Chapter 10

Attitude Measurement
Methods for Assessing Attitude

Observation of Behavior

Performance of Objective Tasks A

Physiological Reactions

Self-Report Techniques
Scales of Measurement

Basic Typical Measures of

Scale Comparisons Examples Average
Nominal Identity Male-female Mode
User-nonuser
Occupations
Uniform numbers

Ordinal Order Preference for brands Median

Social class
Hardness of minerals
Graded quality of lumber

Interval Comparison Temperature scale Mean

of intervals Grade point average
Attitude toward brands
Awareness of advertising

Ratio Comparison Units sold Geometric

of absolute Number of purchasers mean
magnitudes Probability of purchase Harmonic
Weight mean
 Figure 1: Assessing a Respondent’s Liking of Soft Drinks
With Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Scales

Nominal Ordinal
Which of the soft drinks in the Rank the soft drinks according to how much you
following list do you like? like each (most preferred drink = 1, and least
(Check ALL that apply): preferred drink = 6):
___Coke ___Coke
___Dr. Pepper ___Dr. Pepper
___Mountain Dew ___Mountain Dew
___Pepsi ___Pepsi
___Seven Up ___Seven Up
___Sprite ___Sprite

Interval Ratio
Please indicate how much you like each soft Please divide 100 points among these soft drinks
drink by checking the appropriate position on the To represent how much you like each:
scale: dislike like
a lot dislike like a lot ___Coke
Coke ____ ____ ____ ___ ___Dr. Pepper
Dr. Pepper ____ ____ ____ ___ ___Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew ____ ____ ____ ___ ___Pepsi
Pepsi ____ ____ ____ ___ ___Seven Up
Seven Up ____ ____ ____ ___ ___Sprite
Sprite ____ ____ ____ ___ 100
Figure 2: Thurstone Equal-Appearing Interval Continuum

A B C D E F G H I J K

Unfavorable Neutral Favorable

 Figure 3: Example of Likert Summated Rating Form

neither
strongly agree nor strongly
disagree disagree disagree agree agree
1. The bank offers courteous service. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

2. The bank has a convenient location. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

3. The bank has convenient hours. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

4. The bank offers low interest rate loans. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
 Figure 4: Example of Semantic Differential Scaling Form

Service is discourteous ___:___:___:___:___:___:___ Service is courteous

Location is convenient ___:___:___:___:___:___:___ Location is inconvenient
Hours are convenient ___:___:___:___:___:___:___ Hours are inconvenient
Loan interest rates are high ___:___:___:___:___:___:___ Loan interest rates are low
 Figure 5: Contrasting Profiles of Banks A and B

Service is discourteous ___:___:___:___:___:___:___ Service is courteous

Location is convenient ___:___:___:___:___:___:___ Location is inconvenient

Hours are convenient ___:___:___:___:___:___:___ Hours are inconvenient

Loan interest rates are high ___:___:___:___:___:___:___ Loan interest rates are low

Bank A
Bank B
Figure 6: Example of a Stapel Scale

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3
4 5
Service is courteous 

Location is convenient          

Hours are convenient 

Loan interest rates are high 


Figure 7: Graphic Rating Scale

Please evaluate each quality in terms of how important it is

to you personally by clicking the cursor at the position on the
horizontal line that most reflects your feelings:

not very
important
important
Courteous service
_______________________________________

Convenient location _______________________________________

Convenient hours
_______________________________________

Low interest rate loans _______________________________________

 Figure 8: Comparative Rating Scale

Please divide 100 points among the following bank

services in terms of relatively how important
each is to you:

___Courteous service
___Convenient hours
___Convenient location
___Low interest rates
100
Figure 9: Sad-to-Happy Faces that Work with Children (and Adults!)
 Appendix 10A

Psychological Measurement
 Figure 1: Schematic Diagram Illustrating the Structure
of Science and the Problem of Measurement

construct construct

Observable
construct data
construct

construct construct
Figure 2: The Relationship between the Construct
“Customer Satisfaction” and its Determinants and Consequences

satisfaction X
expectations

comparison ?

purchase repeat buy Y

Potential Sources of Difference in Obtained Scores

* True differences in the characteristic being measured

* True differences in other relatively stable characteristics

of the people or objects that affect their scores

* Differences due to transient personal factors

* Differences due to situational factors

* Differences due to variations in administration

* Differences due to sampling of items

* Differences due to lack of clarity of the measuring instrument

* Differences due to mechanical factors

Evidence Used to Infer the Validity of a Measure

Test-retest
Indirect Evidence Alternate forms
Via Reliability
Coefficients Split half

Coefficient 

Predictive validity

Direct Evidence Content validity

Via Validity Construct validity
Coefficients
Convergent validity
Discriminant validity
Figure 3: Procedure for Measurement Development

Specify Domain
Step 1:
of the Construct

Generate Sample
Step 2:
of Items

Step 3: Collect Data

Step 4: Purify Measure

Step 5: Assess Validity