PART I: FOUNDATIONS
CHAPTER 4: ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

TERMS AND ISSUES TO KNOW

Likert scale: an agree-disagree scale for assessing attitudes that assumes there are equal intervals between categories.
Guttman scale: an attitude scaling technique that emphasizes degree of psychological difficulty of items.
Semantic differential: scale focusing on measurement of meaning; consists of bipolar adjectives lying at the left and right sides of the scale.
Context effects: context or order in which items appear influences respondents' answers.
Wording effects: ways in which question is worded influence respondents' answers.
Unobtrusive measures: attitude measurement technique that uses behavior as a surrogate for attitude; respondents are observed interacting with attitude object unobtrusively, or without their knowledge.
Galvanic skin response: physiological technique for assessing attitude through change in electrical resistance of skin (sweating).
Pupil dilation: expansion of pupils; has been employed as an indirect measure of attitude toward an issue.
Facial electromyographic techniques: physiological techniques that tap movements of facial muscles, particularly in brow, cheek, and eye regions, to offer a reading of attitude.
Response time: latency or length of time taken to indicate agreement with an attitude item; shorter response time typically seen as indicating stronger attitude toward issue.
Implicit Association Test (IAT): a measure of the strength of association between an attribute (such as race) and positive or negative feelings. The IAT assesses implicit attitudes by quantifying the amount of time it takes people to respond to stereotypic and non-stereotypic associations. The test has aroused controversy because of claims that it taps the hidden depths of unconscious prejudice toward social groups.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why do we need to measure attitudes empirically? What are the intellectual and practical benefits of attitude measurement?
2. What are the major barriers to accurate attitude measurement? How do wording and context influence responses to attitude scales?
3. Some researchers argue that people do not have full-blown attitudes, but, in fact, construct attitudes on the spot in response to pollsters' questions. Do you agree? Why or why not?
4. Are indirect attitude measurement techniques more appropriate for certain attitudes, assessed in certain cultural contexts? Or is too much made of indirect attitude techniques, given their methodological problems?
5. A controversy has erupted in the social sciences about the validity of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Defenders like Mahzarin R. Banaji argue that it provides a valid measure of the depths of unconscious prejudice, attitudes that people are loathe to admit. Indeed, some psychologists argue that unconscious prejudice, as assessed by the IAT, causes people to engage in legally problematic discrimination against minority groups. Some researchers maintain that measures of implicit prejudiced attitudes could be used to test employees for racial bias. Critics like Philip E. Tetlock have objected to this line of reasoning, arguing that the evidence does not indicate that the IAT actually shows people harbor unconscious prejudices toward social groups. He and others maintain that it is erroneous and dangerous to conclude that the majority of the public is bigoted because of psychologically ambiguous reactions to a computerized test. Critics also say that it is not appropriate to hold people legally accountable for unconscious thought processes that may have little to do with discriminatory behavior in real-life settings. What do you think? What are the pros and cons of the IAT? Do the critics have a point when they argue that IAT advocates are making problematic claims about the test. Review some of the articles in this area, including “The Brain on the Stand” by Jeffrey Rosen in The New York Times Magazine, March 11, 2007 and a special issue of the journal Psychological Inquiry (Vol. 15, #4, October, 2004) that discusses this topic.
   

PRACTICE TEST QUESTIONS

Match the attitude scale on the left with the description on the right

EXERCISES

1. Select an attitude that interests you. Construct a 10-item scale to measure the attitude. Pre-test your items by testing them on a couple of friends. After you have constructed your questionnaire, try to locate professional scales developed to tap the attitude by searching a computer data-base like PsycINFO. How do you compare your survey to ones in the academic literature?
2. Scrutinizing magazines, television, and web sites, locate as many examples as you can of advertisements or public relations messages that cite research (or opinion polls) in support of a product or service. Evaluate the research to determine whether it is scientifically plausible, or suspect.
   

NEWS FEATURES

Newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, as well as newsmagazines (Newsweek, Time), frequently conduct opinion polls. For example, a poll probing attitudes toward affirmative action appeared in The New York Times on December 14, 1997 (see "In poll, Americans reject means but not ends of racial diversity," by Sam Howe Verhovek, pp. 1, 18). Summarize the findings of this poll, suggesting how wording or context might have influenced responses. Search newspapers and news magazines for other polls, exploring similar issues.