I have used the following Likert scale for a series of questions in a survey:
- $0=$ Not Important
- $1=$ Slightly Important
- $2=$ Moderately Important
- $3=$ Very Important
- $4=$ Extremely Important
As I understand it, this is a 5-point Likert scale. (Unsure, though!)
I have then used a weighting formula that has resulted in final (composite) scores as follows: $0.2, 1.4, 2.3, 3.4, 4.6$, etc.
Example: If a person has indicated "moderately important" to three questions, it is $2+2+2=6$. I have then multiplied $6$ by a constant, e.g. $6\times.33=1.98$. The constant is derived from theory and represents percentage contribution of a variable.
Questions:
- How do I represent the composite scores on the above Likert scale (i.e. what does a score of $1.98$ mean?)
- Is it possible for composite scores to be greater than the last category, e.g. if a person has chosen "extremely important" for four questions, is it $(4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16)\times.33=5.28$?
- When we talk about a 5-point Likert scale, do we mean the distance between the response categories (e.g. between $0$ and $1$ or $1$ and $2$ on the above scale), or just the category numbers (e.g. $0, 1, 2, 3, 4$)?