Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In designing the
statements
for Likert scales, you need to be careful how you
word them. You should avoid adverbs such as
very
,
extremely
, or
absolutely
in the
statements and use unmodified versions of adjectives. For example, the state-
ment “This website is beautiful” may yield results that are quite different from
“This website is absolutely beautiful,” which may decrease the likelihood of
strong agreement.
WHO WAS LIKERT?
Many people have heard of Likert scales, but not many know where the name came from
or even how to pronounce it! It's pronounced “LICK-ert,” not “LIKE-ert.” This type of
scale is named for Rensis Likert, who created it in 1932.
6.2.2 Semantic Differential Scales
The semantic differential technique involves presenting pairs of bipolar, or
opposite, adjectives at either end of a series of scales, such as the following:
Weak
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Strong
Ugly
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Beautiful
Cool
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Warm
Amateur
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Professional
Like the Likert scale, a five- or seven-point scale is commonly used. The dif-
ficult part about the semantic differential technique is coming up with words
that are truly opposites. Sometimes a thesaurus can be helpful since it includes
antonyms. But you need to be aware of the connotations of different pairings of
words. For example, a pairing of “Friendly/Unfriendly” may have a somewhat
different connotation and yield different results from “Friendly/Not Friendly”
or “Friendly/Hostile.”
OSGOOD'S SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL
The semantic differential technique was developed by Charles E. Osgood (Osgood et al.,
1957), who designed it to measure the connotations of words or concepts. Using factor
analysis of large sets of semantic differential data, he found three recurring attitudes that
people used in assessing words and phrases: evaluation (such as “good/bad”), potency
(such as “strong/weak”), and activity (such as “passive/active”).
Search WWH ::
Custom Search