Final answer:
B. Open-ended. Open-ended questions generate qualitative data, which are subjective and descriptive, hence difficult to compare and analyze quantitatively.
Step-by-step explanation:
Open-ended questions provide data that are difficult to tabulate and compare. These types of questions yield qualitative data, rich in detail and expressive content but challenging when it comes to organizing and analyzing systematically. Participants' responses to open-ended questions can reveal personal beliefs, political views, and other subjective information that is often described in words rather than numbers.
Unlike categorical, scalar, or dichotomous questions, open-ended questions demand more in-depth, essay-like responses, which can offer a wealth of insights but may not easily translate into quantifiable metrics or allow for straightforward comparisons.
Qualitative data, resulting from open-ended questions, stands in contrast to quantitative data, which can be further categorized as either discrete or continuous. Quantitative discrete data, such as the number of times per week, refer to countable items, whereas quantitative continuous data, such as duration or distance, represent measurements on a continuum and can take on any value within a range.