The Measurement of Attitudes Psychology of Attitudes

Outline Historic Measurement Methods –Behavioral Indicators –Physiological Measures –Indirect Measures –Scales and Self-Reports

How do we know if someone has a positive attitude towards ice cream?

Indicators of Attitudes Behavior (She eats it) Affective reaction (She likes eating it) Self-Report (She tells us she likes it) Peer-Report (Her mom tells us) Physiological Measures (heart rate  )

Birth of Attitude Measurement Louis Thurstone (1928) attitudes can be measured scientifically Applied methods of psychophysics to attitudes. “Attitudes can be measured!”

Behavioral Indicators Head movement When people listen to messages they agree with, they tend to move their heads vertically (nod) more than horizontally (shake).

Behavioral Indicators Eye Contact Affiliative Conflict Theory - people who like each other are more intimate and engage in more intimate behaviors like eye contact. Therefore… If two people like each other, (+ attitude) they will make more eye contact than if they do not like each other (- attitude).

Behavioral Indicators Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Drop in the resistance of the skin to the passage of a weak electric current indicative of emotion or physiological arousal (usually measured in the palm of the hand).

Are emotional responses related to attitudes?

Creation of “good” items 1.Clarity of Attitude Object (i.e., ice cream vs. eating ice cream). 2.Clarity about the Attitude Component (e.g., evaluation, beliefs, affect). 3.Clarity of statement (e.g., avoid double negatives, use simple language). 4.Check clarity using Belson’ (1968) “rewriting method”.

Thurstone’s Method of Equal- Appearing Intervals 1.Panel of judges sort possible items into groups (positive, negative, neutral) - theorized to be equidistant. 2.Items used in the final scale are those with the highest level of agreement among the judges. 3.Respondents are then asked to state if they agree with each of the statements. Attitude scores consist of the average value of the items agreed with.

Bogardus’s Social Distance Scale Attitudes towards members of social or ethnic groups. Rationale - one’s liking for a group is reflected in the social distance deemed acceptable (in relationship with members of the group). Respondent’s score = closest distance at which the relationship is seen as acceptable.

Likert’s Method of Summated Ratings Items based on theoretical understanding of the construct (attitude toward the AO) - Does not require pre-sorting/evaluation by a panel of judges. Respondents indicate the extent to which they endorse the statements (e.g., agree / disagree). Each response option is assigned a value (e.g., -2 to +2; 1 to 7). Individuals score is the sum of answers across all items. Scale homogeneity – items-items and items- global score correlations (not necessarily + correlations).

But...

Number of Items Important to realize that the more items on a scale, the more reliable (replicable) the measurement. Many items reduce the chances that the attitude score is due to error or chance. On the other hand, multiple items can focus on different aspects of the attitude (i.e., lack of homogeneity - scale no longer measures one concept, but two or more.