How Do You Analyze Likert Scales?
Likert scales, frequently used in survey research, measure respondents’ attitudes by asking how strongly they agree or disagree with a set of questions or statements. A typical scale might consist of the following response categories: strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, and strongly disagree. Numerical coding of the responses allows researchers to analyze Likert scale data with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Code the responses by assigning a numerical value to each. Suppose, for example, we ask respondents how much they agree or disagree with ten actions taken by Congress. The response categories are strongly agree, agree, unsure/undecided, disagree, and strongly disagree. We might code the responses as follows: strongly agree = 1, agree = 2, undecided = 3, disagree = 4, and strongly disagree = 5. You can enter these data on an Excel spreadsheet for analysis. Depict the range of responses visually with bar charts that display the number and percentage of respo
