An Investigation of the Effect of the Number of Scale Intervals on Principal Components Factor Analysis

Martin, Warren S.; Fruchter, Benjamin; Mathis, William J.

doi:10.1177/001316447403400307

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Of these, 86 percent used ordinal multi-category answer formats. Matell and Jacoby 1971;Jacoby and Matell 1971;Remington et al 1979;Preston and Colman 2000) or valid than multi-category ordinal answer formats Jacoby and Matell 1971;Preston and Colman 2000), and do not lead to different findings with regard to the structural equivalence of constructs (Martin et al 1974;Percy 1976). …”

Section: Jmmentioning

confidence: 95%

Does One Size Fit All? The Suitability of Answer Formats for Different Constructs Measured

Dolničar

Grün

2009

Australasian Marketing Journal

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Survey research is used to investigate a variety of different constructs, such as beliefs, behavioural intentions, perceptions, preferences and so on. Despite the wide range of constructs studied by social scientists, the ordinal answer format tends to be used across the majority of survey research studies. We challenge this standard approach in survey research by hypothesizing that the ordinal answer format is not optimal under all circumstances. Instead, we propose that the suitability of answer formats depends on the construct measured. We conduct a repeat measurement study using binary, ordinal and metric answer formats measuring two different constructs: beliefs and behavioural intentions. A clear interaction effect between answer formats and constructs is revealed. This supports the notion that no single answer format is optimal for all research problems, but that some constructs are naturally more suitable for certain answer formats than others. These findings call for increased use of pre-studies to determine the optimal answer format before fieldwork is conducted rather than relying on standard answer formats. Does One Size Fit All?The Suitability of Answer Formats for Different Constructs Measured. AbstractSurvey research is used to investigate a variety of different constructs, such as beliefs, behavioural intentions, perceptions, preferences and so on. Despite the wide range of constructs studied by social scientists, the ordinal answer format tends to be used across the majority of survey research studies. We challenge this standard approach in survey research by hypothesizing that the ordinal answer format is not optimal under all circumstances.Instead, we propose that the suitability of answer formats depends on the construct measured.We conduct a repeat measurement study using binary, ordinal and metric answer formats measuring two different constructs: beliefs and behavioural intentions. A clear interaction effect between answer formats and constructs is revealed. This supports the notion that no single answer format is optimal for all research problems, but that some constructs are naturally more suitable for certain answer formats than others. These findings call for increased use of pre-studies to determine the optimal answer format before fieldwork is conducted rather than relying on standard answer formats.

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Section: Jmmentioning

confidence: 95%

Does One Size Fit All? The Suitability of Answer Formats for Different Constructs Measured

Dolničar

Grün

2009

Australasian Marketing Journal

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“…While Martin et al (1974) and Percy (1976) re-categorized empirical data to achieve this, Green and Rao (1970) used artificial data and were thus able to compare the results to the true specifications. Martin et al (1974) compare factor analysis results from ordinal multi-category and binary data (both collapsed from responses collected on a metric format) concluding that results do not differ between two and nine answer categories. The same approach was taken by Percy (1976) who constructed binary data from a multi-category data set resulting from a 5-point Likert scale.…”

Section: Interpretabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Quick, Simple and Reliable: Forced Binary Survey Questions

Dolničar

Grün

Leisch

2011

International Journal of Market Research

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Consumers are increasingly saturated by market research which leads to decreasing response rates and an increased danger of response bias. Market researchers thus face the challenge of recruiting respondents, increasing response rates and reducing respondent fatigue by making questionnaires as short and pleasant as possible. One way of achieving this is to replace traditionally used ordinal multi-category answer formats (such as Likert scales) with forced binary scales. This proposition is only attractive if it indeed shortens the survey time while not compromising the quality of managerial insights from the data.This study investigates these conditions. Results from a repeat-measurement design indicate that managerial interpretations do not differ substantially between the two answer formats, responses are equally reliable, and that the binary format is quicker and perceived as less complex. ABSTRACTConsumers are increasingly saturated by market research which leads to decreasing response rates and an increased danger of response bias. Market researchers thus face the challenge of recruiting respondents, increasing response rates and reducing respondent fatigue by making questionnaires as short and pleasant as possible. One way of achieving this is to replace traditionally used ordinal multi-category answer formats (such as Likert scales) with forced binary scales. This proposition is only attractive if it indeed shortens the survey time while not compromising the quality of managerial insights from the data.This study investigates these conditions. Results from a repeat-measurement design indicate that managerial interpretations do not differ substantially between the two answer formats, responses are equally reliable, and that the binary format is quicker and perceived as less complex.

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“…Further, the answer format in this study (a 4-point scale) differed from that in pupil studies (a 5-point scale) to force a decision from the subjects. However, it was shown that a reduction of scale divisions may also diminish factor loadings and communalities (Martin et al 1974).…”

Section: The Two-dimensional Model Of Ecological Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, age and subject matter: impact on teachers’ ecological values

Oerke

Bogner

2009

Environmentalist

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By means of environmental education, teachers are supposed to intervene in pupils' awareness and concern of environmental issues. Teachers' environmental attitudes, however, have rarely been studied. We analysed 367 German pre-and in-service teachers' environmental attitudes for their structure and socio-economic correlates within the frame of a European project. Thus, we retrieved for adults the two-dimensional model of ecological values (2-MEV) presented for adolescents by Bogner and Wiseman (Sci Educ Int 15(1): 2004). For the two domains, Preservation and Utilisation, the psychometric structure was confirmed and discriminative correlations with age, gender and teaching subject were unveiled. Further research is needed to deduce the implications for teaching practice.

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An Investigation of the Effect of the Number of Scale Intervals on Principal Components Factor Analysis

Cited by 21 publications

References 7 publications

Does One Size Fit All? The Suitability of Answer Formats for Different Constructs Measured

Does One Size Fit All? The Suitability of Answer Formats for Different Constructs Measured

Quick, Simple and Reliable: Forced Binary Survey Questions

Gender, age and subject matter: impact on teachers’ ecological values

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