Presentation by GROUP 5 - SET B

Semantic
Differential
Scale
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Overview
03 Introduction

05 Advantages

06 Examples
10 How to make an effective Semantic Scale Questionnaire

12 Likert and Semantic Differential Scales

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What is a Semantic
Differential Scale?
It is a type of survey rating
scale used for psychological
measurement. It helps to get to know your audience’s
attitudes, approaches, and perspectives. A researcher
develops a survey allowing a respondent to express a
judgment, using a scale of five to seven points.
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A famous American psychologist, Charles Egerton Osgood, came

up with the semantic differential scale in 1979. With the help of his
research, it became possible to record and further analyze the
“connotative meaning” of emotional attitude towards various
matters.

Questionnaires that use the semantic scale are considered to be a

very reliable way to get information on people’s emotional
reactions when it comes to a wide variety of subjects.
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The Semantic Differential Scale:

Advantages
Easy for Respondents to Take
The main benefit of using the semantic
differential scale is the ease with which
respondents will understand the scale.
Gives an Objective Picture
As the semantic scale questionnaires are
pretty easy to take, respondents may
express their opinion in full.

Simple for the Interviewer to Make

Saving time is important, so another advantage is that the interviewer only needs to find
two opposite terms to use it as a measurement tool for a survey to work.
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The Semantic Differential Scale:

Examples

conducted on a large database and
Charles Egerton Osgood’s research was
Osgood found that there are three scales (often referred as EPA) that were
commonly effective, regardless of race, culture or difference in language:

Evaluation (good to bad, safe to dangerous, excellent to poor)

Potency (high to low, strong to weak)
Activity (fast to slow, active to passive)
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1. Researching an attitude toward a product

So, let’s imagine that a company has
developed and put a robotic vacuum
cleaner on the market. Of course,

01
they have tested the product’s
efficiency and demand among a
huge sampling of people a thousand
times. But still, it’s just necessary to
make sure the vacuum cleaner is
performing outstandingly, and
everybody loves it.
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2. Measuring a job satisfaction level

Getting and retaining the best employees is the goal of all HR specialists. A
happy employee is a patriot of a company, the biggest fan of a brand, and a
person who makes it all work.

01
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3. Brand attitude analysis

Attitude towards a brand is essentially both what customers assume and how
strongly they feel. Clients may be aware of the product but have a negative
or neutral attitude.

01
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Use Osgood’s EPA
Why reinvent the wheel, right?
Just use
Charles Osgood’s research based on a
rich source of data.
Find the right adjectives
Make sure you’ve chosen the right
“bipolar” adjectives as it’s the hardest
and probably the most important part of
the job to do to get accurate results.
Semantic Scale Questionnaire
How to Make an Effective
Design it!
Pay close attention to your survey’s
appearance: even the color and font for
the title may affect your audience’s
decisions and participation.
Consider easy
alternatives if you don’t
find the antonyms
An Adjective Check List
A Semantic Distance Scale
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Consider easy alternatives if

you don’t find the antonyms
An Adjective Check List
When using such a survey technique, you don’t
need to contrast opposite adjectives. Just list
positive and negative concepts for
participants to choose from.
A Semantic Distance Scale
The semantic distance scale also helps to
avoid the issue of struggling with thinking up
antonyms but still lets participants rate each
concept:
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Likert and Semantic

Differential Scales

Likert and semantic differential scales differ greatly in how the questions are asked
and what information is derived from the customers’ responses. While the Likert scale
question asks the customer to agree or disagree with a given statement, the semantic
differential scale question invites them to express their emotional perception on a
scale between two polarized options (for example, on the good to bad scale).
The end.
Presentation by Ikhee Fe C. Monato