At 11:29 AM 9/11/01 +1200, Magenta wrote:
>I incorporate a separate "N/A" option. This could be included in an earlier
>question that would ensure respondents who should not answer the questions
>were skipped over those questions. This is standard practice, e.g. in CATI
>situations.
>CATI = computer assisted telephone interviewing.
>
>IMO the problem has become incorrect survey question pattern design in this
>case, rather than incorrect response design.
i will try one more shot at this
again, say the item is ... "i like statistics"
SCENARIO A
and, 2 people using your response scale ... respond:
"i don't agree) 0 <-----------------------------> 5 "i strongly agree"
person 1 is here ^^
person 2 is here ^^
SCENARIO B
now, what if the same two people are presented with the following
additional item:
"i DON'T like statistics"
"i don't agree" 0 <-----------------------------> 5 "i strongly agree"
person 1 is here ^^
person 2 is -------------------------------------^^^
the combination of SCENARIO A plus SCENARIO B ... suggests that person 1 IS
more or less neutral ... BUT, person 2 is really ANTI statistics ...
perhaps even HATES it
but, with ONLY SCENARIO A ... you CANNOT know that these two persons are
different ... and to assume that they are both at the 0 point on your scale
... is a mistake
thus, the problem here is NOT with the item or stem design ... it is most
surely with the response options given to the S
you seem to be forgetting ... or wanting to bypass ... the notion that for
attitudes anyway ... there is an OBJECT that ... we have some valence for
... or not ... and one of the dimensions is of course strength of valence
but, also ... which your approach misses ... the DIRECTION of that valence
... ie, the tendency to want to approach it or avoid it ...
when you create an item ... that in itself has some direction to it ...
agree with the statement provides information about the S and his or her
strength AND direction ... but, for a person who is inclined in the
opposite direction of the way the item is stated ... a "i don't agree" or 0
... does not provide that S with ANY response that fits his/her attitudinal
pattern ...
thus, without the other end of the continuum being one of the RESPONSE
OPTIONS for the S ... the 0 point "i don't agree" simply provides ambiguous
data to the data collector
>cheers
>Michelle
>
>"Dennis Roberts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > At 01:17 PM 9/9/01 +1200, Magenta wrote:
> > >It would treat "don't agree" as the zero point. So an answer at the 100%
> > >point would be interpreted as twice as strong as an answer at the 50%
>point.
> >
> >
> > let's say the item is
> >
> > "i like statistics"
> >
> > and, we have two people ... PERSON 1 who HATES statistics ... and PERSON 2
> > one who really has had no exposure to statistics and therefore, really has
> > "no opinion" at this point in time
> >
> > and the response options are:
> >
> > I DON'T AGREE WITH THIS |------------------------------------| I STRONGLY
> > AGREE WITH THIS
> > 0 5 10
> >
> > NOW, both person A and person B ... respond "I DON'T AGREE WITH THIS"
> > (which is dictated by the item response possibilities)
> >
> > are you trying to tell us that you would consider both of these responses
> > as reflecting the same degree of "agreement" and/or ... compared to
>someone
> > who might have responded 5 ... equally different than the person who said
> > "5"???
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________
> > dennis roberts, educational psychology, penn state university
> > 208 cedar, AC 8148632401, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm
> >
> >
> >
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dennis roberts, penn state university
educational psychology, 8148632401
http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm
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