The following question refers to a hypothetical questionnaire handed out to elderly residents, parts of which are boxed above the questions. The questionnaire was designed to assess the elderly's perceptions of and experiences with neighborhood crime.
How unsafe do you feel when you are not in your neighborhood?
1. A great deal
2. Some
3. Not too much
4. None

We have to answer if the response choices to this question are:

a) Open-ended

b) Scale

c) Contingent

d) Fixed

And the correct answer is:

b) Scale

Explanation:

The response choices are of scale-type because they represent a gradient (or a scale).

They are meant to express the level of unsafety that the elderly experience in their neighborhood, and go, from the highest point the scale (a great deal), to the lowest point in the scale (none), with two options in the middle acting acting as a bridge between the two extremes (Some, Not too much).