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CHAPTER 10 :collecting Data Using Attitudinal Scales

There are three major types of attitudinal scales: 1) Likert scales measure the intensity of attitudes based on the assumption that each item has equal value. 2) Thurstone scales calculate a weight for each statement based on judge ratings to measure attitudes on an interval scale. 3) Guttman scales are difficult to construct and measure attitudes on a ratio scale.

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2K views

CHAPTER 10 :collecting Data Using Attitudinal Scales

There are three major types of attitudinal scales: 1) Likert scales measure the intensity of attitudes based on the assumption that each item has equal value. 2) Thurstone scales calculate a weight for each statement based on judge ratings to measure attitudes on an interval scale. 3) Guttman scales are difficult to construct and measure attitudes on a ratio scale.

Uploaded by

alia.delareine
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Types of attitudinal scale

CHAPTER 10
Collecting Data Using Attitudinal Scales 3 major types of attitudinal scale:

a) Likert scale
Attitudinal scales in quantitative research b) Thurstone scale
c) Guttman scale
• 3 scales which has been developed to ‘measure’ attitudes

• each of these scales is based upon different assumptions and


follows different procedures in their construction
The cumulative or Guttman scale The summated rating or Likert scale
• scale is one of the most difficult scales to • based upon the assumption that each item on the scale has equal
Functions of attitudinal scales construct and therefore is rarely used. attitudinal value.
• measure the intensity of respondents’ attitudes towards the • example of Guttman Scale • it is important to remember that the Likert scale does not measure
various aspects of a situation or issue and provide attitude per se.
techniques to combine the attitudes towards different • example of Likert scale:
aspects into one overall indicator.

Difficulties in developing an attitudinal scale


there are 3 problems:
 Which aspects of a situation or issue should be included
when seeking to measure an attitude?
 What procedure should be adopted for combining the Attitudinal scales and measurement scales
different aspects to obtain an overall picture? Considerations in constructing a Likert scale
Different attitudinal scale use different measurement
 How can one ensure that a scale really is measuring scales. Table shows attitudinal scales in relation to 1. decide whether the attitude to be measured is to be classified into
what it is supposed to measure? measurement scales: one-, two- or three-directional categories (to determine positive,
Attitudinal scale Measurement scales
negative and neutral positions in the study population)
2. consider whether you want to use categories or a numerical scale.
Likert scale Ordinal scale
The equal-appearing interval or Thurstone scale
Thurstone scale Interval scale Calculating attitudinal scores
• the Thurstone scale calculates a ‘weight’ or ‘attitudinal Guttman scale Ratio scale • any score can be assigned as long as the intensity of the response
value’ for each statement. pattern is reflected in the score and the highest score is assigned to
• the weight(equivalent to the median value) for each the response with the highest intensity.
statement is calculated on the basis of rating assigned by a Attitudes and qualitative research
group of judges. • in qualitative research we can only explore the • Likert scale does not measure the attitude per se, but helps to rate a
• each statement with which respondents express agreement spread of the attitudes. group of individuals in descending or ascending order with respect
is given an attitudinal score equivalent to the ‘attitudinal • explore the diversity in the attitudes but cannot find to their attitudes towards the issues in question.
value’ of the statement. other aspects like: how many people have a
particular attitude..
• qualitative methods - best suited to explore the
diversity in attitudes.

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