I am humbled by the insight & background knowledge expressed by Mssrs. Williams and McLean, not to mention the string of others. My lack of academic experince in the subject matter is painfully clear. Now to see if I can find Osgood et al. When I consider how many research projects and social/political actions depend on survey responses for their information, the need for this level of 'prethinking' becomes all the more necessary.
Jay "J. Williams" wrote: > On Mon, 25 Feb 2002 15:17:55 -0800, Jay Tanzman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > >I just got chewed out by my boss for modelling the means of some 7-point > >semantic differential scales. The scales were part of a written, > >self-administered questionnaire, and were laid out like this: > > > >Not stressful 1__ 2__ 3__ 4__ 5__ 6__ 7__ Very stressful > > > >So, why or why not is it kosher to model the means of scales like this? > > > >-Jay > > You can check it out by reading the pioneers of the semantic > differential scale. Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum are the authors of > "Measurement of Meaning" which now is published in paperback by the > University of Illinois Press, Oct. 1990. It may be your boss is a > stickler on what constitutes a true interval scale. It could be > he/she wants no middle value score - that way respondents must tilt > toward a yea or nay. It could be the use of the particular bipolars > "not stressful" and "very stressful." Why not use stressful and not > stressful? What is "very" stressful? By reading the Osgood et al > text, you can find many nifty ideas and variations for using the > semantic differential scale. Like the Likert Scale, I suppose it is > arguably an ordinal scale. But, there are lots of statistical tools > you could employ using rankings, medians, etc. Like the Likert Scale > devotees, there are those who nevertheless use means as the measure > of central tendency with semantic differential instruments. Good > luck. > > ================================================================= > Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the > problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at > http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ > ================================================================= -- Jay Warner Principal Scientist Warner Consulting, Inc. 4444 North Green Bay Road Racine, WI 53404-1216 USA Ph: (262) 634-9100 FAX: (262) 681-1133 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.a2q.com The A2Q Method (tm) -- What do you want to improve today? ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =================================================================
