Homework: Week 4

Group Member: Siti Halimatus ‘Saadiah (s2009101), Shi Lixiang (s2000663) & Liao Min (17222203)

(Comparison Measurement Techniques) –

Thurstone, Guttman and Likert Rating Scale

Thurstone Rating Scale Guttman Rating Scale Likert Rating Scale

 (Robert Thurstone 1928)
a) Definition  Defined as a unidimensional scale.
 Used to track respondent’s behavior,
attitude or feeling towards a subject.
 Each statement has a numerical value
that indicates the respondent’s attitude
toward the topic as favorable or
unfavorable.
(Stephanie,2016)
b) Type of  Agree/Disagree quiz question type.
answers
(Louis Guttman 1940)
 Called cumulative scaling or
scalogram analysis.
 An ordinal scale type where
statements are arranged in
hierarchical order. (Individual who
agrees with a particular item also
agrees with items of lower rank-
order)
(Stephanie, 2016)
 Yes/No answers to a set of questions
that increase in specificity.
(Rensis Likert 1932)
 Rating used to assess opinions,
attitudes, or behaviors.
 Popular in survey research because
it allows the researchers to easily
operationalize personally traits or
perceptions.
(Saul Mcleod, 2019)
 5 or 7 items usually used in the
scale.
 Each item is given a numerical
score, so that the data can be
analyzed quantitatively.
 Example of scale items:
 Agreement: Strongly agree, Agree,
neither agree nor Disagree,
Disagree, Strongly Disagree
 Quality: Very poor, Poor, Fair,
Good, Excellent
 Likelihood: Not at all likely,
Somewhat likely, Extremely likely

c) Advantages  The scale is decided by experts on a
scale of 1-11 using mean/mode.
 (11-point response format – 1 very
negative to 11 indicating very
positive)
 The sentences of the Thurston scale
are determined according to the
standard deviation of each assessor,
which is scientific. Reliability is
generally between 0.8-0.9.
 It is more suitable for the subject is
clear and the scope of the survey is not
wide.
 Can be used to answer many
questions in a short time.
 Highly hierarchical and structured in
nature.
 Produced data in a ranked manner.
 The degree of approval of the concept
or thing can be determined directly
based on the number of statements
agreed by the tester and his scale
score.
 Experience: Very negative,
Somewhat negative, Neutral,
Somewhat positive, Very positive
 Simple to respond – Respondents
can understand the intent of this
scale and quickly answer the
questions
 User-friendly – Unlike open-ended
questions, Likert scale are closed-
ended and do not ask respondents to
generate ideas or justify their
opinions.
 Fine-grained – Likert-type questions
are not binary (yes/no, true/false).
The researcher can get details
insights into perceptions, opinions,
and behaviors.
 Ease to implementation – This
universally accepted scale can be
easily understood and applied to
various customer satisfaction or
employee satisfaction surveys.
d) Disadvantages  The ratings may be influenced by the
judges’ personal attitude.
 Time consuming during preparation.
 The median represents the attitude
level is not necessarily appropriate,
because the median is the same, and
the rest of the responses may not be
the same.
 The rank order of the statements may
not be interpreted in the same way by
the researcher, the subject etc.
 Result no better than summated
Likert scales
 The hypothesis that a set of
statements is one-dimensional is
limited.
 Response bias – Due to social
desirability bias, people often avoid
selecting the extreme items or
disagreeing with statements to seem
more ‘normal’ or show themselves
in a favorable light.
 Fatigue/inattention – Respondents
can get bored and lose interest
because there are many questions in
Likert scale.
 The same attitude scorers have very
different attitude patterns. Because
the Likert scale is the total points of
an item representing the degree of
approval of a person, it can roughly
distinguish between individuals
whose attitudes are high and whose
attitudes are low, but it cannot
further describe the differences in
their attitude structure.
e) Examples 1) I am inspired to meet my goals at
work.
Agree ( ) Disagree ( )
2) I feel completely involved in my
work.
Agree ( ) Disagree ( )
3) I am often so involved in my work
that the day goes by quickly.
Agree ( ) Disagree ( )
1) I am willing to be near a cat
Yes ( ) No ( )
2) I am willing to have a cat
Yes ( ) No ( )
3) I love to have a cat
Yes ( ) No ( )
4) I am willing to touch a cat
Yes ( ) No ( )
1) I can get good grades in
Mathematic.
1-Never ( ) 2-Sometimes ( )
3-Very Often ( ) 4-Always ( )
2) I do not have much to be proud of.
1-Strongly disagree ( )
2-Disagree ( ) 3-Agree ( )
4-Strongly agree ( )
3) How satisfied are you with the
online shopping return policies at
Company X?
Very dissatisfied ( ) Somewhat
dissatisfied ( ) Neither satisfied
nor dissatisfied ( ) Somewhat
satisfied ( ) Very satisfied ( )
References

McLeod, S. A. (2019, August 03). Likert scale. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/likert-scale.html

Stephanie Glen. "Thurstone Scale: Definition, Examples" From StatisticsHowTo.com: Elementary Statistics for the rest of us!
https://www.statisticshowto.com/thurstone-scale/

Stephanie Glen. "Likert Scale Definition and Examples" From StatisticsHowTo.com: Elementary Statistics for the rest of us!
https://www.statisticshowto.com/likert-scale-definition-and-examples/

Stephanie Glen. "Guttman Scale (Cumulative Scale): Definition & Examples" From StatisticsHowTo.com: Elementary Statistics for the rest of us!
https://www.statisticshowto.com/guttman-scale/