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“How to quantify Likert Scale type data”
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quantify Likert Scale type data”

This topic contains 5 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by
(https://www.methodspace.com/members/DaveCollingridge201/) Dave Collingridge
(https://www.methodspace.com/members/DaveCollingridge201/) 4 years, 5 months ago
(https://www.methodspace.com/forums/topic/how-to-quantify-likert-scale-type-data/#post-
1111).

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

Author
Posts
28th March 2014 at 12:26 pm #1106 (https://www.methodspace.com/forums/topic/how-to-
quantify-likert-scale-type-data/page/112/#post-1106)

(https://www.methodspace.com/members/KassaTeshagerAlemu/)

Kassa Teshager Alemu (https://www.methodspace.com/members/KassaTeshagerAlemu/)

Member
Dear All, I am currently Analyzing a data collected by likert scale items. I want to
quantify in the form of index or mean value. is there a simple way to do it in SPSS?
Again how reliable the data could be to infer..

28th March 2014 at 4:00 pm #1111 (https://www.methodspace.com/forums/topic/how-to-

quantify-likert-scale-type-data/#post-1111)

(https://www.methodspace.com/members/DaveCollingridge201/)

Dave Collingridge (https://www.methodspace.com/members/DaveCollingridge201/)

Participant
One way to aggregate Likert-type scales is to sum individuals’ values across
questions and then divide by the number of questions you combined. You should
run a principal components analysis first to find out whether questions load onto
the same components. Questions loading onto the same components can be
combined. Questions that do not load onto components can be analyzed separately
with non-parametric statistics.

29th March 2014 at 12:06 pm #1110 (https://www.methodspace.com/forums/topic/how-to-

quantify-likert-scale-type-data/#post-1110)

(https://www.methodspace.com/members/StephenGorard/)

Stephen Gorard (https://www.methodspace.com/members/StephenGorard/)

Participant
My advice would be – don’t. Ideally you would have worked out what you wanted to
do before collecting data so that you could ensure that what you collected was the
right stuff in the right format for your research question(s).

What you seem to be proposing has several problems. First, the responses you have
are ordinal classifications not scores. Second, averaging across items (even if they
were scores) is an error. If the items correlate highly (+/-1.0 or near) then it shows
you have asked the same question repeatedly (wasting respondent time). If they
correlate little (+/-0.7 or lower, meaning that over half of the variance is unique to
each item), then adding them would be like adding a height to a maths test score. If
the error in each item is random, the only reason really for asking the question
several times, then repeating the question must reduce the accuracy of the average
responses.

9th April 2014 at 12:08 am #1109 (https://www.methodspace.com/forums/topic/how-to-

quantify-likert-scale-type-data/#post-1109)

(https://www.methodspace.com/members/AlexanderEssienTimothy/)

Alexander Essien Timothy

(https://www.methodspace.com/members/AlexanderEssienTimothy/)
Participant
Hi Massa, I suppose your scale has up to five categories. You probably have the
following responses: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, undecided.
For positive statements such as: ‘I wash my hands before eating,’ you’ll score the
response thus – SA -5; A – 4; D – 3; SD- 2; UD -1. Then sum all the scores on the
responses pertaining to the particular variable for each respondent. The sum of
scores of the respondents on the variable can then be calculated and divided by the
total number of respondents to have your mean.

I hope this helps.

Alex
 9th April 2014 at 5:14 am #1108 (https://www.methodspace.com/forums/topic/how-to-
quantify-likert-scale-type-data/#post-1108)

(https://www.methodspace.com/members/ProfDrSubhadraIyengarPhD/)

Prof.Dr.Subhadra Iyengar,PhD
(https://www.methodspace.com/members/ProfDrSubhadraIyengarPhD/)
Member
Hello Kassa

You are using the most standradised tool, or a scale, likert scale. Your data should be
highly acurate. then why do you again want to requantify. For each sample take the
total score aggeregate and divided by n, that is how you get mean score.

As per the rule of thumb, in this scale , the 5 point, ranging from most to least agree.
SA,A,UN,D,SD. Positive 5,4 3,2,1 and negative statements reverse1,2,3,4,5. So now
when youb have total the scores of all the item you get exact score.(remebr
positive+negative gets nullified). Then you take the mean.

This is the standard method in quantitaive research, which scholars here do.

Prof.Dr.Subhadra Iyengar,PhD

HOD,Research department,PSG,Coimbatore,TamilNadu,India

9th April 2014 at 12:01 pm #1107 (https://www.methodspace.com/forums/topic/how-to-

quantify-likert-scale-type-data/#post-1107)

(https://www.methodspace.com/members/KassaTeshagerAlemu/)

Kassa Teshager Alemu (https://www.methodspace.com/members/KassaTeshagerAlemu/)

Member
Dear all,

thank you very much for your inputs. I have managed to do it accordingly.

Author
Posts

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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