Possible Problems with Attempting to Measure Attitudes
The question what problems might arise in trying to measure attitudes
itself conjures up many complicated questions that seem tricky to
answer. The complicated task is that we are all unique and have our
individual differences.
A basic assumption on measuring attitudes is that ‘a person’s attitude
can be measured by asking questions about thoughts, feelings and
likely actions toward the attitude object
(Hoff and Vaughan, 1995, Chapter 5)
From this assumption it is obvious that measuring attitudes is not
directly observable. Even if we think we know someone’s attitude this
does not mean we can predict their behaviour.
Measuring attitudes plays a large part in social psychology.
Techniques have been developed in order to measure attitudes.
“attitudes can be measured by a quantitative technique for example
each persons opinion can be represented by a numerical scale”
(Hoff and Vaughan, 1995, Chapter 5.)
One of the initiators of attitude measurement was L.L Thurstone, he
termed attitude measurement as “attitude is the intensity of positive
or negative affect for or against a psychological object” (1946, page
39, http://webspace.utexas.edu/brixey9/www/frame.html.)
This section of attitude measurement is extremely vast and there is
many aspects such as self reported test, indirect and
multiple-indictor tests, likert scales, thurstones scale of attitude
measurement and semantic differentials.
To measure the cognitive component of attitudes rating scales have
been developed. The first mayor and a popular technique off attitude
measurement was that of L.L Thurs...
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...nsequently sabotages the testing.
As noted before indirect testing has ethical problems, very exploitive
and deceptive.
Statistic is not going to calibrate peoples attitudes and beliefs
there are feeling that are un-measurable, empathy etc, when and how do
you distinguish all these things.
Further studies are definitely needed to improve the various methods
that are about today. Peoples attitudes control our everyday life and
it would be invaluable to accurately measure it.
References
Birch, A & Malim, T, (1998) “Introductory psychology, Hampshire,
Palgrave.
Cardwell et al, (1996) “Psychology for A Level”, London: Harper
Collins Publishers
Retrieved 24/11/2003, Attitude Measurement,
http://webspace.utexas.edu/brixey9/www/frame.html.
Hoff & Vaughan, (1995) Attitude Measurement, Chapter 4.
Both approaches suffer from potential bias; Adorno el al’s. F-scale may have had confirmatory bias, potentially causing a problem in which the interviewers know the results from the participant’s prior questionnaires, and subconsciously steer the results and findings towards a particular goal, causing a self-fulfilling prophecy. Although Altemeyer’s approach may not have involved interviews, the results could have still been biased, as acquiescence response bias could have occurred if the participants have a tendency to agree with statements presented in scales and succumb to social desirability
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The man is chained to the desk, and a beaming light pierces his robin egg-colored eyes. The next thing he hears are muffled voices. The voices now become more clear, and then the first words become comprehensible,”We caught you”. The man then hangs his head in mortification. He was a world class criminal, and had never been snagged before, until now. He has no idea how they captured him. He had hacked into the police department's network and checked on their painfully slow, monotonous progression of their investigation into his previous offenses. Then he remembers the story he heard flash on to the news, “Police Department need to hire more Shrinks to help Reduce Crime.” He then had that moment that in the movies, lightbulb magically appears
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Myers, David G. “Chapter 14: Social Psychology.” Psychology. 10th ed. New York, NY US: Worth
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... (2004). Contemporary Perspectives on the Psychology of Attitudes (Rev ed.). Florence, KY: Psychology Press.
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...sis, which could make all results invalid. With any research projects, limitations will be present. It is important to attempt to eliminate some of these causes in order to complete a thorough, accurate study. In future projects, this study could go about researching the issue in different ways. Perhaps using a larger sample size would be conducive for accurate results. A larger sample size helps reduce and even out any possible errors caused by those who do not answer truthfully. Also, keeping the surveys mainly anonymous would help to receive more truthful and accurate responses from participants. Participants may be fearful of judgments on open interviews or phone interviews, which could affect responses. In order to obtain as accurate results as possible, a future study would need to find ways to survey participants in a confidential way that feels comfortable.
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