Likert Scale: Explored and Explained
Ankur Joshi *
Department of Community Medicine, Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, 462001, India
Saket Kale
Technical Support Unit, Madhya Pradesh State AIDS Control Society, India.
Satish Chandel
Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, India
D. K. Pal
Department of Community Medicine, Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, 462001, India
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Likert scale is applied as one of the most fundamental and frequently used psychometric tools in educational and social sciences research. Simultaneously, it is also subjected to a lot of debates and controversies in regards with the analysis and inclusion of points on the scale. With this context, through reviewing the available literature and then clubbing the received information with coherent scientific thinking, this paper attempts to gradually build a construct around Likert scale. This analytical review begins with the necessity of psychometric tools like Likert scale andits variants and focuses on some convoluted issues like validity, reliability and analysis of the scale.
Keywords: Psychometrics, Likert scale, points on scale, analysis, education