Unity Is Strenght

A Guttman scale presents a number of items to which the person is requested to agree or not agree. This is typically done in a 'Yes/No' dichotomous format. It is also possible to use a Likert scale, although this is less commonly used.Questions in a Guttman scale gradually increase in specificity. The intent of the scale is that the person will agree with all statements up to a point and then will stop agreeing.The scale may be used to determine how extreme a view is, with successive statements showing increasingly extremist positions.If needed, the escalation can be concealed by using intermediate questions.
Concealed example (hardening attitude towards crime), using Likert scale: | Strongly agree | Tend to agree | Neither agree nor disagree | Tend to disagree | Strongly disagree | Criminals should be punished | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | Litter is a problem in the street | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | Sentences for many crimes should be longer | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | Streets in this town are not well lit | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | More criminals deserve the death penalty | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
Question selection
Generate a list of possible statements
Get a set of judges to score the statements with a Yes or No, depending on whether they agree or disagree with them.
Draw up a table with the respondent in rows and statements in columns, showing whether they answered Yes or No.
Sort the columns so the statement with the most Yes's is on the left.
Sort the rows so the respondent with the most Yes's is at the top.
Select a set of questions that have the least set of 'holes' (No's between 'Yes's).

A Thurstone scale has a number of statements to which the respondent is asked to agree or disagree.
There are three types of scale that Thurstone described: * Equal-appearing intervals method * Successive intervals method * Paired comparisons method | Agree | Disagree | I