Definition
Rather than asking respondents simply whether they agree or accept an opinion statement, Likert scale items asked how strongly they agree or disagree with it, usually on a 5- or 7-point scale from 1 (= strongly agree) to 5 or 7 (= strongly disagree), with 3 being a neutral feeling or category.
Description
Likert scales have probably become the most popular attitude scale format for measuring public opinion on any issue. (It is an attitude scale, then, and is not appropriate for measuring behaviors, as it is often mistakenly claimed, in terms of frequency scales running from doing an activity “quite often” to “sometimes” to “never.”)
While having the value of measuring degree or strength of one’s opinion, Likert scale items still are subject to the important and pervasive measurement liability of “agreement response set,” which is the tendency for survey respondents to agree with any statement in order to appear positive or agreeable. Survey methodologists (e.g., Krosnick, 1999...
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References
Krosnick, J. (1999). Maximizing questionnaire quality. In J. Robinson, P. Shaver, & L. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measures of Political Attitudes (pp. 50–69). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 140, 1–55.
Robinson, J. (1973). Toward a more appropriate use of Guttman scaling. Public Opinion Quarterly, 27, 260–267.
Robinson, J. (1999). Criteria for scale evaluation. In J. Robinson, P. Shaver, & L. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measures of political attitudes. New York: Academic.
Schuman, H., & Presser, S. (1981). Questions and answers in attitude surveys. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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Robinson, J. (2014). Likert Scale. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1654
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1654
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