SUBJECT: English 058 - Research Methods

Topic: Likert Scale

REPORTERS:
Dallas D. Baghari: 09664133496
Maylyn S. Tupas : 09561723110

FULL TEXT

Good day everyone! Welcome to our new lesson. Reporters for this new lesson are Maylyn Tupas and

Ma’am Dallas Baghari.

Have you ever answered a question that asked you how much you agree or disagree with something? That

kind of question is known as a Likert scale. What is Likert Scale? Likert scale is named after their creator,

American social scientist Rensis Likert.

Let’s explore what makes up a Likert scale, find examples, understand when you should use this tool, and
see how you can put it to work for your own surveys.

So, what is a Likert scale? Likert Scale is a rating scale used to assess opinions, attitudes, or behaviors. This

is made up of questions that enable respondents to indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a

given statement, or express a neutral response. It’s a question that commonly uses a 5 or 7-point scale,

sometimes referred to as a satisfaction scale, that ranges from one extreme attitude to another. Likert scales

are widely used to measure attitudes, behaviors and opinions, with a greater degree of nuance than a simple

“yes/no” question allowing the researcher to produce quantitative data for analysis. Typically, the Likert
survey question includes a moderate or neutral option in its scale. Allowing you to uncover degrees of

opinion that could make a real difference in understanding the feedback you’re getting. There are several

variations or types of this.

As to when should you use a Likert Scale? It depends on what you are trying to measure. You might want to

measure satisfaction, likelihood, agreement or quality or maybe you want to measure importance or maybe

frequency…it depends on your study.

Heres’ an example if frequency is what you are trying to measure. Heres’ an example if agreement is what

you are trying to measure. Heres’ an example if satisfaction is what you are trying to check.

Likert Scale commonly have 5 or 7 response items. Examples of 5 items are this one and the examples
flashed earlier. This one is the example of 7 response items. As you can see, there are seven options.

Likert scales commonly have 5 or 7 items, and the items on each end are called response anchors. The
midpoint is often a neutral item with positive items on one side and negative items on the other. Each item is
given a score from 1–5 or 1–7.
Just remember that the more multiple choice options available, the greater the likelihood of potential
confusion and survey abandonment. The best practice is to offer fewer choices. 4-7 choices is commonly
used. You can then probe deeper with a follow-up question to uncover the reasons why.

As to matters of number of attributes that you want to measure, use either unipolar or bipolar scale. On a
unipolar scale, you measure only one attribute (e.g., satisfaction), but on a bipolar scale, you measure two
attributes (e.g., satisfaction or dissatisfaction) on a continuum.
EXAMPLE OF UNIPOLAR

How satisfied are you with the range of organic products available?

Not at all satisfied Somewhat satisfied Satisfied Very satisfied Extremely satisfied

EXAMPLE OF BIPOLAR
How satisfied are you with the range of organic products available? -Extremely dissatisfied -Dissatisfied
-Neither dissatisfied nor satisfied -Satisfied -Extremely satisfied

Your choice depends on your research questions and aims of course. If you want finer-grained details about
one attribute, select unipolar items. If you want to allow a broader range of responses, select bipolar items.

Now, how do you analyze the Likert scale date? Before you analyze data from Likert-type questions and

Likert scales, it’s important to consider what type you’re dealing with.

Your data can be divided into these two different types because they are associated with separate analysis
procedures.

 data from individual Likert-type questions are treated as ordinal level.

 data from the overall Likert scale are treated as interval level.

Now, you can treat the collected data either through descriptive statistics or inferential statistics depending on your
study.

In descriptive statistic for ordinal data, get an overall impression of your sample, you find the mode, or most
common score, for each question. You also create a bar chart for each question to visualize the frequency of
each item choice.

In descriptive statistic for interval data, you add up the scores from each question to get the total score for
each participant. You find the mean, or average, score and the standard deviation, or spread, of the scores for
your sample.

In Inferential statistic for ordinal data treatment example, (individual Likert-scale questions), use non-
parametric tests such as Spearman’s correlation or chi-square test for independence.

For interval data (overall Likert scale scores), use parametric tests such as Pearson’s r correlation or t-tests.

Before we proceed to the designing of Likert -type questions and scale, let us first take a look at its
Strengths and limitations, so we could know and be guided in our choice in designing of questions and
statements later.
Likert scales are a practical and accessible method of collecting data to any of the following:

 Quantitative: Likert scales easily operationalize complex phenomena by breaking down abstract

topics into recordable observations. This enables statistical testing of hypotheses.
 Fine-grained: Because Likert-type questions aren’t binary (yes/no, true/false, etc.) you can get
detailed insights into perceptions, opinions and behaviors.
 User-friendly: Unlike open-ended questions, Likert scales are closed-ended and don’t ask
respondents to generate ideas or justify their opinions. This makes them quick for respondents to fill
out and can easily yield data from large samples.

Problems with Likert scales often come from inappropriate design choices such as follow:

 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: In Likert scales with many questions, respondents can get bored and lose
interest. They may absentmindedly select responses regardless of their true feelings. This results in
invalid responses.
 Subjective interpretation: Some items can be vague and interpreted very differently by
respondents. Words like “somewhat” or “fair” don’t have precise or narrow definitions.

 Restricted choice: Since Likert-type questions are closed-ended, respondents sometimes have to

choose the most relevant answer even if it may not accurately reflect reality.

Now, we can finally proceed to designing Likert-type questions keeping in mind the inappropriate design

choices mentioned earlier. Here’s Ma’am Dallas Baghari for Designing Likert -type questions. A Likert

scale is made up of 4 or more questions that assesses a single attitude or trait when response scores are

combined. Each question may measure a separate component of that overall topic.

For example, if you want to assess attitudes towards environmentally-friendly behaviors, you can design a
Likert scale with a variety of questions that measure different aspects of this topic. How can you make sure
that you have designed a good Likert questionnaire? Here are the criteria you need to keep in mind.

1. Determine what you want to measure. You can’t use it to measure a lot of factors, it works
best when you want to know about one thing.

2. Phrasing as questions vs statements

Both statements and questions are often used in Likert scales. Using a mix of both can keep your
participants engaged and attentive during your survey. When deciding how to phrase questions and
statements, it’s important to ensure that they are easily understood and do not bias your respondents in one
way or another.

3. Use both positive and negative statements

Use both positive and negative frames in your questions and statements. If all your questions only ask about
things in socially desirable ways, your participants may be biased towards agreeing with all of them to show
themselves in a positive light.

EXAMPLE OF POSITIVE FRAMING

Environmental damage caused by single use water bottles is a serious problem.-Strongly disagree -Disagree-
Neither agree nor disagree-Agree-Strongly agree
EXAMPLE OF NEGATIVE FRAMING
Banning single use water bottles is pointless for reducing environmental damage. -Strongly disagree
-Disagree-Neither agree nor disagree- Agree- Strongly agree
Respondents who agree with the first statement should also disagree with the second. By including both of
these statements in a long survey, you can also check whether the participants’ responses are reliable and
consistent.

4. Avoid double negatives

Double negatives can lead to confusion and misinterpretations as respondents will be unsure of what they
are agreeing to.

BAD EXAMPLE
I never buy non-organic products.-Strongly disagree -Disagree -Neither agree nor disagree -Agree- Strongly
agree
GOOD EXAMPLE
I try to buy organic products whenever possible.-Strongly disagree -Disagree-Neither agree nor disagree-
Agree -Strongly agree

5. Ask about only one thing at a time

If you use double-barreled questions, your respondents may selectively answer about one topic but ignore
the other, or try to pick a neutral but inaccurate answer.

BAD EXAMPLE

How would you rate your knowledge of climate change and food systems?

Very poor Poor Fair Good Excellent

GOOD EXAMPLE

How would you rate your knowledge of climate change?

Very poor Poor Fair Good Excellent

How would you rate your knowledge of food systems?

Very poor Poor Fair Good Excellent

6. No two items should be similar in the response options

Avoid overlaps in the items. If two items have similar meanings, it makes your respondent’s choice random.

BAD EXAMPLE
Environmental damage caused by single use water bottles is a serious problem.

Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Indifferent Disagree Strongly disagree

GOOD EXAMPLE
Environmental damage caused by single use water bottles is a serious problem.-Strongly agree-Agree-
Neither agree nor disagree-Disagree-Strongly disagree

Now, that we have explored what makes up a Likert scale and the Likert -type questions, we have seen and
examined the examples, understood when to use this tool (I hope), and saw how we can put it to work for
our own surveys, let’s now have the ….activity time!!!

Fill - in what is missing in order to complete the Likert-type questionnaire. Be guided with the following

criteria we discussed earlier:

-both statements and questions are used to keep respondents engaged and attentive
-both positive and negative statements are used
-double negatives are avoided
-only one thing was asked at a time
-no two items have similar meanings in the response items

So, here’s a likert-type questionnaire and scale sample. Together, we will try to make the

questionnaire desirable as we follow the criteria.

Questions/statement Strongly Disagree Neither agree Strongly

s agree agree nor agree

disagree

Do you agree that

Likert Scale lesson

was properly

discussed?

ICT application is

maximized.
 I find the lesson

discussion

confusing.

The lesson

presentation was

interesting.

The presentation

used was

appropriate to the

target audience.

Excellent! You did good! Thank you for participating!

And that’s it! We have finally tried making Likert scale of our own. That ends our topic. Thank you

for listening!