A survey includes 10 political statements. For each statement, respondents are asked to indicate their extent of agreement using a scale from 0 to 5. Half the statements are very liberal in nature, half are very conservative. The researcher wants to add up the scores on the 10 items to obtain an overall index of political liberalism. Before adding up the 10 scores, the researcher should do what with the conservative statement items?
A) convert them into z-scores using Descriptives
B) delete them using Select If
C) double their weight using Compute
D) reverse the coding using Recode

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To obtain an overall index of political liberalism, it is important to make sure that the responses to the conservative statement items are consistent with the scale used for the liberal items. By reversing the coding of the conservative items, their scores will be consistent with the liberal items and can be added together to obtain an overall index of political liberalism. Therefore, option D is the best choice.

A Survey Includes 10 Political Statements