Originally scale was validated using 7 point anchor (1= strongly disagree to 7 = Strongly agree) and if i adopt that scale in my study could i convert it response anchor to 5 points (1= strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree) for convince of respondent.
Thanks.
Yes !! You can do it easily by converging the two extreme into one category of the both opposing sides (Strongly Agree and Strongly Disagree).
Dear Pannezai, can you please provide me any reference for your answer?
Hi, Muhammad,
I always recommend maintaining allegiance to the integrity of an existing scale whenever possible because it allows your research to build on the reliability validity of the previous work. Any changes to the questions, response options, and procedures will at least raise questions about how the changes effect the scale.
Furthermore, switching from a 7-item Likert response option to a 5-item option will restrict variability in your responses and may adversely influence your data analysis. The reduction from 7 to 5 is likely to be virtually meaningless to your respondents.
Dawes (2008) has shown that 7- or even 10-point likert scale items can be converted to 5-point scale.
Dawes, J. (2008). Do data characteristics change according to the number of scale points used? An experiment using 5-point, 7-point and 10-point scales. International journal of market research, 50(1), 61-104.
six-point Likert scale can be converted to five-point Likert scale due to the reason that the latter would enhance the response quality and response rate and also decrease the frustration level among respondents (Babakus & Mangold, 1992; Sachdev & Verma, 2004).
