26/02/2019 (23) What is the best way used to present the five-point likert scale data?

ikert scale data? Using mean scores or using percentages ?

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Question Asked 6 years ago

Tew Teng
2.46 · International Medical University (IMU)
What is the best way used to present the ve-point likert scale data? Using mean scores or using
percentages ?
If I am using mean scores to present my data, but when it comes under discussions, it is quite
dif cult for me to back-up my results with other ndings in which they had presented their results
using percentages. In addition, when I am using mean scores, is there any cut off point for ve point
likert scales? Should I combine the ve point likert scale data into 2 categories only? (Eg: combining
strongly agree with Agr … Read more
Likert Scale Psychometrics Applied Psychometrics

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Popular Answers (2)

Henk Kelderman 6 years ago

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I agree with Dr. Davidson. A Likert scale yields nominal categories, so a frequency distribution may be
most appropriate.

If you're lucky, and the middle category isn't an escape category, it may have ordinal properties.
… Read more

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Alan Holden 6 years ago
Added an answer

Yes, Sonia and Henk, although use of response categories at the nominal or continuous are
permissible too. Many nice discussions in below.

1. Likert, Rensis (1932). "A Technique for the Measurement of Attitudes". Archives of Psychology
140: 1–55. … Read more

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26/02/2019 (23) What is the best way used to present the five-point likert scale data? Using mean scores or using percentages ?

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Ulf-Dietrich Reips 6 years ago

Added an answer

Thanks for this question and the many great answers here. Much has been said, so I just
wanted to highlight that today, in the computerized age and with many studies being run
on the Internet (see e.g. http://wexlist.net), a visual analogue scale (VAS) format may
often be better.
… Read more

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Rosa Maria Freire 6 years ago
Added an answer

I would analyze the Likert scale as an ordinal scale or a nominal scale.

When treated as ordinal data, Likert responses can be collated into bar charts, central
tendency summarized by the median or the mode (but some would say not the mean),
dispersion summarized by the range across quartiles (but some would sa … Read more

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Alan Holden 6 years ago
Added an answer

Very nice response Rosa, thank you. Your suggestions fall precisely in line with what
appears to be the correct current thinking on this problem. While I'm sure Likert would
like to treat the scale scores as continuous measures (psycholinguistics was his thing,
remember) I think time has shown the distribution of responses are more like nominal or
ordinal distributions, as you say. In what amounts to an advertisement … Read more

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Richard Wiebe 5 years ago
Added an answer

There's so much general measurement error in self-reports using a Likert scale that,
paradoxically, I don't think much is lost, and much can be gained, by treating it as a
continuous scale, as long as such an analysis is used in addition to, and not instead of,
analyses that model the responses as ordinal. Yes, there's no way to ascertain each
respondent's distance between categories (it may take an awful lot for ce … Read more

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Kalinka Velasco Zárate 5 years ago
Added an answer

I read that if the items in the questionnaire are not related the reported descriptives
should be frequencies, median or mode (nominal or ordinal data)-inferential stats would
be chi square and/or non parametric tests; if several questions were related to a
construct or category, then getting the means was an aceptable procedure for later
running anovas (checking its assumptions) previous combination of the s … Read more

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Mohamed Ismail Mohideen Bawa

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26/02/2019 (23) What is the best way used to present the five-point likert scale data? Using mean scores or using percentages ?

Added an answer 5 years ago

mode  or median can be used  since data are nominal

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Mark Brown 4 years ago
Added an answer

I designed my Likert Scale questions as ordinal. I wanted each answer to represent a

ranking from a strong negative to a strong positive. After analysing 64 subjects I found
the mean didn't re ect the majority of responses for each question, whereas the
median was a much better representation. 

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Norhazirah Abdul Halim 4 years ago
Added an answer

I'm sorry for asking but did anyone here use SPSS to analyze 5-points likert scale
questions? Do we have to insert/analyze the data  as scale or ordinal?

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Hamizah Yakob 4 years ago
Added an answer

Miss Hazirah. I'm using 5 point likert scale for my questionnaire. And i did analyse the
data as ordinal in SPSS. This is supported by Pallant (2010) who indicate that some of
the statistics (for instance mean and Std) are not appropriate if you have a categorical
variable (ordinal/ nominal)

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Fabio Valeri 2 months ago
Added an answer

Diverging Stacked Bar Charts

see:

jason.bryer.org/likert/ … Read more

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Ari Alves Clecius

17.05 · Universidade Federal do Ceará
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