论文信息 - Number of Scale Points and the Reliability of Scales

Number of Scale Points and the Reliability of Scales

a true-false, two-point scale is used; in a Likert-type attitude scale (Likert, 1932), a five-point scale is employed; and in the California F-scale (Adorno, et al, 1950) or the Semantic Differential (Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum, 1957), a seven-point scale is employed. Clearly, scales which employ a two-point scale such as agreedisagree, true-false, etc., are much shorter and more convenient to administer and score. If so, why do so many investigators recommend and use the seven-point scale? One obvious criterion for the choice of the number of scale cate-

S. S. Komorita | William K. Graham | S. Komorita | W. K. Graham

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