Attitude Scales PDF

# Questionnaire ## Standardized Attitude Survey Research ### Item Difficulty Does Not Matter ### Item Matter - Because Check as Attitude Attitudes are feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose our reactions to objects, people, and events. If we believe someone is threatening us,...

# Questionnaire ## Standardized Attitude Survey Research ### Item Difficulty Does Not Matter ### Item Matter - Because Check as Attitude Attitudes are feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose our reactions to objects, people, and events. If we believe someone is threatening us, we may feel fear and anger toward the person and act defensively. The traffic between our attitudes and our actions is two-way. Our attitudes affect our actions. And our actions affect our attitudes. ### ABC Model of Attitude | Attitude | Reason | Affective (emotion) | Behavioral | |---|---|---|---| | | Cognitive | | | ## Attitude (Cognition/Beliefs) If an attitude scale allows you to measure only one of these aspects, then it is unidimensional. Three of them are measured: * Social Distance Scale * Multidimensional Scalogram, Likert, Stapel Scale * Semantic Differential ## Measure Attitude In order to preserve a positive self-image, people's responses may be affected by social desirability. They may not well tell about their true attitudes, but answer in a way that they feel socially acceptable. Given this problem, various methods of measuring attitudes have been developed. However, all of them have limitations. In particular, the different measures focus on different components of attitudes—cognitive, affective and behavioral—and as we know, these components do not necessarily coincide. ## Scalogram: Unidimensional First Altitude Scale This scale was developed by Emory Bogardus in 1924 and named after him. It is one of the oldest and still in use, psychological attitude scales. ### Social Distance Scale: Discrimination, Racism, American Due to its unidimensional nature, prejudice or the lack of it towards only one community or group can be measured at one point in time. The Bogardus social distance scale is set up as a series of questions that ask an individual or a respondent, their feelings or the closest degree of intimacy towards a member of a group in question. The Bogardus social distance scale is also known as a cumulative scale because an agreement with one item shows agreement with any number of preceding items; which makes it a subset of the Guttman scale. ### Social Distance Statements | Item | Yes/No | Dichotomous Item | |---|---|---| | "Would marry." | | | | "Would be willing to have my brother or sister marry." | | | | "Would be willing to have my son or daughter marry." | | | | "Would have as chums." | | | | "Would have a minority in my social club, fraternity, or lodge." | | | | "Would have as a majority in my social club, fraternity, or lodge." | | | | "Would debar from my social club, fraternity, or lodge." | | | | "Would have as my regular friends." | | | | "Would decline to have as friends." | | | | "Would have merely as speaking acquaintances." | | | | "Would decline to speak to." | | | ### Cumulative Scale The response of one item would indicate the response on all other items. This can be seen very clearly. | Value | | |---|---| | Nominal | | | Ordinal | | | Yes/No | | | → | | | Numerical ranking | | ## Guttman's Scalogram: Unidimensional Affect Measured Guttman scaling is also sometimes known as cumulative scaling or scalogram analysis. The purpose of Guttman scaling is to establish a one-dimensional continuum for a concept you wish to measure. For example, imagine a ten-item cumulative scale. If the respondent scores a four it should mean that he/she agreed with the first four statements. If the respondent scores an eight, it should mean they agreed with the first eight. Usually, a person who answers YES to 1, would have a high probability of answering as YES to the subsequent statements. Any person who does not answer as YES to 1 but does answer as YES to 2. For instance, let us consider a research study where one is interested in investigating a community's attitude to family planning. The items in the questionnaire, which relate to this, could consist of the following: | Yes/No | |---|---| | Family planning is the best hope for our country | | Family planning would lead to healthier children | | We should all participate in the family planning programme. | Data obtained is converted into an ordinal score. ## Hurstone's ICJ. 1927: Law of Comparative Judgement Thurstone was one of the first and most productive scaling theorists. He actually invented three different methods for developing a unidimensional scale: * The method of equal-appearing intervals * The method of successive intervals * The method of paired comparisons Each of these methods involves generating a large set of potential scale items. All of them result in a scale consisting of relatively few items which the respondent rates on an Agree/Disagree basis. The major differences are in how the data from the judges is collected: 1. **EAI (Equal AI):** Judges rating 1, 3,5,7,9,11 is easier to calculate; most direct application of Law of comparative judgement. 2. **SAI (Successive AI):** 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 3. **Paired Comparison:** Exam: Preference of food. There is why only a small number of items can be clicked; that's why skewed data = interval data. Median - Preference scale ### Likert Scale, Rensis Likert, 1932 Likert scaling is a unidimensional scaling method. It is assumed that the concept you want to measure is one-dimensional in nature. The summative models assume that the individual items in the scale are monotonically related to the underlying attributes and a summation of the item scores is related linearly to the attitude. In a summative model, one obtains the total score by adding scores on individual items. For the statements that imply negative attitudes, the scoring is reversed. The scales allow an expression of the intensity of feeling. Here, instead of having just "agree" and "disagree" in the scale, we can have intensities varying from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". * SA - A - Neutral - D - SD * Not force choice * Mental response * Summative rating scale = (Sum of all responses) / (Number of responses) ## Likert: Unidimensional - Affective However, Likert by default unidimensional agree/disagree - affective. By adding more subscales (behav. & cog.), value can also be used, but problematic. ## Stapel Scale: 10 Point Scale (+5 to -5) It was developed by Jan Stapel. Each item has only one word/phrase indicating the dimension it represents. Each item has ten response categories. Each item has an even number of categories. The response categories have numerical labels but no verbal labels. For example, in the following items, suppose for quality of ice cream, we ask respondents to rank from +5 to -5. This scale is usually presented vertically: +5+4+3+2+1 High Quality -1-2-3-4-5. This is a unipolar rating scale. ## Semantic Differential Scale: Multidimension Scale The semantic differential technique of Osgood et al. (1957) asks a person to rate an issue or topic on a standard set of bipolar adjectives (i.e. with opposite meanings descriptive words) each representing a seven point scale. This is a direct method of attitude measurement and produces quantitative data. Semantic Differential scales can be used to measure your attitude to any word, e.g. homework, America, music, college, chocolate, beer, sleep, psychology etc. | | | | |---|---|---| | Modern | | Old fashioned | | Progressive | | Behind the times | | Friendly | | Unfriendly | | Atmosphere | | | | Helpful | | Unhelpful | | Staff | | Staff | | Reliable | | Unreliable | | Quick service | | Slow service | | Clean | | Dirty | The semantic differential technique reveals information on three basic dimensions of attitudes: * **Evaluation** is concerned with whether a person thinks positively or negatively about the attitude topic (e.g. dirty - clean, and ugly - beautiful). * **Potency** is concerned with how powerful the topic is for the person (e.g. cruel - kind, and strong - week). * **Activity** is concerned with whether the topic is seen as active or passive (e.g. active - passive). | (Thinking) Potency | (Feelings) Evaluation | (Behavi. ) Activity | |---|---|---| | Weak | Cruel | Passive | | Bad | Ugly | Relaxed | | Small | Sad | Cold | | Soft | Negative | Quiet | | Light | Unpleasant | Rounded | | Submissive | Worthless | Simple | | Shallow | | Weak | | | | | | Strong | | Active | | Good | | Tense | | Large | | Fast | | Hard | | Hot | | | | Noisy | | Deep | | Bright | | Assertive | | Angular | | | | complex | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Abt an object | Abt a situation | Beliefs | Like a human | |---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |