Likert did well in several areas. During the course of his doctoral research, he developed what soon became the famous “Likert scale,” an early example of “sufficing” that exemplifies Likert’s pragmatic approach. He showed, with empirical comparisons, that his much simpler method (asking the respondent to place himself on a scale of favor/disfavor with a neutral midpoint) gave results very similar to those of the much more cumbersome (though more theoretically elegant) Thurstone procedure (based on the psychophysical method of equal-appearing intervals). The Likert scale has been adopted throughout the world, and continuing demand for the thesis led to its re-publication in the series Classic Contributions to Social Psychology. The scale also appears as Chapter 3 of the pioneering Public Opinion and the Individual, which Likert and Murphy published in 1938.
During his time at Columbia, Likert married Jane Gibson, whom he had known at [the University of Michigan]. They formed a loving, lasting, close bond. She was a lifelong source of support to him and, often, his collaborator.
Likert’s activities over the years 1939–1970 made a tremendous impact on the development of social statistics. In September 1939, he was appointed director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Division of Program Surveys. Henry Wallace, secretary of agriculture, had invited Likert to organize this new unit, which was created to obtain more reliably farmers’ experiences with, and reactions to, the diverse new programs sponsored by the department. This was a new idea—an independent statistical unit monitoring the activities of program agencies.