Re: A 4 point Likert scale

Posted by Evan Harrington, Ph.D. on Oct 17, 2011; 7:01pm
URL: http://spssx-discussion.165.s1.nabble.com/A-4-point-Likert-scale-tp4910676p4911173.html

Not to belabor this too far, but in addition to the other points, depending on the question many survey respondents avoid the extremes in likert-type scales. Thus a 4 point scale effectively can turn into a 2 point scale.

 

 

Evan Harrington, Ph.D.

Department of Forensic Psychology

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

325 N. Wells Street

Chicago, IL 60654

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From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Ralph Grubb [[hidden email]]
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 1:32 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: A 4 point Likert scale

In addition to these obserbvations, there is no middle point. Ralph 

 

In a message dated 10/17/2011 2:24:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [hidden email] writes:

Why do you want to use only a 4 point Likert scale?
_The more you restrict the variance of a variable the more you restrict its possible covariance._
As a rule of thumb you want items to approximate a continuous construct as much as possible given who your respondents are.

An actual Likert item has 5 points SD D ? A SA.  Do you have a Disagree to Agree construct for your response scale?

If your scale has many items, the total (mean) score might not be too restricted.
If you do not have scales, but are measuring a construct with a single variable the restriction of variance and therefore on covariance is even more problematical.

In short, a 4 point response scale is usually inadvisable. Why coarsen your measurement any more than is really necessary?


Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants

On 10/17/2011 1:13 PM, Mohamed wrote:

Hi


I intend to use a 4 point Likert scale format in my survey.

I want to know if this puts limitations on the type of statistical analysis
tests conducted?

Regards

Mohamed


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