Fuzzy Rating Scales of Measurement: a Psychometric Tool Capturing Imprecision and Individual Differences

Maria Angeles Gil, University of Oviedo, Spain
Abstract: In introducing Fuzzy Sets, Lotfi A. Zadeh anticipated that they would play an important role in human thinking. Fuzzy rating scales were developed as a psychometric tool aiming to appropriately capture the natural imprecision involved in measuring many variables in Social Sciences. Furthermore, these scales also cope with the individual differences in such a measurement, so they look to be more informative from a statistical perspective than other usual ones (namely, the Likert type, the visual analogue and the fuzzy linguistic scales).

This talk recalls the main ideas and features behind fuzzy rating scales, as well as their applications to design items in questionnaires. Possible soundly formalized methods to analyze fuzzy rating scale-based data are to be reviewed. Some of the advantages of using these scales in contrast to traditional ones are also to be discussed and illustrated.