Suppose that you need to develop a scale that measures political opinions. Would you have items on this scale with response options like (1) true or (2) false, or would it have options like (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) undecided, (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree? Explain why you chose this form for the measurement of opinions.

What will be an ideal response?


Ans: When you are measuring opinions, you will use the agree–disagree format rather than the true–false format. We tend to either agree or disagree, at some level, when we think of opinions. A true–false format would be more appropriate for a tool that measured knowledge because facts can be considered as true or false while opinions are neither true nor false.
Learning Objective: 13.4: Construct a measurement tool when there is no published tool that will work for the measurement of the variable that has been defined.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Tips for Developing Your Own Measurement Tool
Difficulty Level: Medium

Social Work & Human Services

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