Attitude Measurement
Every individual has their own culture, behaviour and experience. An attitude of a human being is developed on the basis of culture, behaviour and experience. A reaction made by a person over any event, product or other things is known as attitude. Social science research studies the behaviour and attitudes of a person or a society. For the studies of such factors, a researcher should measure the attitude of the people. The main aim of the study of human attitude is to find out the cause of the behaviour of human being. Social science researchers have developed various scales for the measurement of the attitude of the people. Such measurement is known as attitude measurement.
The development of scale is a process of measurement. It helps to convert qualitative facts into the quantitative figure. It sets the basis for measuring the attitude of a person. In another word, an attitude measurement is an act of converting qualitative information into quantitative facts. Such measurement can be developed in the following ways:
a. Researcher can review the literature in depth and select the measuring scales which were used by the previous research while conducting research in a similar subject.
b. Researcher may use the scale as it is as used by the previous researchers or modifying in the existing scale.
c. Researcher can develop a new measurement scale. The new scale must be valid. Thus, a researcher should, first, perform the following work to develop a new measurement scale:
- Specify the domain of the construct
- Creating sample
- Collecting data and information
- Purifying measures
- Assessing the reliability
- Assessing the validity
- Developing the basic norms of measurement tools and developing the new tools.
Techniques for Developing Attitude Scale
There are four techniques for developing attitude scales. They are given below:
1. Choice:
Respondents were given a number of alternatives and ask to choose the preferred alternative. If a respondent chooses one alternative then it is assumed that the respondent prefers that alternative to other alternatives.
2. Ranking:
Various alternatives are provided to the respondents and asked to give rank as per their priority. Respondent provides rank to the given alternatives that help to know their attitudes.
3. Rating:
The researcher asks the respondent to estimate the magnitude of quality or characteristics that a product or event possesses. The position is found/ seen on the basis of their rating.
4. Sorting:
Several concepts are provided to the respondents and asked to, arrange them in order on the basis of their priority/value. Such arrangement reflects the attitude of the respondents.
Scale Construction for Attitude Measurement
Attitude is a qualitative subject. So, numbers or symbols are provided for the measurement of such a qualitative subject. An attitude of a person remains different from one individual to another individual. Thus, Various scales can be used for the measurement of the attitude of human beings. Some of the important methods of attitude scale are given below:
1. Arbitrary scale:
Sometimes researcher develops new rational and appropriate method. If he/she feels that the subject of study is absolutely new and a new method or technique is essential for the measurement of attitude then he/ she develops a new scale which is known as arbitrary scale. A researcher should be able to show the reliability and validity of such a scale. The nature of social events differs, so the researchers develop different scales time and again and use them whenever essential. Thus, this scale is popular in the field of social science research. But it is very hard for the researcher to prove that the scale measures the attitudes of the persons.
2. Summated rating scale or Likert scale:
This scale was developed by Rensis Likert. So it is popularly known as the Likert scale. The Likert scale is a widely used rating scale that requires the respondents to indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a series of statements. This scale presents various statements to measure the attitude of the respondents. A researcher asked to show their agreement or disagreement over the statements presented to them.
Every response is provided value that shows the degree of agreement and disagreement of respondents. The attitude of all respondents is measured by adding all the values provided to each statement. Thus, it is known as a summated rating scale. If an organization wants to know the concept of its employees regarding organizational structure then it can furnish the following statement with Likert scale to know the attitude of the employees about organizational structure.
Rules should be strict and clear
Note: Likert scale can be 5, 7, and 9 points. But 5 point Likert scale is given as an example.
All the employees are asked to give their view within 5 options, All the views of the respondents are summated (added) and an average of it is calculated. If the average value is less than three then employees like the participated approach and if the average value is more than three then employees like to do the work in the autocratic system. Thus, a researcher uses the Likert scale to know the view of the people regarding any subject, event or problem.
Construction of Likert scale:
The procedures for construction of the Likert scale are given below:
a. The researcher collects a large number of statements that are relevant to the attitude understudy and each of the statements expresses definite favourableness or unfavourableness to a particular point.
b. A prior test is made after gathering the statements. It means a small group of people are asked to indicate their response to each statement by checking one of the categories of agreement or disagreement using a five/ seven/ nine-point scale,
c. The response to various statements are scored in such a way that a response indicative of the most favourable attitude is given the highest score of 5/7/9 and ‘that with the most unfavourable attitude is given the lowest score 1.
d. Then the total score of each respondent is obtained by adding the scores that the researcher received for separate statements.
e. The next step is to find out those statements which have the highest discriminatory power. Few extreme groups are interpreted to represent the most favourable and the least favourable attitude.
f. Only those statements that correlate with the total test should be included in the final instrument and the other should be discarded/ removed from the final instrument.
3. Differential Scale or Thurstone scale:
This scale was developed by L.L Thurstone using the consensus scale approach. Under this approach, the selection of items is made by a panel of judges who evaluates the items in terms of relevancy to the topic area and unambiguous in implication. The detailed procedures are given below:
a. The researcher gathers a large number of statements that express various points of view toward a group, event, subject or practice.
b. These statements are presented to a panel of judges, each of them arranged in various groups or makes pile ranging from one extreme to another extreme in position. Each of the judges is requested to place in the piles the statement from most unfavourable to most favourable.
c. Items that are marked disagreement by the judges in assigning a position then such items are discarded.
d. Every retained item is given a median scale value between the highest and lowest value as set by the panel of judges. In other words, the scale value of any one statement is computed as the median position to which it is assigned by the group of judges.
e. For this purpose, a statement whose median values are spread evenly from one extreme to the other extreme is taken. The statements which are selected in such a way constitutes the final scale to be administered to respondents. The position of each statement on the scale is the same as determined by the judges.
For example,
Following a statement and median values are set by the panel of judges to measure the employees’ attitude toward the organization.
Respondents select the statement in which they can give their response. Such selected statements have a predetermined mean or median value that presents the agreement or disagreement of respondents. If a respondent selects second and fourth statements then the score is calculated as follows:
The average value of the second and fourth statement is calculated as
Average value = 7.5+6.3/2 = 6.9
Repeating the same process, a researcher develops rank-order so as to draw the conclusion of the research.
4. Cumulative or Guttman scale:
It is also known as Louis Guttman’s scalogram analysis. As in other scales, this scale also gathers the series of statements on which respondents express his/her agreement or disagreement. The statements from a cumUlative series in this scale statements set in this scale are related to each other in such a way that one replies favourably to one statement like statement number 5 then it is assumed that he/she is favourable in all statements 1, 2, 3, and 4. But if anyone expresses an unfavourable response on the 3rd statement then he/she is unfavourable to statements 1 and 2 also. This is done so because an individual who is positive/ negative to a certain extreme point will be similar to other less extreme points.
The scalogram analysis refers to the procedure for determining a set of items that forms a unidimensional scale. A scale is said to be unidimensional if the responses fall into a pattern in which endorsement of the item reflecting the extreme position result also is endorsing all items which are less extreme. Under this technique, the respondents are asked to indicate in each item whether they agree or disagree with it, the response pattern will be as follows:
A score of 5 means that the respondent is in agreement with all the statements which indicates the most favourable attitude. But a score of 4 would mean that the respondent is not agreeable to item 5 but he/she agrees with all others.
Construction of Guttman Scale
The procedures for construction of the Guttman scale are given below:
a. Selecting the statements in clear terms on the basis of the issue/objective we want to deal with.
b. Pre-testing of statements on the sample of about 100 people.
c. Removing those statements which possess more than 80 percent agreement or disagreement.
d. Arranging the statements on the basis of high response and low response.
e. Response that does not indicate clearly the favourableness and unfavourableness should be removed.
f. Determining coefficient of reproducibility. It can be assessed as follows:
i. Determining the number of errors.
ii. Reproducibility = 1-Number of errors/Number of responses
iii. If the value of reproducibility is 90 or more than that then scale is considered unidimensional.
g. Value of respondents is assessed based on the favourable answers provided by them.
Scales commonly used in Business Research/ Social Science Research
Various scales are developed by the experts to measure the attitude of the individuals or group. Different scales are used by the researcher to measure the attitude of the individuals or group based on the nature of the event or objectives of the research work. Business research has its own distinct nature and objectives. So, Business research uses different scale while conducting research. Some of the commonly used scales in business research are given below:
1. Likert scale:
It is the most widely used scale in business research to measure the attitude, norms, values and behaviour of individuals or groups. In this scale, respondents are asked to give their opinion limiting with given scales, and respondents show their agreement or disagreement on the statement provided in the questionnaire. It shows not only the agreement and disagreement but also shows the degree of agreement or disagreement. It can be made clear from the following example.
A statement is provided to the respondents and asked to show their agreement or disagreement within the limit of the given five scales.
Employees are committed to the organization.
1- Strongly disagree
2- Disagree
3- Undecided
4- Agree
4- Agree
5- Strongly agree
The above example is trying to know whether the employees are committed to the organization or not. Respondents are select any one alternative that represents their opinion opinions are analyzed using statistical/ mathematical and researcher finds out whether they are committed organization/ not.
2. Graphic rating scale:
In this scale, respondents are asked to indicate their response to a particular question by placing a mark at the appropriate point to express their opinions. Such marketing helps to understand the opinion of respondents. It is also commonly used in business research. It can be made clear following example:
On a scale of 0 to 10, how do you rate your departmental head?
Ask the respondent to mark at one point ranging from 0 to 10. Such selection presents the opinion of the respondent. On the basis of the opinion of employees, a researcher finds out whether employees take positively or negatively to his/her departmental head.
3. Itemized rating scale:
In this scale, the researcher provides a category of responses out of which the respondent selects one that is most relevant for answering the questions under study. It is popular in business research because of its adaptability in many situations where variables are to be measured. The following examples illustrate the use of this scale:
i. How do you rate your interest in changing organizational policies?
Extremely poor ———– Not at all
Some what well———– Very well
ii. How well is the new distribution channel working?
Not at all somewhat good——— Very much good
Not at all somewhat good——— Very much good
Respondents are asked to select the most relevant option to know the opinion of the respondents.
4. Rank order rating scale:
In this scale, respondents are asked to rank the given items or product on the basis of their priority. They arrange them ranging from topmost priority to lowest priority. It is a comparative method. It is used to measure the priority of the organization toward any subject. It compels the respondents to segregate the product or issues from one group to the next group on the basis of priority. It only develops ordinal data. For example, a researcher asked the customers to identify the rank on the basis of priority of the following noodles:
Respondents provide 1 – 5 marks on the basis of priority to the different noodles. On the basis of rank provided by the respondents, a researcher finds out the priority of the customers.
5. Semantic differential scale:
The semantic differential scale is a seven-point rating scale with endpoint associated with bipolar levels that have implied meanings. In an application, respondents rate objects or issues on one of two bipolar objectives, such as ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’. The semantic differential scale is based on the assumption that an object can have several dimensions of implied meaning. The meanings are located in a multidimensional property space called semantic space. Implied meanings are suggested in addition to the explicit meaning of an object. The following process should be followed while developing semantic differential scale:
a. First of all, the concepts to be studied are selected. The concepts are chosen on personal judgment keeping in view the nature of the problem.
b. Network is to select the scale bearing in mind the criterion of factor composition and relevance.
c. A panel of judges is used to rate the various objects on the various selected scales and the responses of all judges would be combined to determine the composite scales.
6. Other simple scales:
Different researchers have developed the different scales in different time periods considering to the nature of the study. Some researchers have developed simple and less costly scales. Some of them are given below:
a. Simple category questions:
It’s known as a dichotomous scale. It provides two mutually exclusive choices such as yes or no, important or unimportant, agrees or disagrees, etc, This response is useful for demographic questions or where a dichotomous response is adequate. For example: the following questions may be developed to know the compliance of company policy.
i. Do you perform the work as per company policy?
a. Yes
b. No
ii. I plan to purchase a premise to the business in the next 5 years,
a. Yes,
a. Yes,
b. No
b. Multiple choice questions:
A scale where multiple choices is given to the respondents but asked the respondents to select one or a few alternatives. To know the priority and interest of the consumers, this scale is used in business research. The following scale can be developed to know the most liked biscuit:
i. Nebico Glucose
ii. Hulas Glucose
iii. Parle-G Glucose
iv. Other Glucose
Respondents are asked to choose one or few biscuits so that researcher finds out which biscuit likes most by the consumer analyzing the responses provided by them.
c. Open-ended questions:
In this scale, respondents are asked to give their own opinion in the subjective form. No options are provided to them. It is used by the researcher to get in-depth knowledge about any subject or events. Generally, such opinions help to make the right decisions.
Related:-
Attitude Measurement | Techniques for Developing Attitude Scale | Scale Construction for Attitude Measurement | Scales commonly used in Business Research or Social Science Research
