Business Research Methods… Attitude Measurement

Attitude is as an enduring disposition to respond consistently to specific aspects of the world,

including actions, people, or objects.

Most managers hold the intuitive belief that changing consumers’ or employees’ attitudes toward
their company or their company’s products or services is a major goal. Because modifying attitudes
plays a pervasive role in developing strategies to address these goals, the measurement of attitudes
is an important task.

Techniques for Measuring Attitude

Rating: When you ask people to judge the value of a single variable, object or person.

Ranking: When you ask respondents to compare two or more variables, objects or persons.

Sorting: When you ask respondents to arrange two or more variables, objects, or persons into
categories or classifications on the basis of perceived similarities.

Types of Rating Scales

1. Simple Attitude Scales: In these you simply ask respondents for their opinion in terms of
yes/no, like/dislike, agree/disagree etc.
2. Category Scales: The simplest attitude rating scale contains only two response categories:
for example, agree/disagree. Expanding the response categories provides the respondent
with more flexibility in the rating task. Following are some examples of category scales:
3. Likert Scale: Respondents indicate their attitudes by checking how strongly they agree or
disagree with carefully constructed statements, ranging from very positive to very negative
attitudes toward some object.

4. Semantic Differential: The semantic differential is actually a series of attitude scales. This
popular attitude measurement technique consists of getting respondents to react to some
concept using a series of seven-point bipolar rating scales. Bipolar adjectives—such as
“good” and “bad,” “modern” and “old-fashioned,” or “clean” and “dirty”—anchor the
beginning and the end (or poles) of the scale. The subject makes repeated judgments about
the concept under investigation on each of the scales.
Exhibit 14.3 shows seven of eighteen scales used in a research project that measured
attitudes toward supermarkets.

5. Numerical Scale: A numerical scale simply provides numbers rather than a semantic space or
verbal descriptions to identify response options or categories (response positions). For
example, a scale using five response positions is called a five-point numerical scale. A six-
point scale has six positions and a seven-point scale seven positions, and so on. Consider the
following numerical scale:
Now that you’ve had your automobile for about one year, please tell us how satisfied you are
with your Suzuki Mehran.
Extremely Dissatisfied 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely Satisfied

6. Stapel Scale: Stapel scale, named after Jan Stapel, was originally developed in the 1950s to
measure simultaneously the direction and intensity of an attitude. Modern versions of the
scale, with a single adjective, are used as a substitute for the semantic differential when it is
difficult to create pairs of bipolar adjectives. The modified Stapel scale places a single
adjective in the center of an even number of numerical values (ranging, perhaps, from +3 to
–3). The scale measures how close to or distant from the adjective a given stimulus is
perceived to be.
Types of Ranking Scales

Paired Comparisons: The most commonly used ranking scale is the paired comparison. The following
question illustrates the typical format for asking about paired comparisons.

I would like to know your overall opinion of two brands of adhesive bandages. They are Curad and
BandAid. Overall, which of these two brands—Curad or Band-Aid—do you think is the better one? Or
are both the same?

a) Curad is better.
b) Band-Aid is better.
c) They are the same.