A cornerstone of planning in many communities is needs assessment, which often is accomplished by collecting citizen opinions through mailed questionnaires. A typical example would be when residents are presented a list of services and asked to rate their level of satisfaction with them or indicate whether the services should receive more or less funding. In addition to substantive responses, respondents might also be afforded the opportunity to indicate a "no opinion" or "don't know" response to these questions. In the absence of a "no opinion" or "don't know" option, the respondents might choose not to answer a question or choose a neutral response. This research uses a split-ballot experiment to examine how "no opinion" or "don't know" response options affect community needs assessment surveys.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Sociology
Department dc:contributor.department
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice (LAS)
Year dc:date.issued
2004

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Maitland, Aaron

Rights

Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Identifier
archive/lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/20737/
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dr.lib.iastate.edu:20.500.12876/98104

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Iowa State University
Base URL
dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Maitland, Aaron. Assessment of no opinion and don't know responses to community surveys. thesis thesis, 2004. https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/98104