Verbal qualifiers for rating scales: Sociolinguistic considerations and psychometric data
Verbal qualifiers for rating scales: Sociolinguistic considerations and psychometric data
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评级量表的言语限定词:社会语言学考虑和心理测量数据
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发表时间:
2010
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通讯作者:
B. Rohrmann
中科院分区:
文献类型:
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作者:
B. Rohrmann
Questionnaires are the dominant data collection method in psychology and the social sciences in general, and most use rating scales as response mode. Within category scaling, verbal labelling of rating scales has become the primary approach to enhancing useability. The labels are used as "qualifiers", either for endpoints or for each single scale point. Verbal labelling provides practical advantages, such as ease-of-explanation and familiarity, and facilitates capturing normative judgments. The main disadvantages are inferior measurement quality and proneness to cultural biases. It is thus essential to design verbalized scales carefully if equi-distant and unambiguous instruments are to be achieved yet only few publications provide pertinent information. The principal idea underlying the current research is: to create rating scales using verbal labels which reflect the cognitions of respondents and for which psycholinguistic and psychometric data are available. Therefore a series of studies was conducted to clarify the measurement features of relevant words and to develop methodologically sound response scales which are useful for basic and applied research. Altogether 100 words or expressions were tested within five qualifier dimensions: Intensity, frequency, probability, quality, and responses to statements. Their properties were investigated with several categorical scaling and magnitude estimation methods in a variety of contexts. The samples for 6 sub-studies (N=229) were recruited from students and the general population. The results provide a comprehensive body of quantitative information about common scale labels and enable the systematic design of response formats. The recommended format is multi-modal to enhance both psychometric quality and user-friendliness. To widen the validity scope, further research is underway, including cross-national extensions. Contact Address: Professor B. ROHRMANN Roman Research Road, 94 Fenwick St, Calrton-Nth, Vic 3054, AUSTRALIA E-Mail mail@rohrmannresearch.net Verbal qualifiers for rating scales 2