Scales and Scaling

In social sciences the term“scaling” encompasses specific processes tomeasure properties such as sentiment, opinions, attitudes, and so on. “To scale” can mean very different things: by scaling techniques such as Likert scales or Guttman scales the researcher can rank people along a specific dimension; other techniques, if the requirements for their application are met, allow the researcher to quantify the distances among people along a dimension. Moreover, scaling techniques differ in terms of the cognitive put to the respondent. Fromthis point of view, two kinds of scaling are widespread in social research: (1) rating techniques, by which the respondent is asked to rate some objects along the same dimension; (2) ranking techniques, by which the respondent is asked to order some objects along a dimension. Ranking techniques are mainly used for unidimensional scaling, while rating techniques can be employed in a multidimensional scaling process.