Summated rating scale

Self-report technique in marketing research for attitude measurement in which the subjects are asked to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a number of statements; a subject’s attitude score is the total obtained by summing the scale values assigned to each category checked. Likert type scale is the most commonly used summated scale. For example, in developing a Likert, or summated-rating scale, researchers devise a number of statements that relate to the product or attribute in question. Subjects are asked to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement with each statement in the series. The responses are scored so that they are consistent in terms of directionality, and then added to obtain the respondents’ total attitude score toward the object.