Phrase completion scales are a type of psychometric

Psychometrics

Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...

 scale used in questionnaire

Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case...

s. Developed in response to the problems associated with Likert scale

Likert scale

A Likert scale is a psychometric scale commonly involved in research that employs questionnaires. It is the most widely used approach to scaling responses in survey research, such that the term is often used interchangeably with rating scale, or more accurately the Likert-type scale, even though...

s, Phrase completions are concise, unidimensional measures that tap ordinal level data in a manner that approximates interval level data.

Overview of the phrase completion method

Phrase completions consist of a phrase followed by an 11-point response key. The phrase introduces part of the concept. Marking a reply on the response key completes the concept. The response key represents the underlying theoretical continuum. Zero(0)indicates the absence of the construct. Ten(10)indicates the theorized maximum amount of the construct. Response keys are reversed on alternate items to mitigate response set bias.

Sample question using the phrase completion method

I am aware of the presence of God or the Divine
Never Continually
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Scoring and analysis

After the questionnaire is completed the score on each item is summed together, to create a test score for the respondent. Hence, Phrase Completions, like Likert scales, are often considered to be summative scales.

Level of measurement

The response categories represent an ordinal level of measurement

Level of measurement

The "levels of measurement", or scales of measure are expressions that typically refer to the theory of scale types developed by the psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens. Stevens proposed his theory in a 1946 Science article titled "On the theory of scales of measurement"...

. Ordinal level data, however, varies in terms of how closely it approximates interval level data. By using a numerical continuum as the response key instead of sentiments that reflect intensity of agreement, respondents may be able to quantify their responses in more equal units.

See also

• Likert scale
  Likert scale
  A Likert scale is a psychometric scale commonly involved in research that employs questionnaires. It is the most widely used approach to scaling responses in survey research, such that the term is often used interchangeably with rating scale, or more accurately the Likert-type scale, even though...
  
  
• Analog scale
• Guttman scale
  Guttman scale
  In statistical surveys conducted by means of structured interviews or questionnaires, a subset of the survey items having binary answers forms a Guttman scale if they can be ranked in some order so that, for a rational respondent, the response pattern can be captured by a single index on that...
  
  
• Thurstone scale
  Thurstone scale
  In psychology, the Thurstone scale was the first formal technique for measuring an attitude. It was developed by Louis Leon Thurstone in 1928, as a means of measuring attitudes towards religion. It is made up of statements about a particular issue, and each statement has a numerical value...
  
  
• Mokken scale
• Bogardus Social Distance Scale
  Bogardus Social Distance Scale
  The Bogardus social distance scale is a psychological testing scale created by Emory S. Bogardus to empirically measure people's willingness to participate in social contacts of varying degrees of closeness with members of diverse social groups, such as racial and ethnic groups.The scale asks...
  
  
• F-scale
  F-scale
  The F-scale is a 1947 personality test, designed by Theodor W. Adorno and others to measure the authoritarian personality. The "F" stands for "fascist." The F-scale measures responses on several different components of authoritarianism, including conventionalism, authoritarian submission,...
  
  
• Discan scale
  Discan
  Discan is both a scale and a method in clinical psychology. As a scale, it is a type of ordered-metric scaling that yields a scale with internal reliability, and scale-points in excess of the number of initial anchors, more than would be the case with the Likert scale, though not as many as are...
  
  
• Diamond of opposites
  Diamond of opposites
  The diamond of opposites is a type of two-dimensional plot used in psychodrama groups. This tool can illuminate the presence of contradictions in processes that cannot be detected by any single questionnaire item using a traditional format such as the Likert scale...