The un-making of a method: From rating scales to the study of psychological processes

Abstract

Rating scales are standard instruments in psychology. They force the research participant to provide a numerical estimate of an assumed “degree” of some characteristic along a linear scale. We prove that such numerical estimates are artifacts based on unknown psychological processes that are used in the making of a rating. Psychology’s current use of rating scales entails reliance upon unexplored and abbreviated introspection. It superimposes upon the rater the use of real numbers for the subjective construction of the ratings. The axiomatic superimposition of the notion of “degree” of subjective estimates by the rating task overlooks the qualitative (structural) relation between the implied opposites. We propose the reconstruction of the rating tasks into a method that accesses the process of meaning construction by the rater. When the rater faces a rating task, a field of meanings is constructed in terms of dialogical oppositions. These oppositions can be observed to lead to the moment of subjective synthesis (the rating outcome). Examples are given of the tracing of the process of subjective synthesis from an empirical study using NEO PI items. We claim that reconstruction of the rating task in terms of the study of microgenesis of rating processes allows psychology access to the reality of the workings of the human mind.