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Definition
The feeling thermometer, or thermometer scale, is a rating procedure to measure respondents’ feelings about an issue using a scale that corresponds or makes a metaphor to temperatures in the thermometer.
Description
A feeling thermometer, or a thermometer scale, is a procedure used in survey research to measure feeling. Respondents are given instructions to express their feelings in numbers using the thermometer for temperatures as a reference or an analogy. Positive feelings are labelled as warm feelings and negative feelings are equivalent to cold feelings. It aims to measure the direction of the attitude and also to assess the degree or intensity of the feeling (Alwin, 2007, p. 188). The underlying assumption of thermometer scales is based in information theory: more precise information can be obtained if respondents can give their answer in a continuum or in a large number of categories (Alwin, 1992, 1997, 2007; Saris, 1988, 1998;...
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References
Alwin, D. F. (1992). Information transmission in the survey interview: Number of response categories and the reliability of attitude measurement. In P. V. Marsden (Ed.), Sociological methodology 1992 (Vol. 22, pp. 83–118). Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.
Alwin, D. F. (1997). Feeling thermometers versus 7-point scales: Which are better? Sociological Methods & Research February, 25, 318–340.
Alwin, D. F. (2007). Margins of error: A study of reliability in survey measurement. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
ANES Datacenter webpage 2012. Accessed February 13, 2012, from http://electionstudies.org/studypages/download/datacenter_all.htm
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Saris, W. E. (1998). Words are sometimes not enough to express the existing information. In M. Fenema, C. van der Eyck, & H. Schijf (Eds.), In search of structure: Essays in social science and methodology (pp. 98–115). Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis.
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Zavala-Rojas, D. (2014). Thermometer Scale (Feeling Thermometer). In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1028
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1028
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