On 27 Feb 2002 15:01:24 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dennis Roberts) wrote:
>At 01:39 PM 2/27/02 -0600, Jay Warner wrote:
>
>> > >
>> > >Not stressful 1__ 2__ 3__ 4__ 5__ 6__ 7__ Very stressful
>
>just out of curiosity ... how many consider the above to be an example of a
>bipolar scale?
>
>i don't
>
>now, if we had an item like:
>
>sad .... happy
>1 .... ..... 7
>
>THEN the mid point becomes much more problematic ...
>
>since being a 4 ... is neither a downer nor upper
The bipolar adjectives in Mr. Warner's example might be a tad "fuzzy"
IMHO. What is a clear antonym for "stressful"? "Pacified"?
"Carefree"? I noted same in my original response to his query. Your
item "sad...happy" appears more like what Osgood et al had in mind.
"Good....Bad," " Hot...Cold, " for example, are clearcut bipolars.
If one wants to force an opinion one way or another, then display an
even numbered scale. If the investigator wants the "neutral" opinion
then make the scale odd numbered. To me the semantic differential is
only a Likert Scale without the glitter :-)) I think his supervisor
more than likely, however, was concerned about computing means with
ordinal data. Perhaps, arguments can be made for both ordinal and
interval usage depending on the intent of the research. Some semantic
differential instruments I have seen in the past have no printed
numerical scale at all. The respondent places a check mark along a
horizontally gradated continuum. The researcher then assigns an
appropriate score. vis a vis the check mark. Usually bipolar
adjective items are randomly assigned, i.e., "good" responses are not
all on one side of the document. Supposedly, the respondent can't
simply "halo" the concept being evaluated.
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