There is some literature on this. I suggest you post your query to the Usenet
news group sci.stat.consult which deals with this sort of question. You will
get many replies.
Frank Harrell
On Fri, 10 May 2002 15:11:45 +1000
ellisp@netspeed.com.au wrote:
>
>
> All
>
> I apologise for the slightly off topic nature of this question and will keep
> it
> brief (I am prepared to wear any flames and humbly apologise for the
> blatantly
> non S focus).
>
> In many fields (eg psychology, marketing, political science) it is common to
> add and average ordinal ratings as though they are numbers in a way that is
> on
> the face of it completely inappropriate. Similarly, people use ordinary
> correlation coefficients when they should use polychoric correlations; bog
> standard continuous response linear models when they should have some sort of
> more complex GLM; etc. However, my hunch and to a certain degree experience
> is
> that at least sometimes this approach does not do too much damage to the data
> (eg more complex appropriate responses come up with similar results).
>
> 1) What are people's views? Is it unfair, for example, to say "such scales
> should never be added and averaged"?
>
> 2) Where should I look for the literature on this? (what literature I have
> found concentrates on pointing out the flaws of common techniques and the
> importance of using some more sophisticated methods, usually one developed by
> the author; but I have not seen a comprehensive conceptual, theoretical and
> empirical comparison of the cheats' methods versus the "proper" methods)
>
> cheers, ta, and sorry again
> PE
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--
Frank E Harrell Jr Prof. of Biostatistics & Statistics
Div. of Biostatistics & Epidem. Dept. of Health Evaluation Sciences
U. Virginia School of Medicine http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat
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