Validity issues in the Likert and Thurstone approaches to attitude measurement

This article highlights the theoretical differences between the Likert and Thurstone approaches to attitude measurement and demonstrates how such diff erences can lead to discrepant attitude estimates for individuals with the most extreme opinions. Both simulated data and real data on attitude toward abortion are used to demonstrate this discrepancy. The results suggest tha t attitude researchers should, at the very least, devote more attention to the empirical response characteristics of items on a Likert attitude questi onnaire. At most, these results suggest that other methods, such as the Thu rstone technique or one of its recently developed item response theory coun terparts, should be used to derive attitude estimates from disagree-agree r esponses.