Likert scales

Likert scales

1. Commonly used to measure attitude

2. Provide a range of responses to a given question or statement

3. Typically offer 5 categories of response

   • There are arguments in favor of scales with 7 or even number of responses

4. Fall within ordinal level of measures

   • Response categories have a rank order
   • Values cannot be presumed equal

5. It is illegitimate to infer that Likert scales are interval scales

   • Descriptive and inferential statistics differ for ordinal and interval variables.
     • The use of wrong statistical techniques might lead to wrong conclusions about research's significance
     • The mean and standard deviation are innappropiate for ordinal data

6. Those issues related to levels of measurement and appropriateness of mean, standard deviation and parametric statistics should be considered in the research design state and must be addressed by the authors