What Is the Difference Between a Likert Scale and a Guttman

Question

Examlex · Accepted Answer

The Answer is A Likert scale score is calculated from the scores obtained on individual items. Each item generally asks a respondent to indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with the item, as with the abortion questions discussed earlier. A Likert scale differs from an index, however, in that once the scores on each of the items are obtained, only some of the items are selected for inclusion in the calculation of the final score. Those items that allow a researcher to distinguish most readily those scoring high on an attribute from those scoring low will be retained, and a new scale score will be calculated based only on those items. The Guttman scale also uses a series of items to produce a scale score for respondents. Unlike the Likert scale, however, a Guttman scale presents respondents with a range of attitude choices that are increasingly difficult to agree with; that is, the items composing the scale range from those easy to agree with to those difficult to agree with. Respondents who agree with one of the "more difficult" attitude items will also generally agree with the "less difficult" ones.

What Is the Difference Between a Likert Scale and a Guttman

Definitions: