The authors of your text argue that virtually all questions about behavior will be more reliable if they refer to specific times and events. What do they mean by this?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Virtually all questions about behavior and feelings will be more reliable if they refer to specific times or events (Turner & Martin, 1984). Without identifying a reference period, or time frame around which a question is being asked, a researcher will not know how to interpret an answer. For example, the question “How often do you carry a method of self-protection such as pepper spray?” will produce answers that have no common reference period and therefore cannot reliably be compared with answers from other respondents. A more specific way to ask the question is, “In the last month, how many days did you carry a method of self-protection such as pepper spray?”
In general, research shows that the longer the reference period, the greater the underreporting of a given behavior (Cantor, 1984, 1985; Kobelarcik, Alexander, Singh, & Shapiro, 1983). As a general rule, when respondents are being asked about mundane or day-to-day activities, reference periods should be no longer than “in the past month.” However, when rare events are being measured, such as experiences with victimizations, “in the last six months” (as utilized by the NCVS) or “in the past 12 months” (as used by the NISVS) are both more appropriate. By using longer reference periods such as these, we will more likely capture these rarer events.