one of the problems in developing rating scales is the choice of response terms to use

a) Yes-depends –No
Yes-No are Dichotomous scales
Dichotomous scales have two choices that are diametrically opposed to each other. Some
examples:

 “Yes” or “No”;
 “True” or “False”;
 “Fair” or “Unfair”;
 “Agree” or “Disagree.”

There’s no nuance, and there’s no way for a respondent to be neutral. But there’s a lot of
value in the lack of a neutral option.
Sometimes, especially in long surveys, you’re subject to what’s known as the error of central
tendency. Answers gradually regress to the middle of the scale—the neutral options such as
‘Depends’
A dichotomous scale gives you a clearer, binary answer, but it can also fall prey to fatigue.
When that happens, respondents lean toward positive answers.
Dichotomous scales (“yes” or “no”) are great for precise data, but they don’t allow for nuance
in respondents’ answers. For instance, asking if a customer was happy with an experience
(yes or no), gives you almost no insight into how to improve the experience.

b) Excellent-Good-fair-Poor- Graphic rating scale

c) Excellent-Good-average-fair-Poor- Graphic rating scale -‘Average’ Results Can Be
Difficult to Interperate
The difficulty with Graphic Rating Scales is that they tend to highlight the
‘exceptional’ members of your workforce, as employees that fall in the ‘average’
category can be lost amongst the noise.

d) Strongly approve-approve-uncertain-disapprove-strongly disapprove-

the choices varying from “Strongly approve” to “disapprove to “uncertain”, to “approve” to

“Strongly approve”, it would appear to be in the mind of the research participant whether or
not there is an equal distance between each of these choices the above response options
are “balanced” in that the items to the left of “uncertain” have an equal number of
counterparts to the right of “uncertain”. If the response choice is unbalanced to either side,
the possibility of that item being an interval measurement seems greatly diminished.

these are LIKERT SCALES- Likert scales are not appropriate to use for measuring actual
change in knowledge; only perceptions about change in knowledge- the Likert Scale is uni-
dimensional and only gives 5-7 options of choice, and the space between each choice cannot
possibly be equidistant. Therefore, it fails to measure the true attitudes of respondents

it is not unlikely that peoples’ answers will be influences by previous questions, or

will heavily concentrate on one response side (agree/disagree). Frequently, people
avoid choosing the “extremes” options on the scale, because of the negative
implications involved with “extremists”, even if an extreme choice would be the
most accurate.