Having viewed some of the highly edited videotaped material of Terri Schiavo and having seen other patients in a persistent vegetative state, I am not surprised that family members and others unfamiliar with this condition would interpret some of her apparent alertness and movement as meaningful.
A Likert Scale is a type of psychometric scale frequently used in psychology questionnaires. It was developed by and named after organizational psychologist Rensis Likert. Self-report inventories are one of the most widely used tools in psychological research.
Like Thurstone or Guttman Scaling, Likert Scaling is a unidimensional scaling method. Here, I'll explain the basic steps in developing a Likert or Summative scale. Defining the Focus. As in all scaling methods, the first step is to define what it is you are trying to measure.