1. Scale construction
(Class presentation)
Babita Thapa
KU, Nepal
16th May 2013

2. Contents
What is scale ?
Rating and attitude scale
Process of attitude scale construction
Types
Dissertation review
Conclusion

3. Scale is…..
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/scalge
n.php

4. Attitude scale
Rating scale
 Used to measure the
 Used to measure socio
morale, character,
social participation,
frustration
economic status,
communities and HH
condition
 A group of statements
to respondents and
measure attitude more
comprehensively
 A single statement is
provided to respondents
and their reaction is
noted
(Ravilochanan P., 2005)

5. Steps for constructing attitude scale
 Step 1 :Definition of universe
 Step 2 :Collection of statements
 Step 3 :Editing of statements
 Step 4 :Selection of scalable statements
 Step 5 :Treating the statements with available
techniques of attitude scale construction
 Step 6:Testing the Reliability and validity of the
scale
(Chandrakandan, Venkatapirabu, Sekar, & Anandakumar, 2001)

6. Techniques
•
Thustone scale
• Likert scale
• Guttman’s Scale
•
Semantic Differential
• Bogardus Social Distance Scale
(Babbie, 2007)

7. Thurstone Scale
 First formal method to measure attitude
 Developed by Louis Leon Thurstone in 1928
 Made up of statements about the particular
issues
 Each statement has a numerical value indicating
how favorable or unfavorable it to be judge
 Check each statement agree or disagree
 Mean score is computed indicating their attitude

8. Likert Scale
 A popular means for measuring attitudes
 Developed by Rensis Likert in 1932
 Set of attitude items, all of which are considered
of approx. equal attitude value
 Respondents are asked to indicate their level of
agreement with a given statement by way of an
ordinal scale
Example: It is more fund to play football than
Cricket

9. Likert(contd.)
 The score of items of such a scale are summed
and averaged to yield the individual attitude score
Characteristics:
 One item is the same as any other item in attitude
value
 Any subset of universe is theoretically the same
as any other subset of universe
 Allow for the intensity of attitude expression,
subject can agree or they can agree strongly

10. Guttmane Scaling
 Developed by Louis Guttmane in 1950
 Also known as cumulative scaling or
scalogram analysis; One-dimensional
 From a set of statements in which respondent
who agrees with any specific statement in the list
will also agree with all previous statements.
 For example, imagine a ten-item cumulative
scale. If the respondent scores a four, it should
mean that he/she agreed with the first four
statements

11. Dissertations Review
Dissertation #1 Principal’s competencies: Perception
and practices in the secondary schools of Lalitpur
district; MA; Chandrayan Pradhan Shrestha, 2011
Dissertation #2 Influence of leadership style of
principals on school climate and commitment of teacher
;Mphil; John M. Vanlalhrita, 2009



Both Dissertation used Likert scale. In Disertation 1,
1-5 level of performance of competencies exhibited
by the school principal and in Dissertation 2 on
student perception 4 point likert scale was used.
Likert scale for both dissertation looks fine to find
out the competency and attitude
But , few statements in the scale s is quite lengthy
for the audiences.

12. References
Babbie, E. (2007). Research Method in Sociology.
New Delhi: Cengage Learning India Private
Limited.
Chandrakandan, K., Venkatapirabu, J., Sekar, V., &
Anandakumar, V. (2001). Tests and
measurements in social research. New Delhi:
A.P.H. Publishing Cooperation.
Kerlinger, F. N. (2008). Foundations of Behavioral
Research. Delhi: Surjeet Publications.
Ravilochanan, P. (2005). Research Methodology.
Chennai: Margham Publications.
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hp