Response Alternatives in Likert Scaling

Abstract

Over the past several years, numerous questions have arisen pertaining to response alternatives for Likert scaling. Specifically, both two-column and one-column Likert formats are commonly used in educational and psychological measurement. Which format, however, is to be preferred? Is one format superior to the other and under what restraints? This study makes a start toward clarifying these issues by analyzing the results of applying two different methods of Likert-scale construction (single-column and discrepancy-column formats). The findings indicate that the discrepancy format clearly provides stronger discrimination for purposes of measuring need than does the single-column approach.