In looking over the responses given to the items in question 7, you notice that only one of your 2000 respondents had missing data on any of the items. That respondent scored 3 on the first 3 items but left item 4 blank. You should:
A) give the respondent a total score of 9.
B) assign the middle value or the respondent's average value to item 4, giving that respondents a total score of 12.
C) exclude that respondent from your data analysis.
D) either exclude that respondent from your analysis or assign the middle or average value to item 4

Question

In looking over the responses given to the items in question 7, you notice that only one of your 2000 respondents had missing data on any of the items. That respondent scored 3 on the first 3 items but left item 4 blank. You should:​
A) ​give the respondent a total score of 9.
B) ​assign the middle value or the respondent's average value to item 4, giving that respondents a total score of 12.
C) ​exclude that respondent from your data analysis.
D) ​either exclude that respondent from your analysis or assign the middle or average value to item 4

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In order to maintain the integrity of the data analysis, it is important to ensure that all respondents have complete data. However, in cases where there is only one missing data point out of 2000 respondents, it may be reasonable to either exclude that respondent from analysis or impute a value for the missing data point. Either choice could be defensible depending on the specific research question, methodology, and potential impact of including or excluding that respondent's data.

In Looking Over the Responses Given to the Items in Question