This paper presents some notes on question items and psychological scales used in social surveys. We review mainly the longitudinal and cross-national comparative survey data collected by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics over half a century, focusing several items concerning subjective social class, sense of satisfaction, and sense of trust as practical examples. In particular, we note on meaningfulness, appropriateness, and stability of psychological scaling on question items as well as quality of statistical representative sampling, as the necessary conditions of scientific research. These notes may suggest how to improve the studies on psychological scaling of social surveys which contradictory results are frequently reported due to misunderstandings on sampling and scaling.
