Business Research Methods

Unit 3
Scaling & measurement techniques
Three fresh MBAs joined a consulting company. The first assignment given to them was
to design and conduct a study to compare the perception of the patrons of Domino’s
Pizza with Pizza Hut. As the first step, they conducted an exploratory research by
informally talking to the management of both the pizza joints. They also conducted
three focus groups so as to gain insight into what the consumers are actually looking at
while buying pizza. The output of the unstructured interviews and focus groups
resulted in identifying various information needs that could be used in designing the
relevant questionnaire. Some of the relevant information was on gender, age, income,
frequency and occasion of eating pizza, ranking of the attributes that are sought while
choosing pizza joints, and comparative perceptions of Domino’s and Pizza Hut. This
information was to be employed in designing the questionnaire.
One question that came into the minds of the three MBAs was how to measure the
attitude and analyse the information thus obtained from the survey. For this, it was
necessary to assign numbers or symbols to the characteristics of the objects.
Assignment of numbers permits a statistical analysis of the data. The numbers assigned
and the subsequent analysis could be different, depending upon the type of question
asked. On one hand, there can be questions used to measure different psychological
aspects such as attitude, perception, image and preference of people with the help of a
certain pre-defined set of stimuli. On the other hand, there can be questions on gender,
marital status, ranking preference for different flavors, income and age.
 What is Measurement?

- The term ‘measurement’ means assigning numbers or some other

symbols to the characteristics of certain objects.

- When numbers are used, the researcher must have a rule for
assigning a number to an observation in a way that provides an
accurate description.

- We do not measure the object but some characteristics of it.

- Therefore, in research, people/consumers are not measured; what

is measured only are their perceptions, attitude or any other
relevant characteristics.

- There are two reasons for which numbers are usually assigned.
- First of all, numbers permit statistical analysis of the resulting data
and secondly, they facilitate the communication of measurement
results.
 What is Scaling?
- Scaling is an extension of measurement.

- Scaling involves creating a continuum on which measurements on objects are

located.
(A Continuum is a continuous series where all parts are very similar to their
nearest neighbour, but the ends or extremes of it are different from each other)

- Suppose you want to measure the satisfaction level towards Jet-Airways

Airlines and a scale of 1 to 11 is used for the said purpose.

- This scale indicates the degree of dissatisfaction, with 1 = extremely dissatisfied

and 11 = extremely satisfied.

- Measurement is the actual assignment of a number from 1 to 11 to each

respondent whereas the scaling is the process of placing the respondent on a
continuum with respect to their satisfaction towards Jet Airways.
 Problems faced in Measurement

Errors in Measurement should be precise and unambiguous in an ideal

research study. This objective, however, is often not met with in entirety. As
such the researcher must be aware about the sources of error in
measurement. The following are the possible sources of error or problems
faced in measurement.
Respondent: At times the respondent may be reluctant to express strong negative feelings or it is just possible
that he may have very little knowledge but may not admit his ignorance. All this reluctance is likely to result in
an interview of ‘guesses.’ Transient factors like fatigue, boredom, anxiety, etc. may limit the ability of the
respondent to respond accurately and fully.

Situation: Situational factors may also come in the way of correct measurement. Any condition which places a
strain on interview can have serious effects on the interviewer-respondent rapport. For instance, if someone
else is present, he can distort responses by joining in or merely by being present. If the respondent feels that
anonymity is not assured, he may be reluctant to express certain feelings.

Measurer: The interviewer can distort responses by rewording or reordering questions. His behaviour, style
and looks may encourage or discourage certain replies from respondents. Careless mechanical processing may
distort the findings. Errors may also creep in because of incorrect coding, faulty tabulation and/or statistical
calculations, particularly in the data-analysis stage.

Instrument: Error may arise because of the defective measuring instrument. The use of complex words,
beyond the comprehension of the respondent, ambiguous meanings, poor printing, inadequate space for
replies, response choice omissions, etc. are a few things that make the measuring instrument defective and
may result in measurement errors. Another type of instrument deficiency is the poor sampling of the universe
of items of concern.
Researcher must know that correct measurement depends on successfully meeting all of the problems listed
above. He must, to the extent possible, try to eliminate, neutralize or otherwise deal with all the possible
sources of error so that the final results may not be contaminated.
Reliability

Reliability is the overall consistency of a measure Validity

A measure is said to have a high reliability if it Validity is the extent to which a concept,
produces similar results under consistent conditions conclusion or measurement is well founded and
corresponds accurately to the real world
It is the characteristic of a set of test scores that
relates to the amount of random error from the The validity of a measurement tool (for example, a
measurement process that might be embedded in
test in education) is considered to be the degree to
the scores.
which the tool measures what it claims to measure
in this case, the validity is an equivalent to accuracy
Scores that are highly reliable are accurate,
reproducible, and consistent from one testing
occasion to another Validity is important because it can help determine
what types of tests to use, and help to make sure
That is, if the testing process were repeated with a researchers are using methods that are not only
group of test takers, essentially the same results ethical, and cost effective, but also a method that
would be obtained truly measures the idea or construct in question

For example, measurements of people's height and

weight are often extremely reliable
 TYPES OF MEASUREMENT SCALE

There are four types of measurement scales

—nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales.
The choice of the measurement scale has
implications for the statistical technique to
be used for data analysis.
 Nominal scale
This is the lowest level of measurement. Here, numbers are assigned for the purpose of
identification of the objects. Any object which is assigned a higher number is in no way
superior to the one which is assigned a lower number. In the nominal scale there is a strict
one-to-one correspondence between the numbers and the objects. Each number is assigned
to only one object and each object has only one number assigned to it.

Examples of nominal scale:

What is your religion?
(a) Hinduism
(b) Sikhism
(c) Christianity
(d) Islam
(e) Any other, (please specify)

A Hindu may be assigned a number 1, a Sikh may be assigned a number 2, a Christian may be
assigned a number 3 and so on. Any religion which is assigned a higher number is in no way
superior to the one which is assigned a lower number. The assignment of numbers is only for
the purpose of identification.
- Nominal scale measurements are used for identifying food habits (vegetarian
or non-vegetarian), gender (male/female), caste, respondents, brands, attributes,
stores, the players of a hockey team and so on.

- The assigned numbers cannot be added, subtracted, multiplied or divided.

- The only arithmetic operations that can be carried out are the count of each
category.

- Therefore, a frequency distribution table can be prepared for the nominal scale
variables and mode of the distribution can be worked out.

- One can also use chi square test and compute contingency coefficient using
nominal scale variables.
 Ordinal scale

- This is the next higher level of measurement than the nominal scale measurement.

- One of the limitations of the nominal scale measurements is that we cannot say whether
the assigned number to an object is higher or lower than the one assigned to another
option. The ordinal scale measurement takes care of this limitation.

- An ordinal scale measurement tells whether an object has more or less of characteristics
than some other objects. However, it cannot answer how much more or how much less.

- An ordinal scale tells us the relative positions of the objects and not the difference
between the magnitudes of the objects. Suppose Shashi scores the highest marks in
marketing and is ranked no. 1; Mohan scores the second highest marks and is ranked no.
2; and Krishna scores third highest marks and is ranked no. 3.

- However, from this statement we cannot say whether the difference in the marks scored
by Shashi and Mohan is the same as between Mohan and Krishna. The only statement
which can be made under ordinal scale is that Shashi has scored higher than Mohan and
Mohan has scored higher than Krishna.
 Rank the following attributes while choosing a
restaurant for dinner. The most important
attribute may be ranked 1, the next important
may be assigned a rank 2 and so on:

Attribute Rank
Food Quality 2
Prices 4
Menu Variety 3
Ambience 1
Service 5
- In the ordinal scale, the assigned ranks cannot be added, multiplied,
subtracted or divided.

- One can compute median, percentiles and quartiles of the distribution

- The other major statistical analysis which can be carried out is the rank
order correlation coefficient, sign test.

- As the ordinal scale measurement is higher than the nominal scale

measurement, all the statistical techniques which are applicable in the case
of nominal scale measurement can also be used for the ordinal scale
measurement.
 Interval scale

- The interval scale measurement is the next higher

level of measurement.
- It takes care of the limitation of the ordinal scale
measurement where the difference between the
score on the ordinal scale does not have any
meaningful interpretation.
- In the interval scale the difference of the score on the
scale has meaningful interpretation.
- It is assumed that the respondent is able to answer
the questions on a continuum scale.
The interval type allows for the degree of difference
between items, but not the ratio between them

A normal survey rating scale is an interval scale for

instance when asked to rate satisfaction with a training
on a 5 point scale, from Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral,
Disagree and Strongly Disagree, an interval scale is being
used
- The numbers on this scale can be added, subtracted, multiplied or
divided.

- One can compute arithmetic mean, standard deviation, correlation

coefficient and conduct a t-test, Z-test, regression analysis and factor
analysis.

- As the interval scale data can be converted into the ordinal and the
nominal scale data, therefore all the techniques applicable for the
ordinal and the nominal scale data can also be used for interval
scale data.
 Ratio scale

- This is the highest level of measurement and takes care

of the limitations of the interval scale measurement,
where the ratio of the measurements on the scale does
not have a meaningful interpretation.

Ratio scales of measurement include

properties from all four scales of measurement.
The data is nominal and defined by an identity,
can be classified in order, contains intervals
and can be broken down into exact value.
-Examples of the ratio scale data are weight, distance travelled, income and sales
of a company, to mention a few. Consider the following examples for ratio scale
measurements:
• How many chemist shops are there in your locality?
• How many students are there in the MBA programme at IIFT?
• How much distance do you need to travel from your residence to reach the
railway station?

- All the mathematical operations can be carried out using the ratio scale data.

- In addition to the statistical analysis mentioned in the interval, the ordinal and
the nominal scale data, one can compute coefficient of variation, geometric
mean and harmonic mean using the ratio scale measurement.
 ATTITUDE

- An attitude is viewed as an enduring disposition to respond consistently in a

given manner to various aspects of the world, including persons, events and
objects.

- A company is able to sell its products or services when its customers have a
favorable attitude towards its products/services.

- In the reverse scenario, the company will not be able to sustain itself for long.

- It, therefore, becomes very important to measure the attitude of the customers
towards the company’s products/services.

- Unfortunately, attitude cannot be measured directly. There are many variables

which the researcher wishes to investigate as psychological variables and these
cannot be directly observed.

- The attitude is derived from the perceptions.

 Components of Attitude

Attitude has three components:

1. Cognitive
2. Affective
3. Intention
 Cognitive component
- This component represents an individual’s information and knowledge about
an object.
- It includes awareness of the existence of the object, beliefs about the
characteristics or attributes of the object and judgment about the relative
importance of each of the attributes.
- In a survey, if the respondents are asked to name the companies
manufacturing plastic products, some respondents may remember names like
Tupperware, Cello and Pearl Pet. This is called unaided recall awareness.
- More names are likely to be remembered when the investigator makes a
mention of them. This is aided recall.
- It may be noted that the knowledge may not be limited only to the awareness.
- An individual can form beliefs or judgments about the characteristics or
attributes of the plastic products manufacturing companies through
advertisements, word of mouth, peer groups, etc.
- The examples of such beliefs could be that the products of Tupperware are of
high quality, non-toxic and can be used in parties.
 Affective component
- The affective component summarizes a person’s overall feeling or
emotions towards the objects.
- The examples for this component could be: the food cooked in a
pressure cooker is tasty, taste of orange juice is good or the taste of
bitter gourd is very bad.
- If there are a number of alternatives to choose from, liking is
expressed in terms of preference for one alternative over the
other. Among the various soft drinks like Pepsi, Coke, Limca and
Sprite, the respondents might have to indicate the most preferred
soft drinks, the second preferred one and so on.
- This is an example of the affective component.
- The other example could be that the plastic products produced by
Pearl Pet are cheaper than Tupperware products; however, the
quality of Tupperware products is better than that of Pearl Pet.
 Intention or action
component
- This component of an attitude, also called the behavioral component, reflects a
predisposition to an action by reflecting the consumer’s buying or purchase
intention.
- It also reflects a person’s expectations of future behavior towards an object.
- How likely a person is to buy a designer carpet may range from most likely to not
at all likely, reflecting the purchase intentions.
- However, when one is talking about the purchase intentions, a time horizon has
to be kept in mind as the intentions may undergo a change over time.
- The intentions incorporate information regarding the respondent’s willingness
to pay for the product
- There is a relationship between attitude and behavior. If a consumer does not
have a favorable attitude towards the product, he/she will certainly not buy the
product. However, having a favorable attitude does not mean that it would be
reflected in the purchase behavior.
- Eg. Mercedes Benz
- Therefore, the relationship between the attitude and the purchase behavior is a
necessary condition for the purchase of the product but it is not a sufficient
condition.
 CLASSIFICATION OF SCALES
1. Single Item vs Multiple Item Scale
Single item scale: In the single item scale, there is only one item to measure a
given construct. For example:
Consider the following question:
How satisfied are you with your current job?
Very Dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Neutral
Satisfied
Very satisfied
The problem with the above question is that there are many aspects to a job,
like pay, work environment, rules and regulations, security of job and
communication with the seniors.
The respondent may be satisfied on some of the factors but may not on others.
By asking a question as stated above, it will be difficult to analyse the problem
areas.
To overcome this problem, a multiple item scale is proposed.
 Multiple item scale

In multiple item scale, there are many items that play a role in forming the underlying construct that the researcher is trying to
measure. This is because each of the item forms some part of the construct (satisfaction) which the researcher is trying to
measure.

As an example, some of the following questions may be asked in a multiple item scale.

1. How satisfied are you with the pay you are getting on your current job?
Very dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Neutral
Satisfied
Very satisfied

2. How satisfied are you with the rules and regulations of your organization?
Very dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Neutral
Satisfied
Very satisfied

3. How satisfied are you with the job security in your current job?
Very dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Neutral
Satisfied
2. Comparative vs Non-comparative Scales
 Comparative Scales

In comparative scales it is assumed that respondents

make use of a standard frame of reference before
answering the question. For example:
• A question like ‘How do you rate Barista in
comparison to Cafe Coffee Day on quality of
beverages?’ is an example of the comparative
rating scale. It involves the direct comparison of
stimulus objects.
• For example, respondents may be asked whether
they prefer Chinese in comparison to Indian food.
Paired comparison scales:
- Here a respondent is presented with two objects and is asked to select one
according to whatever criterion he or she wants to use.
- The resulting data from this scale is ordinal in nature. As an example, suppose
a parent wants to offer one of the four items to a child—chocolate, burger, ice
cream and pizza.
- The child is offered to choose one out of the two from the six possible pairs,
i.e., chocolate or burger, chocolate or ice cream, chocolate or pizza, burger or
ice cream, burger or pizza and ice cream or pizza.

Paired comparison technique is useful when the number of items is limited

because it requires a direct comparison and overt choice.
 Soft Drink Rank

Limca

Coke

Pepsi

Sprite

7UP

Fanta

Rank order scaling: In the rank order scaling, respondents are presented with several objects
simultaneously and asked to order or rank them according to some criterion. Consider, for
example the following question:
• Rank the following soft drinks in order of your preference, the most preferred soft drink
should be ranked one, the second most preferred should be ranked two and so on.

Like paired comparison, this approach is also comparative in nature. The problem with this
scale is that if a respondent does not like any of the above-mentioned soft drink and is forced
to rank them in the order of his choice, then, the soft drink which is ranked one should be
treated as the least disliked soft drink and similarly, the other rankings can be interpreted.
This scale is very commonly used to measure preferences for brands as well as attributes.
Constant sum rating scaling: In constant sum rating scale, the respondents are asked to allocate a total of 100
points between various objects and brands. The respondent distributes the points to the various objects in the
order of his preference. Consider the following example:
• Allocate a total of 100 points among the various schools into which you would like to admit your child.
The more the points you allocate to a school, more preferred it is to be considered. The points should be
allocated in such a way that the sum total of the points allocated to various schools adds up to 100.

School Points
DAV 30
APPEJAY 5
Modern 5
Mother’s International 15
Laxman Public School 4
Tagore International 6
Amity 35
Total Point 100

This type of data is not only comparative in nature but could also result in ratio scale measurement. This type
of scale is widely used in allocating weights which the consumer may assign to the various attributes of a
product.
Q-sort technique:
- The Q-sort technique was developed to discriminate among a
large number of objects quickly.
- This technique makes use of the rank order procedure in which
objects are sorted into different piles based on their similarity
with respect to certain criterion.
- Suppose there are 100 statements and an individual is asked to
pile them into five groups, in such a way, that the strongly agreed
statements could be put in one pile, agreed statements could be
put in another pile, neutral statements form the third pile,
disagreed statements come in the fourth pile and strongly
disagreed statements form the fifth pile, and so on. The data
generated in this way would be ordinal in nature.
For example, The marketing manager of a
garment manufacturing company sorts
the most efficient marketing executives
based on their past performance, sales
revenue generation, dedication and
growth. The Q-sort scaling was performed
on 60 executives, and the marketing head
creates three piles based on their
efficiency as follows:
 Non-comparative Scales

• In the non-comparative scales, the respondents do not make

use of any frame of reference before answering the questions.
The resulting data is generally assumed to be interval or ratio
scale. For example:
• The respondent may be asked to evaluate the quality of food in
a restaurant on a five point scale (1 = very poor, 2 = poor and 5
= very good).
• The non-comparative scales are divided into two categories,
namely, the graphic rating scales and the itemized rating scales.
• The itemized rating scales are further divided into Likert scale,
semantic differential scale and Stapel scale. All these come
under the category of the multiple item scales.
 Graphic rating scale

• This is a continuous scale, also called graphic rating Scale. In the graphic rating scale the
respondent is asked to tick his preference on a graph. Consider for example the following
question:
• Please put a tick mark ( ) on the following line to indicate your preference for fast food.
 Itemized rating scale

- In the itemized rating scale, the respondents are provided with a scale that has a number of
brief descriptions associated with each of the response categories.
- The response categories are ordered in terms of the scale position and the respondents are
supposed to select the specified category that describes in the best possible way an object is
rated.
- Itemized rating scales are widely used in survey research. There are certain issues that
should be kept in mind while designing the itemized rating scale.

These issues are:

Number of categories to be used: There is no hard and fast rule as to how many categories
should be used in an itemized rating scale. However, it is a practice to use five or six categories.
Some researches are of the opinion that more than five categories should be used in situations
where small changes in attitudes are to be measured.
Odd or even number of categories: It has been a matter of debate among the researchers as to
whether odd or even number of categories are to be used in survey research. By using even
number of categories the scale would not have a neutral category and the respondent will be
forced to choose either the positive or the negative side of the attitude. If odd numbers of
categories are used, the respondent has the freedom to be neutral if he wants to be so .

Very happy
Happy
 Balanced versus unbalanced scales: A balanced scale is the
one which has equal number of favourable and unfavourable
categories. Examples of balanced and unbalanced scale are
given below. The following is the example of a balanced
scale:
• How important is price to you in buying a new car?
Very important
Relatively important
Neither important nor unimportant
Relatively unimportant
Very unimportant
In this question, there are five response categories, two of which emphasize the importance of
price and two others that do not show its importance. The middle category is neutral.

The following is the example of the unbalanced scale.

• How important is price to you in buying a new car?
More important than any other factor
Extremely important
Important
Somewhat important
Unimportant
In the unbalanced scale, the numbers of favourable and unfavourable categories
are not the same.
 Nature and degree of verbal description: Many researchers
believe that each category must have a verbal, numerical or
pictorial description. Verbal description should be clearly and
precisely worded so that the respondents are able to
differentiate between them. It is argued that a clearly defined
response category increases the reliability of the
measurement.
Physical form: There are many options that are available for the presentation of
the scales. It could be presented vertically or horizontally. The categories could
be expressed in boxes, discrete lines or as units on a continuum. They may or
may not have numbers assigned to them. The numerical values, if used, may be
positive, negative or both.
 Types of itemized scales

1. Likert scale:
- This is a multiple item agree–disagree five-point scale.
- The respondents are given a certain number of items (statements) on
which they are asked to express their degree of agreement /
disagreement.
- This is also called a summated scale because the scores on individual
items can be added together to produce a total score for the respondent.
- In a typical research study, there are generally 25 to 30 items on a Likert
scale.
- To construct a Likert scale to measure a particular construct, a large
number of statements pertaining to the construct are listed. These
statements could range from 80 to 120. The identification of the
statements is done through exploratory research which is carried out by
conducting a focus group, unstructured interviews with knowledgeable
people, literature survey, analysis of case studies and so on.
 2. Semantic differential scale:

- This scale is widely used to compare the images of competing brands, companies or
services.
- Here the respondent is required to rate each attitude or object on a number of five-or
seven-point rating scales.
- This scale is bounded at each end by bipolar adjectives or phrases.
- The difference between Likert and Semantic differential scale is that in Likert scale, a
number of statements (items) are presented to the respondents to express their
degree of agreement/disagreement.
- However, in the semantic differential scale, bipolar adjectives or phrases are used.
- As in the case of Likert scale, the information on the phrases and adjectives is obtained
through exploratory research.
- At times there may be a favourable or unfavourable descriptor (adjectives) on the
right-hand side and on certain occasions these may be presented on the left-hand side.
- This rotation becomes necessary to avoid the halo effect. This is because the location
of previous judgments on the scale may influence the subsequent judgements because
of the carelessness of the respondents. The mid point of a bipolar scale is a neutral
point.
 3. Stapel scale
- The Stapel scale is used to measure the direction and intensity of
an attitude.
- At times, it may be difficult to use semantic differential scales
because of the problem in creating bipolar adjectives.
- This scale generally has 10 categories involving numbering –5 to +5
without a neutral point and is usually presented in a vertical form.
- The job of the respondent is to indicate how accurately or
inaccurately each term describes the object by selecting an
appropriate numerical response category. If a positive higher
number is selected by the respondent, it means the respondent is
able to describe it more favorably.
 MEASUREMENT ERROR

1. There are factors like mood, fatigue and health of the respondent which may influence
the observed response while the instrument is being administered.

2. The variations in the environment in which measurements are taken may also result in a
departure from the true value.

3. There are situations when a respondent may not understand the question being asked
and the interviewer may have to rephrase the same. While rephrasing the question the
interviewer’s bias may get into the responses. Also how the questionnaire is administered
(telephone survey, personal interview with questionnaire or mail survey) will have its
own impact on the responses.

4. At times, some of the questions in the questionnaire may be ambiguous and some may
be very difficult for the respondents to understand. Both of them can cause deviation
from the correct response, thereby giving rise to measurement error.

5. At times, the errors may be committed at the time of coding, entering of data from
questionnaire to the spreadsheet on the computer and at the tabulation stage.
 Criteria for Good Measurement

There are three criteria for evaluating measurements: reliability, validity and sensitivity.

1. Reliability

Reliability is concerned with consistency, accuracy and predictability of the scale. It refers
to the extent to which a measurement process is free from random errors. The reliability
of a scale can be measured using the following methods:

• Test–retest reliability: In this method, repeated measurements of the same person or

group using the same scale under similar conditions are taken. A very high correlation
between the two scores indicates that the scale is reliable.

• Split-half reliability method: This method is used in the case of multiple item scales.
Here the number of items is randomly divided into two parts and a correlation
coefficient between the two is obtained. A high correlation indicates that the internal
consistency of the construct leads to greater reliability.
 2. Validity

The validity of a scale refers to the question whether we are measuring what we want to measure. Validity of
the scale refers to the extent to which the measurement process is free from both systematic and random
errors. The validity of a scale is a more serious issue than reliability. There are different ways to measure
validity.

• Content validity: This is also called face validity. It involves subjective judgment by an expert for
assessing the appropriateness of the construct. For example, to measure the perception of a customer
towards Jet Airways, a multiple item scale is developed. A set of 15 items is proposed. These items when
combined in an index measure the perception of Jet Airways. In order to judge the content validity of
these 15 items, a set of experts may be requested to examine the representativeness of the 15 items.
The items covered may be lacking in the content validity if we have omitted behavior of the crew, food
quality, and food quantity, etc., from the list. In fact, conducting the exploratory research to exhaust the
list of items measuring perception of the airline would be of immense help in such a case.

• Concurrent validity: It is used to measure the validity of the new measuring techniques by correlating
them with the established techniques. It involves computing the correlation coefficient of two measures
of the same phenomena (for example, perception of an airline and image of a company) which are
administered at the same time.

• Predictive validity: This involves the ability of a measured phenomena at one point of time to predict
another phenomenon at a future point of time. If the correlation coefficient between the two is high,
the initial measure is said to have a high predictive ability.
 3. Sensitivity

- The sensitivity of a scale is an important measurement concept, particularly when

changes in attitudes are under investigation.

- Sensitivity refers to an instrument’s ability to accurately measure the variability in

a concept.

- A dichotomous response category such as agree or disagree does not allow the
recording of any attitude changes. A more sensitive measure with numerous
categories on the scale may be required. For example, adding strongly agree,
agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree and strongly disagree categories will
increase the sensitivity of the scale.

- The sensitivity of scale based on a single question or a single item can be

increased by adding questions or items. In other words, because composite
measures allow for a greater range of possible scores, they are more sensitive
than a single-item scale.

- Therefore, the sensitivity of the scale is generally increased by adding more

response points or by adding scale items.