Interpretation of a 5-point Likert scale

[JazzPsych]

---

Members don't see this ad.

So, I've been doing research on the Dutch RxP movement.

I used a 5 point Likert-scale to find to what degree the RxP students find themselves competent to prescribe the big 6 of psychopharmaca.

I did not measure attitude change, just competency.

So how do I best interpret this?

- 3 being neutral, 1 and 5 being not competent at all and very competent?
- Or do i just multiply them by 2 so I have a much used European 1/10 grade, which is very easy to interpret?

I'd like some input!

Thanks 🙂


Edit:

I've also used questions like "the RxP-training has profited my diagnostic skills". Also on a 5-point Likert scale.

 

[futureapppsy2]

You didn't anchor your scale?

 

[Ollie123]

Without anchors, the data is unusable and should be scrapped.

If you do have anchors in there, then interpretation should be straightforward. I don't know what kind of measure you used or if looking at sums/averages would make sense, but that may be preferable to looking at individual items. DO NOT multiply...there is no reason to do so. At the single-item level I think you should technically treat them as ordinal, but you might be able to get away with analyzing them as though they were continuous (people do this frequently).

 

[student til 30]

.

 

[Ollie123]

Well, the way the original post is written makes me think it isn't even nominal and this discussion is well beyond the actual question. It sounds as though Jazzpsych isn't sure which end of the scale marks which extreme (i.e. doesn't know whether 1 is strongly agree or 5 is strongly agree). Whether they are anchors or just response choices, without some kind of labeling of item answers beyond (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) the question would and could be interpreted different ways and the data is meaningless.