Response Scale Construction

Question 1

Magnitude response scale:

Answer 1

The scale goes from never to always (0 is on the left vs. in the middle)

Question 2

Balanced response scale:

Answer 2

The scale has both positive and negative responses with 0 in the middle

Question 3

Should your response scale be balanced or magnitude?

Answer 3

Conceptual decision - sort of depends on the situation

Question 4

Should you include a neutral point?

Answer 4

Personal preference, one pro is that some people really are ambivalent about the item, but a con is that people take the neutral point for other reasons, such that they don’t want to disclose their actual thoughts.

Question 5

How many points should the response scale have?

Answer 5

4-7

Question 6

Should you label the scale options? Why?

Answer 6

Yes, all of them - not just the anchors. People might create their own label and then it becomes a standardization issue.