SPECIAL ARTICLES Construction, Implementation, and Analysis of Summated Rating Attitude Scales
Surveys are perhaps the most used, and sometimes misused, methodological tool among academic researchers. Self-administered survey questionnaires (and guided interviews) allow us to elicit behaviors, attributes, beliefs, and attitudes among populations. Data gathered from poorly designed instrumentation is suspect and investigators are disappointed when research involving the use of attitude scales is viewed unfavorably by peer reviewers. Summated rating scales may be commonly used to elicit feelings or attitudes from students, faculty members, administrators, and others. Investigators must be conscious of the referent object and the research objectives when constructing items comprising a summated ratings scale. Items should be gathered from careful review of the literature and consultation with experts. Pilot testing a survey instrument and its component attitude scale are critical to success. Adherence to a few basic tenets will help to ensure that responses to the scale are valid and reliable. There are a number of means by which a scale’s validity and reliability can be determined. While ordinal in nature, data gathered from summated rating scales may be analyzed with robust, parametric statistics that allow investigators to tackle the multivariate nature of many problems in social, administrative, and clinical research. Novices in questionnaire survey design and analysis are encouraged to consult with a number of sources who may be helpful to them, including survey methodologists and statisticians.