 People often ask me how to use instrument sub-scales in their survey research. I explain that first you have to do a lot of research about the instrument. You have to look up what items are on the instrument, whether or not the instrument is copyrighted, and review the prior research on the instrument. You want to see if you need to use the full instrument or a shortened version, but most importantly, you need to figure out how the items are arranged onto the sub-scales so you can do the sub-scale scoring. I'll use the multi-factor leadership questionnaire, or MLQ, as an example. The shortened version, MLQ6S, has seven sub-scales with three items per sub-scale. In order to use these seven sub-scales, you have to document what items are on what sub-scale and how to combine the items properly using the MLQ6S scoring rules. Want to learn more about using instruments and surveys? Take my free online course, Understanding Research Forms, Surveys, and Instruments. The link is in the description.