National college of nursing, barwala , hisar

Lesson plan
on
Attitude scale

SUBMITTED TO: Ms. Priyanka thakur

SUBMITTED BY: Anand Bhawna
M.Sc. Nursing 1st Year
Subject: Nursing Education
Topic: Attitude Scale
Group of Students: M.Sc. (N) 1 st year students
No. Of Students: 12
Date of Teaching: ____________________
Duration: 1 hour
Time of Teaching: ____________________
Method of Teaching: Lecture cum discussion
Teaching Aids: LCD, Blackboard, Chart, Flash cards
Venue: Room no. 209
Supervisor: (Ms. Amandeep kaur

Name of Student Teacher: Anand Bhawna

Previous knowledge of the group: The group has some knowledge about the topic, as they have studied about this during
graduation.

General Objectives: At the end of class, students will be able to acquire knowledge about Attitude Scale.

Specific Objectives: At the end of teaching, students will be able to:

 Introduce the meaning of attitude

 Define the scale
 Define Attitude Scale
 Enlist features of Attitude Scale
 Classify types of Attitude Scale
 Elaborate Differential scale
 Categorize methods to develop differential scale
 Analyze summated scale
 Describe construction of likert scale
 Enumerate advantages and defects in likert scale
 Discuss Cumulative scale
 Explain Scalogram
 Explore Q-sort scaling technique
 Design semantic differential attitude scale
 Establish selection of attitude scale
 Identify limitations of attitude scale
Sr. Contributory Objective Time Content Matter Teaching learning activities
No A.V aid Questions to be asked
.
Student teacher will be
able to: Verbal
st
Establish rapport with 1mi Good afternoon to everyon im Anand Bhawna , M.Sc. (N) 1 year student. discussion
students. n
Verbal
Appraise the topic I will be taking class on Attitude Scale. discussion

Assess the previous Previous knowledge about topic: Verbal

knowledge of students 1mi What do you understand by Attitude? discussion
about the topic n What do you mean by scale?

At the end of the class

Student will be able to:

1. Introduce the meaning INTRODUCTION OF ATTITUDE

of attitude Attitudes are “the most distinctive and indispensable concept in LCD What do you
2mi contemporary social psychology”. understand by attitude?
n - Gordon Allport, 1935
Attitude is an enduring disposition to consistently respond in a given
manner. Three components of an attitude are
• Affective - The feelings or emotions toward an object
• Cognitive - Knowledge and beliefs
• Behavioral - Predisposition to action, Intentions, Behavioral
expectations
In social research, scaling techniques are used to measure the attitude and
behavior. One can make judgment about characteristic of an individual
and place him on a scale which is measuring for that characteristic.
What is the meaning of
2. Define the scale DEFINITION OF SCALE LCD scale?
Originally the word ‘scale’ come from the Latin word scala, meaning a
ladder or flight of steps, a scale represents a series of ordered steps at
2mi fixed intervals used as a standard of measurement. Scales are used to rank
Sr. Contributory Objective Time Content Matter Teaching learning activities
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. n people's judgments of objects, events, or other people from low to high or
from poor to good.
Students will be able to:
Commonly used scales in behavioral research include
 Attitude scales designed to measure people's opinions on social
issues,
 Employee rating scales to measure job-related performance,
 Scales for determining socioeconomic status used in sociological
research,
 Product rating scales used in consumer research and
 Sensory evaluation scales to judge the quality of food, air, and
other phenomena.

3. Define attitude scale ATTITUDE SCALE

An attitude scale is a special type of questionnaire designed to produce LCD
scores indicating the intensity and direction (for or against) of a person's
feelings about an object or event.
1mi
4. Enlist features of n FEATURES Chart Can you specify features
Attitude Scale Some important characteristics of attitude scale are: of attitude scale?
• These are used for measuring the social attitudes.
• A questionnaire is prepared; by the items in the questionnaire assess the
attitude of an individual towards a matter, thing, an object or system and
4mi score is allotted for each item.
n • The individual is asked to express his response towards an object or
system, on the basis of his responses, he is assigned a score which
indicates the position.
• Some relevant and indirect statements can also be used to reveal the
attitude.
• Most of the scales used are ordinal in nature, though there is attempt to
treat the resulting data as intervally scaled. The simplest possible type of
such scale has the respondent classifying the object/issue/product/himself
into one among two dichotomous categories.
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. • They can be categorised into those which are unidimensional in nature
and those which are multidimensional. The different type of single
Student will be able to: dimensional attitude measurement scales which are available are
graphical and numerical scales, summated scales, paired comparisons,
equal-appearing intervals.
Name different types of
attitude scale?
5. Classify types of attitude TYPES OF ATTITUDE SCALES LCD
scale POINT SCALE
METHOD - 1
• Select the words which will give the opinion.
• The respondent is to cross out every word i.e., more annoying than
pleasing to him.
3mi • The attitude of a respondent is known by calculating the numbers of
n words crossed or not crossed. The words selected should be suggestive of
an attitude and the opposite words should also be given at the same time.
• One point is given to each agreement or disagreement whichever is to
be chosen.
DIFFICULTIES IN THIS METHOD
• The words may not be dichotomous in nature.
• The neutral or confused opinions cannot be represented.
• Adequate number of words expressing the same attitude may not be
found.

METHOD - 2
Two sets of words indicating both favorable and unfavorable opinions are
given. The favorable items may be crossed and favorable items may be left
unscored.
What do you
understand by
LCD differential scale?
6. Elaborate Differential DIFFERENTIAL SCALE (LL THURSTONE SCALE)
scale
Sr. Contributory Objective Time Content Matter Teaching learning activities
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. • The first formal technique for measuring an attitude.
• It was developed by Louis Leon Thurstone in 1928
• This scale is used to measure the social phenomenon
• It is made up of statements about a particular issue, and each statement
has a numerical value indicating how favorable or unfavorable it is judged
4mi to be. Judges will determine the positions on the scale. The position is
n determined by the method of equal appearing intervals.
• Judges will work independently to classify these statements into 11
groups.
1st group - Unfavorable statements to the specified issue (score-11)
2nd group - The next unfavorable statements and so on.
11th group - Favorable statements (score-1)
6th group- The point at which the attitude is neutral.
• The scale value of a statement is computed as the ‘mean’ or ‘median’
position to which it is assigned by the judges.
• The evaluated statements spread out evenly from one extreme to the
other.
• The respondents are asked to check the statements with which they
agree. The scale values are not shown in the questionnaire and the
statements are arranged randomly.
• The scattered responses of an individual imply that the respondent has
no definite and organized attitude towards the phenomenon.

LCD
7. Categorize methods to Three different methods for developing a unidimensional scale:
develop differential  Method of equal-appearing intervals;
scale  Method of successive intervals,
 Method of paired comparisons.
 The method of equal-appearing intervals, in which a large pool of
candidate statements about an attitude object, ranging from strongly
negative (Abortion is never justified) through neutral (There are
arguments both for and against abortion) to strongly positive (Abortion is
4mi every woman's right), are sorted by a group of judges into eleven
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. n categories.
 They are assumed to appear equally spaced on the attitude continuum,
according to how favorable the statements are towards the attitude
object.
 Items that yield the highest level of agreement among the judges as to
Student will be able to: their scale position, and that collectively represent an adequate range of
contents and scale positions, are then selected for the final scale.

DRAWBACKS
 Time requirement being fairly high
 Influence of scale positions by the attitudes of the judges,
 No information on the degree or intensity of agreement with the
different items.
Define likert scale?
8. Analyse Summated SUMMATED (LIKERT) SCALE
(Likert) scale LCD
• A Likert-type scale, named for Rensis Likert (1932) who developed this
type of attitude measurement
• To measure the social attitude likert type scale is used.
• It uses only the definitely favorable and unfavorable statements. It
excludes intermediate opinions.
• It consists of a series of statements to which the respondent is to react.
The respondent indicates the degree of agreement or disagreement.
2mi • Each response is given a numerical score and the total score of a
n respondent is found out by summing up his different scores for different
purposes. This total score indicates his position on the continuum.
• The Likert scale uses several degrees of agreement or disagreement,
e.g.: strongly approve, approve undecided, disapprove, and strongly
disapprove. These five points will constitute the scale. Each point of the
scale carries a score. “Strongly approve” is given the highest score (5 or
+2) and “strongly disapprove” is given the least score (1 or -2). Other
points will have the scores accordingly (i.e., 5,4,3,2 and 1)
• E.g., Statement 1: Prohibition should be made compulsory
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. 1 2 3 4 5
Strongly approve Approve Undecided Disapprove Strongly
disapprove
(5 or +2) (4 or +1) (3 or 0) (2 or -1) (1 or -2)
Student will be able to: What are the
advantages of likert
9. Enumerate advantages ADVANTAGES OF LIKERT SCALE OVER THE THURSTONE SCALE Flash cards scale?
and defects in Likert • The method of construction of likert type scale is less cumbersome.
scale • It supplies more precise and definite response towards an issue. The
intermediate vague points are absent in this scale.
• It permits the revelation of several (five) degrees of agreement or
disagreement; but Thurstone scale are based on only two alternative
responses, i.e., acceptance or rejection. Thus, Likert scale is more
informative and reliable than the Thurston scale.
• In a Likert scale, any item or statement empirically consistent with the
statement may be included. In Thurstone scale, only the strictly related
3mi items are included. Thus, Likert type scale has a broader area or reference
n and has also a method of checking internal consistency which is
conspicuous by its absence in Thurstone scale.

DEFECTS IN LIKERT TYPE SCALE

• The judgment on the basis of total score, which is estimated by
calculating the mean or median, is not scientific. The total score values
may be the same in many cases, but the attitudes may be different
towards an issue.
• The scores on the likert type scale may be helpful for making an ordering
of the people, scientific and objective basis.
• There is no objective basis for expressing different degrees of agreement
or disagreement. However, despite some limitations, it remains an
important ordinal scale.
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Student will be able to: What do you mean by

Discuss Cumulative scale CUMULATIVE SCALE/BOGARDUS SCALE cumulative scale?
10. LCD
• In the cumulative scale, a respondent is given a number of questions, to
express agreement or disagreement over an issue.
• The items are arranged in such a way that a respondent who responds
favorably to item number 2 also replies favorably to item number 1 and
one who replies favorably to item number 3 also replies favorably to items
1 and 2, and so on. Therefore, the individuals who answer favorably have
higher total score than those who answer unfavorably.
• The score of an individual is computed by counting the number of items
he answers favorably. His scores indicate for him a particular position on
7mi the scale. The intervals between the positions may not be equal.
n • The items may be arranged from favorableness to unfavorablenesss in a
systematic manner or may be randomly selected.
The purpose of social distance scale is to measure the attitude towards a
particular racial group or groups.

The respondent is to circle each of the seven categories to which he is

willing to accept particular group. The respondent’s first feeling reactions
can be known by this. For a group, if a respondent circles 3, he is also
expected to circle 4 and 5 for the same group. If a respondent does not
circle 3, he will most probably not circle 1 and 2, for these indicate even
closer relationship. The seven categories indicate a gradually increasing
social distance.
The social distance can also be calculated mathematically. In order to do
this, weights are attached to different categories of relationships. Thus, if
there are only five categories, the weights such as 1,2,3,4 and 5 can be
assigned to the first five categories respectively. The following procedure
is generally adopted for the measurement of social distance:
1. Place the weights and percentage response for each category in
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. rows.
2. Multiply the percentage response by its weight.
Student will be able to: 3. Add up the product and this will be the social distance.
In the Bogardus scale, the score does not indicate the exact extent or
degree of preferred of a group over the other. One important difficulty in
this type of scale is that one may not be fully acquainted with a group and
hence it is not possible to state the attitude. The influence of an individual
member or members may not be eliminated from the mind while making
preferences.

11. Explain Scalogram scale SCALOGRAM (GUTTMAN) METHOD

LCD
• Named after the US psychologist Louis H. Guttman (1916–87).
• It is constructed by the method of scalogram analysis in which a large
pool of candidate statements about an attitude object (such as Euthanasia
is morally wrong; Euthanasia should be legalized, and so on) are
administered to a group of respondents who mark just those items with
which they agree.
• The Scalogram analysis is a simple method of the testing the scalability
of the statements. A diagram in which the individual responses are laid
out is called a scalogram. The perfect scale implies that a person who
answers a given question favorably will have a higher total score than a
7mi person who answers it unfavorably.
n • Guttman scale is unidimensional, measuring only one major attitude
variable. A simple example of a Guttman scale is a social distance scale.
• It applies to series of items in other kinds of tests, such as achievement
tests, that have binary outcomes.
• Guttman model is deterministic in nature. It assumes that a person, who
responds positively/negatively to one item, must respond
positively/negatively to a series of others. The model can be made
probabilistic rather than deterministic. This attempt has been made by
‘Latent Structure Analysis’, as developed by Lazarsfeld.
•Guttman has also developed another technique. According to this, the
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. respondent not only gives his view (agreement or disagreement) but he
also mentions the intensify (degree) which is classified into five categories.
For each respondent, we thus get two scores (content score and intensity
sore) which can be plotted against each other on a graph. The result often
gives U-shaped curve. The more extreme views have highest intensity. The
content score at the lowest point of the curve may be regarded as the
dividing line between favorable and unfavorable responses. The lowest
point suggesting favorable response is not affected by the form and the
wording of the individual items. Hence, this method is objective.
The items in the questionnaire which relate to this could consist of the
following:
Yes /No

1) Family planning is the best hope for our country ………………

2) Family planning would lead to healthier children ………………

3) We should all participate in the family planning programme.

…………

 Usually a person, who answers YES to 1, would have a high probability of

answering as YES to the subsequent statements. Any person who does not
answer as YES to 1 but does answer as YES to 2 would have a high
probability of answering YES to the later items. Any set of items that
produces a pattern of responses as we have described here is called a
Guttman Scale.
 Guttman scale analysis is usually applied to dichotomous data, i.e., data
with only two values, YES or NO, 0 or 1, agree or disagree, etc.
However, a number of reasons have made the Guttman scale and
impractical tool for the measurement of attitudes. First, the construction
of the scale requires a lot of time and effort. Secondly, there may be very
few items existing that may fit the model. Since such scales seldom have
more than eight items, they can make only rather gross distinctions
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. among respondents.
Student will be able to:
12. Explore Q- Sort scaling THE Q- SORT SCALING TECHNIQUE What is the meaning of
technique LCD sorting?
• The method is widely applied in the study of personality.
• The peculiar characteristic of this methodology is that here it is more
important to make comparisons among different responses within
respondents than between respondents. Thus it is a comparative rather
than an absolute rating method.
• The individual can make a study changes in his own image or in his ideal
person and so on.
• The data yielded by the Q-sort can be summarized into a single score, as
in a summated scale, to yield a scale on ‘adjustment’.
• The adjustment score of the control group can be compared with the
therapists’ ratings of the success of therapy, and the extent of agreement
4mi can be known. The technique can also be applied to the study of various
n types of socio-economic attitudes.
• In the area of management, the application of Q-sort has come up in
marketing research. Here the respondents may be requested to enunciate
their images of their ideal brands, specified brands and their current
brand. The respondent may be given a large number of statements (50-
100) describing the characteristics of a product.
• For instance for a cosmetic product like shampoo he may be asked to
compare alternatives with adjectives like "easy to use", "economical", and
"safe for children", with instructions to array them along the continuum
"least preferred - the ideal shampoo". Essentially what the respondents
have done here is to array the attributes along the scale.
• The Q-sort technique is faster and less tedious for subjects than paired
comparison measures. It also forces the subject to conform to quotas at
each point of the scale so as to yield a normal or quasi-normal
distribution.
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Student will be able to:
13. Design Semantic SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL ATTITUDE SCALE Define semantic
differential attitude scale LCD differential scale?
• The term ‘Semantic differential scale’ refers to any collection of rating
scales anchored by bipolar adjectives.
• It was developed Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum.
• It measures people's reactions to stimulus words and concepts in terms
of ratings on bipolar scales defined with contrasting adjectives at each
end.
• It is a good instrument for exploring the connotative meaning of things.
Connotation refers to the personal meaning of something, as distinct from
its physical characteristics.
• It makes the measurement and comparison of various objects or
concepts possible.
• It is a very flexible approach to obtaining measures of attitudes. The,
5mi object that is rated is called the "concept" and almost anything can be
n rated including family planning, cosmetics, political parties, etc.
• It is based on a seven-point rating scale for each of a number of
attributes relating to the research topic. The extreme points represent the
bipolar adjectives with the central category representing neutral. In the
semantic differential scale only the extremes have names. The in-between
categories have either blank spaces or sometimes a number.

Some examples of the scale are as follows

Good_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Bad
3210123
• Usually, the position marked 0 is labeled "neutral," the 1 positions are
labeled "slightly," the 2 positions "quite," and the 3 positions "extremely."
A scale like this one measures directionality of a reaction (e.g., good versus
bad) and also intensity (slight through extreme). Typically, a person is
presented with some concept of interest, e.g., Red China, and asked to
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. rate it on a number of such scales. Ratings are combined in various ways
to describe and analyze the person's feelings.
TABLE: Polar Adjective pairs
High on value dimension High on activity dimension High on strength
dimension
Good-bad active-passive strong-weak
Beautiful-ugly energetic-insert large-small
Friendly-unfriendly fast-slow hard-soft

e.g., Light_:_:_:_:_:_:_Dark

LIMITATIONS

• The semantic differential is usable only with intelligent and cooperative

adults.
• People with little education often focus on the ends of the scale and do
not use the middle points.
• Not recommended with children, with people whose command of the
language is limited, with older people who would have difficulty seeing the
various scale points, or with any group of respondents who are not
accustomed to making fine distinctions.
Establish criteria for
14. selection of attitude SELECTION OF AN APPROPRIATE ATTITUDE SCALE LCD Do you know how to
scale select right scale?
Each of the attitude scale has some strength and some weaknesses.
Almost every technique can be used for the measurement of any
component of attitudes. But at the same time all techniques are not
suitable for all purposes.
• Then selection of the scale depends on the stage and the size of the
research project. The costs of developing and implementing the
instrument, reliability and validity of the instrument and the statistical
analysis necessary.
• Generally, Thurstone's scale, Q-sort and the Semantic differential scale
Sr. Contributory Objective Time Content Matter Teaching learning activities
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. Student will be able to: are preferred for preliminary investigation.
• The Likert scale is used for item analysis.
• For specific attributes the semantic differential scale is very appropriate. LCD
• Overall the semantic differential is simple in concept and results
2mi obtained are comparable with more complex, one dimensional methods.
n Hence, it is widely used. What are limitations of
Identify Limitations of attitude scale?
15. attitude scale LIMITATIONS OF ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT SCALES

The main limitation of these tools is the emphasis on describing attitudes

rather than predicting behaviour. This is primarily because of a lack of
models that describe the role of attitudes in behaviour.
Conclude the topic
16. CONCLUSION LCD

An attitude scale is a special type of questionnaire designed to produce

scores indicating the overall degree of favorability of a person's feelings
about a topic. A Likert-type scale contains only statements that are clearly
favorable or clearly unfavorable. No neutral or borderline statements are
included. The respondents rate each statement along a five-point scale of
agreement, from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The chief limitation
of
Attitude scales is that they may not predict behavior. The semantic
1mi differential is a procedure developed to measure the connotative meaning
n of concepts.
Summarize the topic
17.  Introduce the meaning of attitude
 Define the scale
 Define Attitude Scale
 Enlist features of Attitude Scale
1mi  Classify types of Attitude Scale
n  Elaborate Differential scale
 Categorize methods to develop differential scale
Sr. Contributory Objective Time Content Matter Teaching learning activities
No A.V aid Questions to be asked
.  Analyze summated scale
 Describe construction of likert scale
 Enumerate advantages and defects in likert scale
 Discuss Cumulative scale
 Explain Scalogram
 Explore Q-sort scaling technique
 Design semantic differential attitude scale
 Establish selection of attitude scale
 Identify limitations of attitude scale
Apply the theory as
18. discussed in the class to Assignment:
prepare assignment 1mi Administer a short test of objective type questions.
n
REFERENCES:
1. Neerja KP. Textbook of Nursing Education. 2nded. New Delhi: Jaypee
Brothers Publishers; 2003. p.432-435.
2. Sankaranarayan B, Sindhu B. Learning and Teaching Nursing. 3rd ed.
Calicut: Brainfill Publisher; 2009. p.209-11.
3. R Pramilla. Nursing Communication and Education Technology. 2nd ed.
New Delhi: Jaypee Publishers; 2010. p.411-412
4. Chanda Eshita. Introduction to Nursing Education. 1st ed. Jalandhar: Pee
Vee Publishers; 2011. p.190-197
5. Wikipedia. Attitude Scale[Internet].2011[updated on 2011 July].
Available from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Scale. Retrieved on:
2011 Nov 18.

5mi
n
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