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LIKERT SCALE. Chong Ho Yu, Ph.D. What is your height?. 1 foot 2 feet 3 feet 4 feet 5 feet 6 feet. Likert scale. Strongly agree (5), Agree (4), Neutral (3), Disagree (2), Strongly disagree (1) (forced options, discrete) No equal spacing, not precise measurement
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LIKERT SCALE Chong Ho Yu, Ph.D.
What is your height? • 1 foot • 2 feet • 3 feet • 4 feet • 5 feet • 6 feet
Likertscale • Strongly agree (5), Agree (4), Neutral (3), Disagree (2), Strongly disagree (1)(forced options, discrete) • No equal spacing, not precise measurement • It could under-estimate or over-estimate • A single item is ordinal, but sometimes you can force it to be continuous.
LIKERT SCALE is narrow • But when you look at the scatterplot, you cannot see a clear associational pattern • Why? The scale is too narrow (1-7).
Now you see it! • This correlational pattern is clear. • The range of sore is 1-60.
False precision • Some people try to convert an ordinal scale to be a continuous scale by using more points. • E.g. Using a 10-point scale, where 10 means strongly agree and 1 means strongly disagree, how much do you agree or disagree? • Can you really distinguish a “10” from a “9,” and a “7” from a “6”?
Example: DUREL • Duke University Religion Index (DUREL): A brief measure of religiosity • Five items and three dimensions: • Organizational religious activity: Attending church • Non-organizational religious activity: Prayer, meditation • Intrinsic religiosity: Subjective
Likert scale • 1: Strongly disagree • 2: Disagree • 3: Neutral • 4: Agree • 5: Strongly agree • Weems and Onwuegbuzie (2001): People tend to choose the middle position. • Should we assign “3” to “neutral”?
What is neutral? • “Obama care is a good policy.” • Both John and Tom chose “3”. • John’s position: “I am not sure. There are both pros and cons in this policy.” • Tom’s position: “I already have my own insurance. I don’t care.” • Is John’s “neutral” the same as Tom’s “neutral”? • If not, what should you assign to John’s and Tom’s positions?
What is the midpoint? • Neither agree nor disagree • Undecided • Don’t know • No opinion • Not apply • Dumping ground?
Solutions • Use a 4-point scale and omit the midpoint (neutral) (e.g. PISA) • Create more options: SD, D, neither A nor D, A, SA, N/A, not sure, don’t know…etc. • Use this instruction: “Using a 5-point scale, where 5 means strongly agree and 1 means strongly disagree, how much do you agree or disagree?” Do not label 2, 3, and 4 (e.g. Gallup).
Activity • Form a small group consisting of 3-4 people. • Discuss: What are the pros and cons of the preceding solutions? • Go to the Internet and look at a survey (any subject matter is fine). You can use this site https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/survey-templates/ or another one. • How can you improve the survey? You cannot use more than one solution, otherwise your scaling will be inconsistent. • Upload your brief report (1 page) to Sakai.