I am having trouble finding the technical term for a scale used in survey research with opposite values at both ends of the scale. For instance, how can I refer to a scale of the following kind:
In your opinion, who is responsible for health care?
Government (1) — (2) — (3) — (4) — (5) Citizens?
Solved – Technical term for a survey scale with opposite values at both ends
scalessurvey
Best Answer
Your example is a poorly defined scale as it's not clear what the intermediate values mean - a sharing out of responsibility, or an allocation of responsibility to mid-level bodies between Government & the citizenry, or perhaps something else. (Furthermore the question could be interpreted as asking either about an actual or a wished-for state of affairs.) Likert scales are often used in surveys to measure the level of agreement or disagreement with a statement, commonly on a five-point scale from 'Strongly agree', 'Agree', 'Neutral', 'Disagree', 'Strongly agree' - perhaps it's this term you're looking for. If you're asking specifically about scales where only the extremes are labelled, they're called bipolar.