Re: 4-point scale still valid?

[EAMorical@aol.com]

Personally as a survey taker I would find 4 and 7 frustrating.
If your really trying to be honest, they force you to spend time
weighting the scales to see which way they tip. In the case of
7 between adjacent ones because they are too close together
and in the case of 4 between 2 and 3 when you don't know or
don't care. Personally I prefer 5.

-2  +1 -5  Don't want
-1  +2 -4  Don't like
 0  +3 -3  Don't care
+1 +4 -2  Would like
+2 +5 -1  Must have

To me its just an offset in scale. Maybe it should be 0 +1 +2 +3 +4
or -4 -3 -2 -1 0.

It really comes down to the issue of odd or even. I vote odd, less user
frustration.

Bob