Assignment on Personality and Attitude

Submitted To

Honourable Assistant Professor

Md.Sarwar Uddin
Faculty of Business Administration
Submitted By

Name Roll No Email

Md. Omar Faruq 0914028 Omarfaruq_om@yahoo.com
Kazi Md Istiak Nur Sajib 0914033 Sajibctg4000@yahoo.com
Nasrin Sultana 0914073 Itsmenasrin@gmail.com
Md.Dalower Hossen 0914051 Itsmedalower@gmail.com
Md. Azhar Uddin 0914127 Azharbonyita@gmail.com

Group Name :E
Date of Submission : 12th May, 2013
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The Concept of Personality

Personality is the particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral

response patterns of an individual. Different personality theorists present their own
definitions of the word based on their theoretical positions. The meaning of the word
personality, thus, got interpreted as the projected behavior.

According to “Philip Kotler”

“Personality” is a set of distinguishing human psychological traits that lead
to relatively consistent and enduring responses to environment stimuli. It is
often referred to as such traits like : self-confidence, dominance, autonomy,
deference, sociability, defensiveness, and adaptability.

According to Schiffman and Kanuk,

“Personality” is defined as those inner psychological characters that both

determine and reflect how a person responds to his environment. 

The single most important element in personality is inner characteristics of

an individual. These are the specific qualities, attributes, traits, factors, and
mannerisms that distinguish one individual from another. Thus the study of
personality is very important, because it i n f l u e n c e s t h e c o n s u m e r ’ s  
product  choice, response to marketers’ promotional efforts,
consumption patterns, etc.

Personality can be or rather is a useful variable in analyzing consumer brand choices.

This concept says that Brands also have personalities, and consumers tend
to choose brands whose personalities match their own.
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Properties of Personality

The following are the three important and distinct properties of Personality.

Personality Reflects Individual Differences

Because the inner inherent characteristics which constitute an individual’s personality

are a complex combination of factors, no two individuals are identical or exactly alike.
But fortunately, many individuals may be similar on the basis of a single personality
trait, but not others. Like for examples, out-going type, quiet type, shy type, family-
oriented type, etc. So it has become easier for the marketers to group or categories
consumers into different groups on the basis of one or several traits.

Personality Is Consistent and Enduring

 The personality of an individual is both consistent (that is, it doesn’t change in the
short run) and enduring (that is, it doesn’t change in the long run). Both of these
qualities are thus useful for marketers to predict the behavior of the consumers in
terms of personality. It’s very difficult to change an individual’s personality
characteristics. The Marketers can’t change them. But if the marketers know which
personality characteristics influence which specific consumer responses, then they can
attempt to appeal to those relevant traits in their target consumer group. Even if the
personality of an individual is fairly consistent, still then the buying andconsumption
pattern often varies with several external factors like, time, environment, social,
psychological, cultural, situational, change in fashion, availability of goods and
services. We have to consider the whole combination of influencing factors of which
personality is just one attribute to the change in a buyer’s behavior.
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Personality Can Change

Under certain circumstances the personality of an individual can change. It may be

gradual and slow like a child grows into a changed personality. It can be also sudden
on account of any major events in life, like birth of a child, death of a dear one,
divorce, major career promotion, accident, loss of job, migration, natural calamity,
etc. 

There are also instances where the personality stereo-types may change over a period
of time. For example, over the last 50 years, men’s personality has generally remained
relativelyunchanged, as compared to women’s, which has undergone significant chang
e. This is because of women moving into professions which were traditionally held
by men earlier.
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Theories of Personality

Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Psychoanalytic theory refers to the definition of personality organization and the

dynamics of personality development that underlie and guide the psychoanalytic
and psychodynamic psychotherapy, called psychoanalysis, a clinical method for
treating psychopathology. First laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century,
psychoanalytic theory has undergone many refinements since his work.
Through the scope of a psychoanalytic lens, humans are described as having sexual
and aggressive drives. Psychoanalytic theorists believe that human behavior is
deterministic. It is governed by irrational forces, and the unconscious, as well
instinctual and biological drives.

Freud's take on the development of the personality (psyche) . It is a stage theory that
believes progress occurs through stages as the libido is directed to different body
parts. The different stages, listed in order of progression, are: Oral, Anal, Phallic
(Oedipus complex), Latency, Genital. The Genital stage is achieved if a person has
met all of his or her needs throughout the other stages with enough available sexual
energy. If the individual does not have his or her needs met in a given stage, he or she
will become fixated, or "stuck" in that stage.

Freud's theory and work with psychosexual development lead to Neo-Analytic/ Neo-

Freudians who also believed in the importance of the unconscious, dream
interpretations, defense mechanisms and the integral influence childhood experiences
but had objections to the theory as well. They do not support the idea that
development of the personality stops at age 6, instead they believed development
spreads across the lifespan. They extended Freud's work and encompassed more
influence from the environment and the importance of conscious thought along with
the unconscious. 
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Trait Theory of Personality

Trait theory is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are

primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual
patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are
relatively stable over time, differ across individuals (e.g. some people are outgoing
whereas others are shy), and influence behavior.

There are a nearly unlimited number of potential traits that could be used to describe
personality. The statistical technique of factor analysis, however, has demonstrated
that particular clusters of traits reliably correlate together. Hans Eysenck has
suggested that personality is reducible to three major traits. Other researchers argue
that more factors are needed to adequately describe human personality including
humor, wealth and beauty. Many psychologists currently believe that five factors are
sufficient.

Both approaches extensively use self-report questionnaires. The factors are intended
to be orthogonal (uncorrelated), though there are often small positive
correlations between factors. The five factor model in particular has been criticized for
losing the orthogonal structure between factors. Hans Eysenck has argued that fewer
factors are superior to a larger number of partly related ones. Although these two
approaches are comparable because of the use of factor analysis to construct
hierarchical taxonomies, they differ in the organization and number of factors.

There are two higher-order factors that both taxonomies clearly

share: extraversion and neuroticism. Both approaches broadly accept that extraversion
is associated with sociability and positive affect, whereas neuroticism is associated
with emotional instability and negative affect.

Many lower-order factors, or facets, are similar between the two taxonomies. For
instance, both approaches contain factors for sociability/gregariousness, for activity
levels, and for assertiveness within the higher order factor extraversion.
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Gestalt Theory of Personality

The Gestalt theorists were the first group of psychologists to systematically study
perceptual organization around the 1920’s, in Germany. Six Principles of Gestalt
Personality are given below.

1. Similarly, on the left, three groups of dots in three lines. What happens with the
evenly spaced dots? The principle of proximity or contiguity states that things which
are closer together will be seen as belonging together.

2. Similarity means there is a tendency to see groups which have the same
characteristics so in this example; there are three groups of black squares and three
groups of white squares arranged in lines. The principle of similarity states that things
which share visual characteristics such as shape, size, color, texture, value or
orientation will be seen as belonging together.

3. Suppose both principles of proximity and similarity are in place - then a movement
takes place - the dots begin to move down the page. They appear to change grouping.

4. Seeing things as whole lines (sequential) is clearly important. But 'being in wholes
means' that few interruptions change the reading of the whole
lines. The principle of continuity predicts the preference for continuous figures. We
perceive the figure as two crossed lines instead of 4 lines meeting at the center.

5. Related to principle of good continuation, there is a tendency to close simple

figures, independent of continuity or similarity. This results in a effect of filling in
missing information or organizing information which is present to make a whole.

6. The principle of area states that the smaller of two overlapping figures is perceived
as figure while the larger is regarded as ground. The principle of the symmetrical
figure is that it is seen as a closed figure. Symmetrical contours thus define a figure
and isolate it from its ground.
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Cognitive Theory of Personality

Cognitive theory is focused on the individual's thoughts as the determinate of his or

her emotions and behaviors and therefore personality. Cognitive–social theories
developed from behaviorist and cognitive roots. From a behaviorist perspective,
personality consists of learned behaviors and emotional reactions that tend to be
relatively specific and tied to particular environmental contingencies. Cognitive–
social theories share the behaviorist belief that learning is the basis of personality and
that personality dispositions tend to be relatively specific and shaped by their
consequences. They share the cognitive view that the way people encode, transform,
and retrieve information, particular about themselves and others, is central to
personality. From a cognitive- social perspective, personality reflects a constant
interplay between environmental demands and the way the individual processes
information about the self and the world.

From this point of view, you are:

1. What you Think
2. The way you Process Information (including attending to, perceiving,
interpreting, encoding and retrieving of information);
3. The way you Self-Regulate via cognitive monitoring and adjusting thoughts
and behaviors.  We are Homeostatic psychobiological creatures who try to
self-regulate in order to progress towards Goals.
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How to Change Your Mind in Cognitive Theory

As you read, the basic premise behind cognitive theory is the idea that the way we
think about or perceive ourselves and others, determines how we respond to the world
with our emotions and behaviors.  The goal of any treatment would have to include
changing the way a person thinks about himself and/or the world. Many Cognitive
have applied cognitive theory to treatment, most notably Aaron Beck and Albert
Ellis.  Beck developed several assessment techniques such as the Beck Depression
Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory which are both very popular quick
assessments of an individual's functioning. Beck, Ellis, and others see the application
of cognitive theory as key in overcoming many negative aspects of personality.  They
believe that cognitions always precede behavior and emotion and therefore changing
our thoughts will lead to a change in the other two.  Research has provided a good
deal of support for this idea, especially concerning depressive disorders, anxiety
related disorders, anger, and interpersonal or relational difficulties.  

Strengths of Cognitive Theory 

First, as discussed, research has provided a lot of knowledge about how people think
and perceive and has consequently provided a lot of support for cognitive theory. 
Second, perhaps because of these positive findings, cognitive theory has gained in
popularity both in the professional and pop psychology arenas.  

Weaknesses of Cognitive Theory

Like all theories, the cognitive perspective is not free from criticism.  First,
behaviorists see this theory as weak due to the abstract nature of thoughts and the
difficulty in defining them.  What may be seen as self-critical by one researcher may
look like a rational remark by another.  Second, there is no agreed upon definition or
application of the theory.  It is seen as fairly new and while it receives a great deal of
research, the underlying theory of personality development is weak at best.
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Stimulus Response Theory of Personality

Stimulus-response theory is central to the principles of conditioning. They are based
on the assumption that human behavior is learned. One of the early contributors to the
field, American psychologist Edward L. Thorndike, postulated the Law of Effect,
which stated that those behavioral responses that were most closely followed by a
satisfactory result were most likely to become established patterns and to reoccur in
response to the same stimulus. This basic S-R scheme is referred to as unmediated.
When an individual organism affects the stimuli in any way, for example, by thinking
about a response the response is considered mediated. The S-O-R theories of behavior
are often drawn to explain social interaction between individuals or groups.

Conditioning is a form of learning in which either (1) a given stimulus (or signal)
becomes increasingly effective in evoking a response or (2) a response occurs with
increasing regularity in a well-specified and stable environment. The type of 
reinforcement used will determine the outcome. When two stimuli are presented in an
appropriate time and intensity relationship, one of them will eventually induce a
response resembling that of the other. The process can be described as one of stimulus
substitution. This procedure is called classical conditioning.

In this traditional technique, which is based on the work of the Russian physiologist
Ivan P. Pavlov, a dog is placed in a harness within a sound-shielded room. On each
conditioning trial the sound of a bell or a metronome is promptly followed by food
powder blown by an air puff into the dog’s mouth. Here the tone of the bell is known
as the conditioned stimulus, abbreviated as CS. The dog’s salivation upon hearing this
sound is the conditioned response. The strength of conditioning is measured in terms
of the number of drops of saliva the dog secretes during test trials in which food
powder is omitted after the bell has rung. The dog’s original response of salivation
upon the introduction of food into its mouth is called the unconditioned response to
food, which is the unconditioned stimulus.

Instrumental, or operant, conditioning differs from classical conditioning in that

reinforcement occurs only after the organism executes a predestinated behavioral act.
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When no US is used to initiate the specific act to be conditioned, the required behavior
is known as an operant; once it occurs with regularity, it is also regarded as a
conditioned response. American psychologist B.F. Skinner studied behavior through
the use of rewards or punishment. For example, a hungry animal will respond to a
situation in a way that is most natural for that animal. If one of these responses leads
to the reward of food, it is likely that the specific response which led to the food
reward will be repeated and thus learned. The behavior that was instrumental in
obtaining the reward becomes especially important to the animal. The same type of
conditioning can also be applied to an action that allows the animal to escape from or
avoid painful or noxious stimuli.

There are several types of conditioning schedules. Continuous reinforcement

schedules provide reinforcement for every correct response, while intermittent
reinforcement schedules reinforce some responses but not others. There are several
variations of the intermittent reinforcement schedule; for example, a fixed-ratio
schedule provides reinforcement only after a fixed number of correct responses, while
a variable-ratio schedule provides reinforcement after a variable number of correct
responses. In a slightly different approach, a fixed-interval schedule provides
reinforcement for the first correct response after a specific time interval. With a
variable-interval schedule, reinforcement is given after a variable amount of time.
Conditioning that is based on intermittent reinforcement schedules will create more
powerful results relative to fixed conditioning schedules; that is, behavior produced by
intermittent reinforcement schedules is much more difficult to unlearn or discard.

Psychologists generally assume that most learning occurs as a result of instrumental

conditioning rather than classical conditioning.
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Marketing Implications of the Concept of Personality

Analyzing data sets of this type would be a difficult undertaking, however. One might
think of techniques analogous to a combination of cross-sectional and time series
analysis in econometrics, but analysis would be made complex by interaction effects
among predictor variables and lagged effects expected from the relationships between
moderator variables and behavioral and situational variables. What is needed is an
entirely new way of simultaneously analyzing those three types of variables.

An approach probably comes closest to the concept of personality as a moderator

variable between behavior and environmental changes. Instead of combining
personality construct measures and situational variables as predictors in a single
model, one may construct a primary model which links behavioral data with
situational and moderator variables at the individual level. This model is fitted to the
data individual by individual and its parameters are estimated for each individual.
Then secondary models may be constructed to specify the relationships between the
estimated parameter set and personality construct measures.

Since the two-step approach eventually links behavior as a function of personality, it

may seem that it is no different from the conventional methods of analysis. But the
difference is more than superficial. First, there is no need to restrict the primary and
secondary models to naive linear forms. Fitting of non-linear models in the first stage
followed by a multivariate analysis such as canonical correlation in the second stage is
a perfectly permissible combination. It is conceivable to use as complex a model as
the Howard-Sheth model in the first stage. Secondly, the two-step approach would
become more attractive as the number of predictor variables (personality, situational,
moderator) becomes large. The first stage becomes in fact a data reduction procedure,
if the number of parameters to be estimated is small relative to the number of
predictors.
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The purpose of this discussion was to show how naive concepts of personality effects
on consumer behavior tend to obscure the areas of research which are most interesting
and rewarding. To a degree, the naivete may arise from the limitations imposed by
conventional techniques of statistical analysis. Although it is a truism that only clear
conceptualization of relationships among variables under study helps the researcher
determine the data to be obtained and the analytical techniques to be used, it is also
true that we tend to gravitate toward an easy habit of conceptualizing everything in
terms of simplistic linear relationships. The more pervasive the effect of personality,
the more critical it becomes to clarify the myriad of relationships among many layers
of variables interacting with each other since such complex interactions may not
reveal themselves as simple linear relationships. In order for us to be able to develop a
meaningful theory of personality effects it will be necessary to break out of the mold
into which naive conceptualization has forced us.
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The Concept of Attitude

An attitude can be defined as a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects,

event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your environment, but there is debate
about precise definitions. Eagly and Chaiken, for example, define an attitude "a
psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some
degree of favor or disfavor."Though it is sometimes common to define an attitude
as affect toward an object, affect i.e., discrete emotions or overall arousal, is generally
understood to be distinct from attitude as a measure of favorability.

This definition of attitude allows for one's evaluation of an attitude object to vary from
extremely negative to extremely positive, but also admits that people can also be
conflicted or ambivalent toward an object meaning that they might at different times
express both positive and negative attitude toward the same object. This has led to
some discussion of whether individual can hold multiple attitudes toward the same
object.

Whether attitudes are explicit, i.e., deliberately formed, versus implicit i.e.,
subconscious has been a topic of considerable research. Research on implicit attitudes,
which are generally unacknowledged or outside of awareness, uses sophisticated
methods involving people's response times to stimuli to show that implicit attitudes
exist perhaps in tandem with explicit attitudes of the same object. Implicit and explicit
attitudes seem to affect people's behavior, though in different ways. They tend not to
be strongly associated with each other, although in some cases they are. The
relationship between them is poorly understood.
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Important Aspects of an Attitude

Attitudes  may be "implicit," or unconscious, as well as "explicit," as in the response

that people give when asked their opinion on something. Both types may affect
behavior, although in different ways. The relationship between these two types of
attitudes is complex and not well understood.

Attitudes are generally understood to have three components: affective or emotional

features, behavioral or action components, and cognitive aspects related to thought
and beliefs. Social psychologists have studied all three aspects of attitudes, and their
inter-relationships, and have developed several theories in which attitude is the central
and key concept in understanding and explaining human behavior in social situations.

Affect

Affective components of attitudes can be very strong and influential. For example, a
bigot feels uneasy in the presence of people from a certain religious, racial, or ethnic
group; the nature lover feels exhilaration from a pleasant walk through the woods and
mountains. Like other emotional reactions, these feelings are strongly influenced by
direct or vicarious conditioning.

The affective components consist of the kinds of feelings that a particular topic
arouses. The affective response is a physiological response that expresses an
individual's preference for an entity. It is a conditioned emotional response, which has
been linked to a previously non-emotional stimulus. The affective component of an
attitude grows into a reflex that is intertwined with new emotional responses.
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Cognition

The cognitive response is a cognitive evaluation of the entity to form an attitude. The

cognitive component consists of a set of beliefs about a topic. People acquire most
beliefs about a particular topic quite directly: They hear or read a fact or an opinion, or
other people reinforce their statements expressing a particular attitude. It is formed
through direct instructions, reinforcement, imitation and/or exposure. Children form
attitudes by imitating the behavior of people who play important roles in their lives.
Children usually repeat opinions expressed by their parents. Most attitudes in
individuals are a result of "social learning" from their environment. Psychologists use
the expression "mere exposure" effect to denote the formation of a positive attitude
toward a person, place, or thing based solely on repeated exposure to that person,
place, or thing.

Behavior

The behavioral component consists of a tendency to act in a particular way with

respect to a particular topic. Attitudes are more likely to be accompanied by behaviors
if the effects of the behaviors have motivational relevance for the person. Sivacek and
Grano (1982) demonstrated this phenomenon by asking students to help campaign
against a law pending in the state legislature that would raise the drinking age from
eighteen to twenty. Although almost all the students were opposed to the new drinking
law, younger students, who would be affected by its passage, were more likely to
volunteer their time and effort.

There is not a 100 percent correspondence between attitudes and behavior. The link
between attitudes and behavior depends on attitude specificity, attitude relevance, 
personality, social constraints, and timing of measurement. For example, a person may
have a positive attitude towards blood donation but not go to a blood bank to donate
blood. Differences in degrees of specificity of the attitude and behavior, motivational
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relevance, the opportunity a person has had to observe his/her own attitude-related
behavior, and external constraints that prevent a person's acting on his/her attitude all
come into play.

The strength of the link between particular attitudes and behavior varies but usually
people strive for consistency between their attitudes and their behavior. A source of
discrepancy between attitudes and behaviors can be the constraints on behavior. For
example, a young man might have a very positive attitude toward a certain young
woman; however, he never kisses her because she has plainly shown that she is not
interested in him. No matter how carefully the young man's attitudes are measured, it
is impossible to predict his behavior without additional information from the young
woman. Thus, people do not always behave as their expressed attitudes
and beliefs would lead others to expect. Psychologists mention a few situations when
attitudes and behavior diverge: the person's motivational relevance, self-attribution,
degree of specificity of situations, constraints on behavior. The "behavioral intention"
is a verbal indication of the intention of an individual.
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Attitude Measurement Techniques

Thurstone Scale

In psychology, the Thurstone scale was the first formal technique for measuring an
attitude. It was developed by Louis Leon Thurstone in 1928, as a means of measuring
attitudes towards religion. 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 to be. People check each of the statements to which they agree, and a mean
score is computed, indicating their attitude.

The Thurstone attitude measurement procedure is generally more consistent with

empirical characteristics of disagree-agree responses, It is constructed by 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 every woman's right), are sorted by a group of judges into eleven
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 their scale position, and
that collectively represent an adequate range of contents and scale positions, are then
selected for the final scale. Respondents to the scale endorse just those items with
which they agree, and an individual respondent's score is calculated as the mean (or
occasionally median) of the items endorsed, such scores being assumed to lie on an
interval scale of measurement. It is also called an equal-appearing interval scale.
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Thurstone was one of the first and most productive scaling theorists. He actually
invented three different methods for developing a unidimensional scale: the method of
equal-appearing intervals; the method of successive intervals; and, the method of
paired comparisons. The three methods differed in how the scale values for items were
constructed, but in all three cases, the resulting scale was rated the same way by
respondents.

Guttman Scale

A type of attitude scale which is named after the US (later Israeli) psychologist Louis
H. Guttman (1916–87). The items of which can be arranged in a hierarchical order
such that agreement with any particular item implies probable agreement with all
those below it in the hierarchy, as would apply to the following (non-attitudinal)
items: I am over 5 feet tall; I am over 5 feet 6 inches tall; I am over 6 feet tall; I am
over 6 feet 6 inches tall. 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, and from these responses a set of items is selected that can be arranged into a
hierarchy with as few errors (deviations from a perfect linear hierarchy) as possible, a
satisfactory Guttman scale having relatively few errors as indexed by a reproducibility
(Rep) of at least 0.90, implying that the scale is one-dimensional, measuring only one
major attitude variable. The process of constructing a Guttman scale is called
scalogram analysis. A simple example of a Guttman scale is a social distance scale.

In statistical surveys conducted by means of structured interviews or questionnaires, a

subset of the survey items having binary (e.g., YES or NO) answers forms a Guttman
scale if they can be ranked in some order so that, for a rational respondent, the
response pattern can be captured by a single index on that ordered scale. In other
words, on a Guttman scale, items are arranged in an order so that an individual who
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agrees with a particular item also agrees with items of lower rank-order. For example,
a series of items could be (1) "I am willing to be near ice cream"; (2) "I am willing to
smell ice cream"; (3) "I am willing to eat ice cream"; and (4) "I love to eat ice cream".
Agreement with any one item implies agreement with the lower-order items.

The concept of Guttman scale likewise applies to series of items in other kinds of
tests, such as achievement tests, that have binary outcomes. For example, a test of
math achievement might order questions based on their difficulty and instruct the
examinee to begin in the middle. The assumption is if the examinee can successfully
answer items of that difficulty (e.g., summing two 3-digit numbers), s/he would be
able to answer the earlier questions (e.g., summing two 2-digit numbers). Some
achievement tests are organized in a Guttman scale to reduce the duration of the test.

By designing surveys and tests such that they contain Guttman scales, researchers can
simplify the analysis of the outcome of surveys, and increase the robustness. Guttman
scales also make it possible to detect and discard randomized answer patterns, as may
be given by uncooperative respondents. The Guttman scale is used mostly when
researchers want to design short questionnaires with good discriminating ability. The
Guttman model works best for constructs that are hierarchical and highly structured
such as social distance, organizational hierarchies, and evolutionary stages.

Guttman scaling is also sometimes known as cumulative scaling or scalogram

analysis. The purpose of Guttman scaling is to establish a one-dimensional continuum
for a concept you wish to measure. What does that mean? Essentially, we would like a
set of items or statements so that a respondent who agrees with any specific question
in the list will also agree with all previous questions. Put more formally, we would
like to be able to predict item responses perfectly knowing only the total score for the
respondent. For example, imagine a ten-item cumulative scale. If the respondent
scores a four, it should mean that he/she agreed with the first four statements. If the
respondent scores an eight, it should mean they agreed with the first eight. The object
is to find a set of items that perfectly matches this pattern.
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Likert Scale

The Likert scale was introduced as a scale of attitudes in Likert's "A Technique for the
Measurement of Attitudes,” It was a bipolar scale running from one extreme through a
neutral point to the opposite extreme. The Likert technique presents a set of attitude
statements. Subjects are asked to express agreement or disagreement of a five-point
scale. Each degree of agreement is given a numerical value from one to five. Thus a
total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses.

A Likert scale is a psychometric scale commonly used in questionnaires, and is the

most widely used scale in survey research. When responding to a Likert questionnaire
item, respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement. The scale is named
after Rensis Likert, who published a report describing its use.

An important distinction must be made between a Likert Scale and a Likert item. The
Likert Scale is the sum of responses on several Likert items. Because Likert items are
often accompanied by a visual analog scale (e.g., a horizontal line, on which a subject
indicates his or her response by circling or checking tick-marks), the items are
sometimes called scales themselves. This is the source of much confusion; it is better,
therefore, to reserve the word 'Likert scale' to apply to the summated scale, and 'Likert
item' to refer to an individual item.

A Likert item is simply a statement which the respondent is asked to evaluate

according to any kind of subjective or objective criteria; generally the level of
agreement or disagreement is measured. Often five ordered response levels are used,
although many psychometricians advocate using seven or nine levels; a recent
empirical study found that data from 5-level, 7-level and 10-level items showed very
similar characteristics in terms of mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis after a simple
transformation was applied.
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The format of a typical five-level Likert item is:

1. Strongly disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neither agree nor disagree

4. Agree

5. Strongly agree

Likert scaling is a bipolar scaling method, measuring either positive or negative

response to a statement. Sometimes a four-point scale is used; this is a forced choice
method since the middle option of "Neither agree nor disagree" is not available.

Likert scales may be subject to distortion from several causes. Respondents may avoid
using extreme response categories (central tendency bias); agree with statements as
presented (acquiescence bias); or try to portray themselves or their organization in a
more favorable light (social desirability bias). Designing a scale with balanced keying
(an equal number of positive and negative statements) can obviate the problem of
acquiescence bias, since acquiescence on positively keyed items will balance
acquiescence on negatively keyed items, but central tendency and social desirability
are somewhat more problematic.
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Concluding Remarks

Personality disorders are a diagnostic category of psychiatric disorders that affect

approximately 10% of the population. Since everyone has a personality, but not
everyone has a personality disorder, these disorders are considered a variant form of
normal, healthy personality. This group of disorders is characterized by problematic
thinking patterns; problems with emotional regulation; and difficulty achieving a
balance between spontaneity and impulse control. However, the most significant and
defining feature of personality disorders is their negative effect on interpersonal
relationships. People with personality disorders tend to respond to differing situations
and demands with a characteristically rigid constellation of thoughts, feelings, and
behavior. This inflexibility and difficulty forming nuanced responses, represents the
primary difference between healthy and disordered personalities.

Attitudes continue to be one of the most important concepts of social psychology and
attitude research one of its most active areas. The past decade of attitude research was
characterized by integrative theorizing, which had been prompted by the introduction
and rising popularity of implicit measures of attitude. These new methods spurred
active debates about the optimal conceptualization of attitudes and about the interplay
of cognitive processes in attitude formation and change. Our aim in this review was to
delineate the main theoretical developments of the past five years resulting from this
development and to point out some exciting new lines of investigation. In doing so,
we had to be selective, so several issues were hardly covered at all these include areas
that figured prominently in previous reviews of this series. Nonetheless, we hope that
we have provided readers with a critical overview and some starting points for further
reading in this fascinating field.