Formal Features of Rating Scales and the Interpretation of Question Meaning

FORMAL FEATURES OF RATING SCALES AND THE INTERPRETATION OF QUESTION MEANING Norbert Schwarz, Norbert Schwarz Norbert Schwarz is Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan and Senior Research Scientist at Michigan's Institute for Social Research. His research interests focus on human judgment, including its implications for survey research. His recent books include Cognition and Communication: Research Methods, Judgmental Biases, and the Logic of Conversation (Erlbaum 1996) and Thinking about Answers (with S. Sudman and N. Bradburn; Jossey-Bass, 1996). Correspondence should be addressed to Norbert Schwarz, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St, Rm 5265, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, USA; e-mail: NSchwarz@umich.edu. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Carla E. Grayson, Carla E. Grayson Barbel Knauper is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Her research interests focus on health psychology and the processes underlying self-reports in social research. She is co-editor of Aging, Cognition, and Self-reports (with D. Park, N. Schwarz and S. Sudman; Psychology Press, 1998). Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Bärbel Knäuper Bärbel Knäuper Carla Grayson is a doctoral candidate in the social psychology program of the University of Michigan. Her research interests focus on emotion, social cognition and the methodology of social research. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Volume 10, Issue 2, SUMMER 1998, Pages 177–183, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/10.2.177 Published: 01 July 1998