normative scale
any evaluative instrument on which the respondent provides ratings for a series of items or chooses scores to indicate his or her agreement with a series of statements. Unlike an ipsative scale, there is no requirement for these scores to sum to a particular total (e.g., 100%). For example, a supervisor using a normative scale to assess an employee’s job performance might be asked to choose a number from 1 to 5 to indicate how well the employee performed in each of several areas, such as communication, timekeeping, and quality of work. The scores given in any area would not be affected by those given in any of the others (e.g., the supervisor could award all 5s or all 1s if he or she thought this was merited).