Which type of scale is typically used to measure attitudes with statements like strongly agree to strongly disagree?

Which type of scale is typically used to measure attitudes with statements like strongly agree to strongly disagree?

• A. Likert Scale
• B. Nominal Scale
• C. Interval Scale
• D. Ratio Scale

Answer: (A)

Attitudes are typically measured with statements and respondents indicate their degree of agreement on an ordered set of options like strongly agree to strongly disagree. This format is a Likert scale. It captures the direction and strength of agreement in a simple, standardized way, giving you an ordinal measure where the categories are in a meaningful order (more agreement means more of the attitude, but the exact difference between points isn’t guaranteed to be equal). Researchers often combine multiple Likert items to create a broader attitude score for easier comparison across people or groups. The other scales don’t fit as well: nominal scales categorize data without any inherent order, while interval and ratio scales imply numeric distances and a true zero, which aren’t inherent to the basic strongly agree–strongly disagree format.

Attitudes are typically measured with statements and respondents indicate their degree of agreement on an ordered set of options like strongly agree to strongly disagree. This format is a Likert scale. It captures the direction and strength of agreement in a simple, standardized way, giving you an ordinal measure where the categories are in a meaningful order (more agreement means more of the attitude, but the exact difference between points isn’t guaranteed to be equal). Researchers often combine multiple Likert items to create a broader attitude score for easier comparison across people or groups.

The other scales don’t fit as well: nominal scales categorize data without any inherent order, while interval and ratio scales imply numeric distances and a true zero, which aren’t inherent to the basic strongly agree–strongly disagree format.