An Investigation of Item Order and Rating Differences in Likert-Type Scales in Terms of Psychometric Properties and Attitudes of Respondents

In social sciences, usability of findings obtained by administration of a scale, accuracy and coherence of decisions made are closely related to psychometric properties of a scale. This study aims to investigate whether psychometric properties and attitudes of respondents differ on the number of response category, verbal or numerical rating and item distribution. To this end, related properties of a scale were changed and different versions of the same scale were used. According to the results of the study, attitudes of respondents did not significantly differ on the original, positive and negative forms of the scale, but significantly differed on the verbal and numerical forms of the scale. Gathering all the items, which are either positive or negative, under the same scale did not cause any response setting. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients of each version of the same scale were compared and it was found out that the increase in the number of response category caused increase in reliability of the scale. But, this increase was not statistically significant.