Likert Scale Data and Statistical Tests
Context
The Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP) had organised Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) training, fortnight long, for it’s staff and consultants in July/ August 2024. Being a Statistics Graduate of 1993-1995 at the Central Department of Statistics, Tribhuvan University, I enthusiastically attended the event. Sudip Pokhrel was the trainer. Our association began from that date. Afterwards, we had several mobile phone chats and calls as to how we could collaborate for promoting learning and experience using SPSS and other applications, and contribute to writeups.
Meeting on 9 July 2025
Yesterday, we had an hour physical meeting. We shared experiences and learning. Research design and sample design matter getting into the results and statistical significance. We discussed about using Likert scale and statistical data analysis. We agreed that statistical tests could be applied to quantified qualitative data generated using Likert scale (example very satisfied to very dissatisfied). Because, these perception data also reflect the situation closer to reality.
We agreed that there are (could be) many philosophical theories that need to be related with statistical science. Sudip mentioned about theory of positivism and empiricism. We need to further dig out in these areas……