This theoretical bias is reduced as the number of response categories is increased, though the psychological effect of presenting distinct response categories may still persist (Schwarz, 1999). In case the true value of the respondent is located between response options, Likert-type responses are potentially systematically biased upwards or downwards. They avoid the systematic bias of values resulting from scale coarseness, a problem present when using items with distinct response categories that are meant to measure a continuous latent variable (Aguinis, Pierce, & Culpepper, 2009). These scales offer a number of advantages over Likert-type scales with regard to psychometric properties and are easy to implement online (Reips & Funke, 2008).Ī theoretical advantage over discrete scales like radio button scales often used on the Internet is that answers are not restricted to a certain number of response options but very fine gradations can be measured. An alternative to Likert-type scales are visual analogue scales (VASs). In measuring the degree of agreement with a statement, the response options are often presented in a Likert-type scale with a certain number of ordinal answer options.
#Analog scales how to
When designing an online survey, the question of how to design items and which response options to present depends on a different set of rules than in offline surveys (e.g., Callegaro, Lozar Manfreda, & Vehovar, 2015 Hewson, Vogel, & Laurent, 2015). Internet-based questionnaires and tests are becoming more and more common in psychology and other social sciences (e.g., Reips, 2008 Reips & Birnbaum, 2011). VASs showed similar properties to Likert-type response scales in most cases.Ĭonducting research via the Internet is considered a second revolution in behavioral research after the computer revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s that brought about many advantages over widely used paper-and-pencil procedures (e.g., automated measurement, better precision). The associations were largely identical, with the exception of an increase in explained variance when predicting age from the VAS version of Excitement Seeking (B 10 =1318.95, ΔR 2=.025). Both response scales showed a high overlap and the proposed relationships with age and gender. To assess the validity of the measurements, age and gender were used as criteria, because all three constructs have shown non-zero correlations with age and gender in previous research. Results show comparable reliabilities, means, and SDs for the VAS versions of the original scales, in comparison to Likert-type scales. The questionnaire contained all instruments in both answer scale versions in a counterbalanced design. A sample of 879 participants filled out an online questionnaire measuring Conscientiousness, Excitement Seeking, and Narcissism. The present study expands the comparison of response scales to properties of Internet-based personality scales in a within-subjects design. Visual analogue scales (VASs) have shown superior measurement qualities in comparison to traditional Likert-type response scales in previous studies.
0 kommentar(er)
