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In these figures the difference between Never and Seldom is 10%, between Seldom and Occasionally is 13%, between Occasionally and Sometimes is 11%, between Sometimes and Often is 29% and between Often and Always is 29%. These figures suggest therefore that the spacing between the four response choices in the existing LDQ, Never, Sometimes, Often, Nearly Always is 33%, 29% and 29% respectively, in other words that they are quite evenly spaced. Spector’s (1976) data, on the other hand suggest a much larger space between the responses Rarely and Sometimes but more or less equal spacing between Rarely, Infrequently, Sometimes, Often and Most of the Time.
Given these different findings, a small scale study was conducted to look at the rank ordering and meanings of six possible response choices to the ten items in the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire, to explore the meanings attributed to these response choices and to investigate the question of whether the inclusion of an additional response choice, namely Rarely, between Never and Sometimes in the original four response choices in the scale, was likely to enhance the spread of responses.
4.3.1 Study 1: Sample and Procedures
The sample used in this study was Sample 1, described in section 4.1.1 above. Recruitment, interviews and scale administration were all conducted by the author. The study consisted of two procedures; in the first, the sample of 51 patients attending the Leeds Addiction Unit at various stages of their treatment were asked to rank order the following response choices:- Never, Rarely, Infrequently, Sometimes, Often and Nearly Always from 1 to 6, with 1 meaning the most often and 6 meaning the least often. In the second procedure, two additional response choices, Rarely and Infrequently, were added to the four existing response choices in the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire which was then administered to the participants; they were asked to complete the questionnaire and then to quantify the six response choices. Respondents were requested to give their answer as frequency expressed as once in a number of weeks, days, hours or minutes. Replies were recorded as time frames suggested by respondents. There was some prompting as study participants found the question difficult to understand.
4.3.2 Study 1: Results
Respondents’ rank ordering of the response choices, where they were asked to rank the words from one to six, with one meaning the most often and six meaning the least often, are presented in Table 4.3.
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