I referred your question to Valerie Stewart who responds as follows:-
`Yes, it is the case that 'middle of the scale' and 'not applicable' are two
different concepts and shouldn't be confused. With Enquire Within, the
user has a number of options for dealing with this. First, the program
allows you to split one construct into two, if that that makes more sense -
this is most likely to emerge as an issue when you start the rating
process. For example, I had a client who, using colleagues at work,
produced the construct 'plays office politics well - plays ofice politics
badly'. That was OK within the context of those three elements, but when we
came to rating it was obvious that it had to be two constructs: 'plays
office politics well - doesn't play politics at all' and 'plays office
politics badly - doesn't play politics at all' . The other advantage of
splitting that particular construct was that it respected the principle
that both ends of the construct should carry approximately equal 'weight'.
Although it's not the case that all constructs should be evaluative, in
this case the person had a very clear preference for 'doesn't play
politics at all' and felt the need to have that represented by the
end-point of a scale, not its midpoint.
The other option Enquire Within offers you is to analyse the Grid even if
you have up to two constructs rated N/A. You might find it useful to read the
hint on the range of convenience of constructs on our website, which goes
into the subject in more detail. Ref
<http://www.EnquireWithin.co.nz/rangeof.htm>.
Valerie Stewart'
Enquire Within (which is, incidentally, designed for use in Windows on a
PC) drops a construct out of analysis if it has two or more unrated
elements but provides a warning message that it is doing this to give an
opportunity for review. There are various other warning messages about
unrated constructs designed to bring them to attention for review.
I hope this helps,
John
-------------------
John Mayes
<john@EnquireWithin.co.nz>
<http://www.EnquireWithin.co.nz>
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