RATING SCALES 125 
(or among his acquaintance), a man of average ability, 
and two other men, one midway between the highest and the 
average man and one midway between the lowest and the 
average man. These five men serve as standards by which 
to judge all the other members of the group with reference 
to the ability in question. Arbitrary numerical values have 
to be assigned by the investigator to the steps in the scale 
represented by these men. For example, the amount of the 
ability possessed by the highest man may be set at 25, the 
average man 15, and the lowest man 5, and the other men 
20 and 10. The master scale for an illustrative ability then 
looks like this: 
CONVINCINGNESS 
Consider the tact, clearness, and force with which each sales- 
man presents your interests to customers. 
Highest MIE vs ries rset ne ra ea 2S 
High MIE, hiv not caress avs sins sie s3D) 
Middle ERR CEL RIA hg 
Low MIE. hl da aay 
Lowest HTTP ee 
The judge prepares master scales in this way for each of 
the abilities in question. Needless to say, the men chosen 
as representative will vary with the ability. For example, 
the judge may consider the leader in one ability to be of 
only average standing in another ability. 
When used for interviewing purposes the numerical values 
should be weighted in accordance with the importance of 
each ability. The master scale for an ability very important 
for the job under consideration may range from 10 to 50, 
and for a less important ability from 2 to 10. 
In rating the group the judge considers one person at a 
time and records a numerical rating on each ability after 
comparing him with the master scale. In the example given 
above, the rating may be any number from 5 to 2s. 
This method has been found cumbersome in use. It re- 
quires a good deal of time and careful thought on the part