Technical Research Note: Loss of Meaning in Likert Scaling: A Note on the Q Methodological Alternative

Abstract

This paper reports a test of the criticism that scaling techniques have the inherent tendency to obscure the manifold meanings subjects may have when they respond to a scale. Scores received by students on the Christian Orthodoxy Scale are compared to the factor results gained from the same statements used as a Q sort. The Q technique alternative reveals differentiations of meanings not reported in the scale scores.