SODHI’S ATTITUDE SCALE

(SAS)

AIM: To determine the attitude of the subject in different areas using Sodhi’s Attitude Scale.

BASIC CONCEPT:

The term attitude is defined as a predisposition involving beliefs, feelings and dispositions to act
towards some object. The object may be anything- a person, a group, an idea, or an object. According
to G.W. Allport, “attitudes are preparation or readiness for a response.” In recent years,
psychologists are moving towards a conception of attitude as evaluation. Evaluations are related in
complex ways to beliefs, feelings and actions. Thus, attitudes are simply evaluation of objects.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTITUDE:

1. STABILITY: Attitudes are relatively stable. Temporary mood states and one time actions cannot
be considered as an attitude. Attitude s refers to the set of thoughts, feelings and actions that
people hold on a relatively long-term basis. Once formed attitudes have a tendency to persist
over time and across situations. It however, does not mean that attitudes do not change in the
light of new experiences and information.

2. DISPOSITIONAL: Attitudes are dispositional. By dispositional, we mean that the attitudes are
the characteristics of an individual and people differ in their strength from one another
depending on their socialization and social interaction.

3. OBJECT-BASED: The attitude has an object. It may be anything, person, group, political or social
event, issue or even an inanimate object. One may have an attitude towards art, philosophy or
religion or any particular person.

4. DIRECTION: The attitude has a direction. An attitude is either positive or negative but it is
difficult to conceive a neutral attitude.

5. MOTIVATIONAL PROPERTIES: The attitude has motivational properties. It denotes readiness to

act in a particular manner. The behavior of a particular person can be predicted if you know
his/her attitude.

6. LEARNT BEHAVIOR: Attitudes are learnt. One is not born with attitudes but these develop with
our experiences in dealing with objects and people.

7. MANIFEST IN BEHAVIOR: An attitude may operate at a subconscious level. People often hold
attitudes without being aware of it. It is only when the behavior of people is closely examined, the
existence of a positive or negative attitude surfaces.

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COMPONENTS OF AN ATTITUDE:

1. Cognitive: It refers to the thoughts that one holds towards various stimuli through which an
attitude is expressed. For example, the cognitive component of the attitude towards a political
party may refer to the beliefs whether or not the party has honest, unselfish & capable persons as
leaders. The cognitive component also refers to how this party should be assessed by the masses.
Specifically, a positive attitude towards a political party implies a belief that after coming to
power this party would provide a better government to the country than any other political party.

2. Affective: Affective or feeling component refers to the emotions associated with the person or
an object. These include pleasant or unpleasant feelings, liking or disliking for an object, good or
bad mood, attraction or aversion. Feeling component serves as a motivating factor and intensity
of positive or negative feeling would determine the motivational force behind the resulting
behavior. For example, the affective component of your attitude towards a political party would
be whether you feel good or bad when this party wins or loses elections.

3. Behavioral: Behavioral or action component refers to the actual behavior which occurs in
relation to a person or an object. If a person holds a positive attitude towards another person, he
will show a tendency to help or support that person. If his attitude is negative, the tendency will
be to discourage or ignore that person. A favorable attitude towards a political party will prompt
you to campaign for that party in an election or actually join the party as a member.

FORMATION OF ATTITUDE: Social psychologists have focused on the following conditions which
lead to learning of attitudes:

1. Learning attitudes by association: Positive or negative association between the target (object or
person towards which an attitude is held) & the perceiver (person holding an attitude) leads to
formation of positive or negative attitude. For example, students may develop a liking for a
particular subject because they see many positive qualities in that teacher that get linked to the
subject and ultimately get expressed in the form of liking for the subject.

2. Learning attitudes through reinforcement: If an individual is praised for showing a particular

attitude, chances are high that he or she will develop that attitude further & if the person is
discouraged, chances are that he/she will inhibit that attitude.

3. Learning attitudes through modeling & observing others: We learn attitudes by observing others
being rewarded or punished for expressing thoughts or showing behavior of a particular kind
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 towards the attitude object. For example, children may form respectable attitudes towards
elders, by observing that their parents show respect for elders and are appreciated for it.

4. Learning attitudes through group or cultural norms: Rules or general principles guiding our
behavior can also facilitate the formation of attitudes.

5. Learning through exposure to information: Today with the huge amount of information that is
being provided through various media, both positive & negative attitudes are being formed.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST:

Sodhi’s Attitude Scale was constructed by T.S. Sodhi (1974). Attitudes are an important phenomenon
in the field of education. It is one of the fundamental responsibilities of the educationists to develop
positive attitudes among educators towards socially desirable goals. In this test, the author has
avoided factual statements, which would be interpreted in more than one way, statements likely to
be endorsed similarly by everyone and statements in compound sentences.

RELIABILITY: The test-retest reliability coefficient of the scale for each of the dimensions has been
recorded in table 3 in the manual which ranges from 0.72-0.86.

VALIDITY: The validity coefficient of the scale has been recorded in table 3 in the manual for each
dimension that ranges from0.50-0.79.

NORMS: Percentile rank norms (regional) for the region extending over Punjab, Haryana,
Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh have been prepared. Besides norms for the total group, separate
norms for boys & girls, for rural and urban students of the region have been mentioned from table 4
through table 8 in the manual.

METHODOLOGY:

PRELIMINARIES:

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Place of conduction: Psychology Laboratory.

General condition of the subject: Fresh & cooperative.

MATERIALS REQUIRED: SAS booklet, manual, answer sheet, pencil and eraser.

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PRECAUTIONS:

1. The subject must be assured of confidentiality of test results.

2. A well lit & quiet room should be provided.

3. The aim of the test should not be disclosed.

4. The subject must be told to use the’?’ option as little as possible.

5. Subject must be told not to leave any question unchecked and answer all the questions.

6. The tester should ensure that the subject does not linger too much on a particular problem.

RAPPORT FORMATION:

“Good morning, my name is XYZ. Relax, feel comfortable. Let me assure you that there is nothing for
you to feel nervous or anxious about. This is a very simple test. That will help you to gain insight into
your own behavior i.e. the way you think, feel and act in various circumstances. Your test results will
be kept strictly confidential and be made available to a third person only after your knowledge and
consent.”

INSTRUCTIONS:

“There are five parts of this scale and you are to attempt all the items in each part. You are only to
read the item carefully and then encircle any of the three alternatives Yes, ?, No given on the answer
sheet against each item. If you agree with the statement encircle around Yes; if you disagree with the
statement encircle around No and if you are undecided about it, encircle around ?. Although no time
limit is fixed for completing the task, you may take your own time. But hurry up in completing the
work. Normally it takes 40 minutes to finish the scale. If, by any reason, you have to change any of
your responses, you may put a cross on the wrong one and encircle the right response. Be honest in
your dealing. You are assured that your responses will be kept confidential. Do not write or put any
pen marks in this booklet. Have you understood, shall we begin?”

CONDUCTION:

The subject was comfortably seated in the laboratory, rapport was established and instructions were
read. The subject was informed that their performance in the scale will in no way affect their
achievements nor their image in the school nor with the parents. These results in no case will be
given to the parents, teachers or the heads of institutions. The subject was told that the booklet
contains certain questions to which he/she had to answer Yes, ?, No and not to use ? very often. No
time limit was set and the subject was asked not to leave any question unanswered. After the subject
had completed the test, an introspective report was taken.

SCORING: The answer sheet has been designed for hand scoring. Table 2 is providing the score value
of yes responses and serves as a scoring key. For each area only the value of Yes has been given as
positive or negative, against each item. If the value shown for each item is positive and
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 i. The student has marked “Yes” in his response, giving him +1 .

ii. If he has marked “No” give him -1.

iii. If he has marked the sign of “?”, give him 0.

Conversely, if the value shown for an item on the scoring key is negative and the

i. Student has responded “Yes” give him -1

ii. If he has marked “No” give him +1.

iii. If he has marked the sign of”?”, give him 0.

When you have scored one scale, add the scores of the items algebraically and that will be the score
of the individual. Thus, each individual will get five separate scores on the five scales.

INTROSPECTIVE REPORT: (write on your own)

DATA: Attached on the facing page.

DATA TABLE: showing raw scores and percentile ranks of the subject.

AREAS RAW SCORE PERCENTILE

Attitudes towards teachers & parents

Attitude towards discipline

Attitude towards life & humanity

Attitude towards country

Attitude towards religion

RESULT:

The raw score of the subject on attitude towards teachers & parents, discipline, life & humanity,
country & religion are __, ___, ___, ___ &___ respectively and the corresponding percentile ranks are ___,
___, ___, ___ & ___ respectively.
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INTERPRETATION:

The aim of the test was to determine the attitude of an individual in different areas using Sodhi’s
Attitude Scale. The term attitude is defined as a general predisposition to respond to a person or an
object in either a favorable or unfavorable way. Psychologists are moving towards a conception of
attitude as evaluation. Evaluations are related in complex ways to beliefs, feelings and actions.

The subject’s raw score on the first area, i.e., Attitude towards parents and teachers is____ & the
corresponding percentile rank is ___ indicating a highly favorable attitude towards them. This rank
means that she is really respectful towards them, follows their orders and has full faith in them. She is
extremely open to their opinions and always tries to act on their advice and experience. She shows
full consideration towards her teachers & elders.

The subject’s raw score on the second area, i.e., Attitude towards discipline is____ & the
corresponding percentile rank is ___ indicating a moderately favorable attitude towards discipline.
This score means that the subject respects the rules & regulations set by the society & tries to follow
them to the best possible manner. She believes that discipline makes her more responsible towards
her freedom & helps her value the local norms. However, sometimes, she feels that not every rule is
justified.

The subject’s raw score on the third area, i.e., Attitude towards life & humanity is____ & the
corresponding percentile rank is ___ indicating a moderately favorable attitude towards life &
humanity. This means that in most of the situations she acts in a very responsible and sensitive way
towards her fellow living beings. She is extremely charitable and never hesitates to help the needy.
She tries not to say harsh things to the people around her. She is accepting of her mistakes,
acknowledges them & never tries to force her own achievements over others.

The subject’s raw score on the fourth area, i.e., Attitude country is____ & the corresponding
percentile rank is ___ indicating a moderately favorable attitude towards the country. She loves her
country & feels pride in being an Indian citizen. Despite the various shortcomings in her country like
poverty, corruption, etc. She will continue to live here & realize her ambitions rather than working
abroad.

The subject’s raw score on the fifth area, i.e., Attitude towards religion is____ & the corresponding
percentile rank is ___ indicating a highly favorable attitude towards her religion. She believes in the
supreme power of God and is highly religious. According to her, religious practices are essential to
purify her life. She believes in doing good as goodness in one’s action makes us go to heaven. She is
fearful of God & highly devoted.

CONCLUSION:

Using the SAS it has been observed that the subject has…..