Research Flashcards
(5 cards)
What is a Thurston scale?
A list of statements relating to a concept or issue.
Individuals are then given the statements and asked to answer whether they agree or disagree with each statement.
A person who disagrees with all the items has a score of zero. So, the advantage of this scale is that it is an interval measurement scale.
What is a Likert scale?
Here, respondents are asked to indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a series of statements. Each scale item has 5 response categories ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
What is a semantic differential scale?
Involves presenting pairs of bipolar, or opposite, adjectives at either end of a series of scales.
Like the Likert scale, a five- or seven-point scale is commonly used.
E.g. comparing a group of individuals by an aspect of their personality such as dominant or submissive (bipolar labels).
Each individual could have any score from 1 (submissive) to 7 (dominant) with a score of 3-4 being neutral.
What is a Guttman scale?
Also called cumulative scaling or scalogram analysis is created with elements that can possibly be ordered in a hierarchical manner.
Respondents are presented with a list of statements. It can be inferred that respondents who agree to the statement placed at the end of this list, would have agreed to all the other statements above the last one. Each statement will have a corresponding weight associated with it.
What is a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)?
Typically consists of a straight line with endpoints defining extreme limits such as ‘no pain’ and ‘worst imaginable pain’. Respondents mark a point on the line that represents their perception of the variable being measured. The VAS provides a continuous measure of the variable.
