Scale recoding in sociological research: a new validation methodology. An application to a political survey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/ris.2019.77.2.17.088Keywords:
Simple and Multiple Factor Analysis, Social Survey Measurement ScalesAbstract
The recoding of scale variables is a common step in the analysis of survey data. It is not immune, however, to certain pitfalls, such as the introduction of biases, or potential data distortion. This paper presents a methodological proposal for the validation of any recoding process, whether it involves metric- or categorical-scale variables. The aim of the proposed methodology is to verify the adequacy of the re-codification by indicating how close in structure the re-coded data are to the original data. The basis of the methodology is a factorial analysis technique, Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA), which is performed on a global data table juxtaposing the original-scale and recoded-scale data. The procedure is tested on real-world data drawn from a public opinion poll on perceptions of leading politicians in the Spanish Parliament.
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