COMM 2367H Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Guttman Scale, Likert Scale, Electrodermal Activity
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3 Mar 2017
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Lecture Fourteen
Measuring Attitudes
Guttman Scale
• Scale progresses from items easiest to accept to those most difficult to endorse
• Those who get a high score on Guttman scale agree with all items
• Those with moderate attitudes agree with questions that are easy and moderately difficult to
endorse
• Those with mildly positive attitudes agree only with items that are easy to accept
Downfalls of the Guttman Scale
• Difficult to contrast- must create a perfect sequence that logically flows from one question to
another
• Difficult to administer- difficult to not skew the data and frame the questions
Semantic Differential
• Participants rate an object based upon bipolar adjectives
• Explored the meanings people attach to social objects, focusing on the emotional aspect of the
attitude
Likert Scale
• A series of opinion statements that asks individuals to rate their agreement or disagreement
with each statement along an individual scale
• Assumes each item taps the same underlying attitude and there are significant
interrelationships among items
• Presumes there are equal intervals between categories
• Most researchers prefer 5-7 point scales
• This allows for differing opinions but not so many items that the participant is overwhelmed
Some Negatives in Attitude Scales
• All attitudes and people are different so there will never be a perfect scale
• Inaccuracies could result from factors such as..
Respondent carelessness in answering questions
Social desirability
Tendency to agree with items regardless of content
More Problems
• Language: how the question is asked can influence the response
• Context: survey questions early in the questionnaire can influence responses later on
Non- Attitudes
• The middle person
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