Thurstone scale

Describes method for quantifying alternative responses to an issue or policy, usually ordered from very negative to very positive. For example, alternative responses to the policy “death penalty” might be: “is never acceptable despite the crime”, “is acceptable in some circumstances for some crimes in some countries”, “should be accepted everywhere”. Such responses are given a numerical value or “strength” by consensus among designated judges. The judges evaluate the score for each response in a poll or Delphi, usually on an 11 point scale (1 very negative to 11 very positive), to reflect the apparent intensity of each of these statements. When these scales are used in a subsequent study, the average of the group can be computed by averaging the values associated with each response.