One of the most frequently asked topics I come across is how to create simple scales from Likert-scored items. Apparently there are a lot of beginning researchers who have learned how to use Likert-style items in questionnaires, but never got any advice about how to analyze the resulting data.

Hence, I would like to put together a thread here that people can refer to whenever this question gets asked.

Please remember that this is advice for beginning researchers who generally want to run basic regressions, so there is no point in recommending complex procedures such as Item Response theory or Structural Equation Modeling.

Instead, I would to find sources for things like how to use Cronbach's alpha effectively and how to do the most straightforward kind of Factor Analyses (almost certainly Exploratory rather than Confirmatory).

The overall goal is to help beginners get started with scaling, so who can suggest some resources?

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