What is a Likert Scale? Definition & Example

Developed by US-American social researcher Rensis Likert, the Likert scale is the most commonly used scaling method in the social sciences. This allows researchers to capture and quantify the examined characteristics in a graduated manner in a quantitative measurement, such as an online survey.

General Definition of a Likert Scale

The Likert scale (= “likert scale”) is the so-called psychometric scale used to empirically measure psychological well-being or personal opinions.

In a typical questionnaire using the Likert scale, indicators are developed in the form of questions or fixed statements that clearly identify the examined characteristic (e.g., mental state of test subjects). With the Likert scale, researchers aim to capture the degree of agreement of participants in measurable levels.

The Likert scale is usually assigned the interval scale level (= when differences in characteristics are measured to, for example, compare the IQ of several people) or more rarely the ordinal scale level (= when a ranking is measured, such as in school grades or football league tables).

Practical Application of a Likert Scale

Likert scales are used in various research areas – such as market or opinion research – whenever test subjects must give a subjective assessment.

This includes, among other things, various personality tests in everyday life, in which the examined persons are presented with statements for evaluation. When answering, test subjects can agree and disagree in various gradations.

A typical statement would then be one like this, which should be answered by the test subjects:

I felt often depressed over the past 12 months.

Answer options:

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither nor
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree

Alternatively, the statement in such a test can also be asked as a question:

How often have you felt depressed in the last six months?

Answer options:

1. Never
2. Less than five times a year
3. More than five times a year
4. Less than five times a month
5. More than five times a month
6. Multiple times a week
7. Daily

In most research, a combination of a statement and a 5- or 7-point rating scale is used, with which an opinion ranging from strong rejection to strong approval can be mapped.

The choice of this number of levels is based on the fact that in practical application, a scale with too few levels (e.g., with three or four answer options) is not very meaningful. With extremely many gradations (e.g., over ten answer options), the difference between the levels is too fine-grained for participants and can be difficult to interpret in the analysis. Furthermore, there is disagreement in research about whether an even number of levels (= without a neutral answer in the middle) or an odd number of levels (= with a neutral answer) is more meaningful.

Regardless of the number of levels, each answer is assigned a measured value or a score, which together form a rating system. In a personality test for mental health, the rating could range from 1 to 5, where 1 point is given for “strongly disagree” and 5 points for “strongly agree”. From the mean of all answers (= total score), the scale value can then be determined in the evaluation, which describes the mental state of the examined test subjects.