Chapter 4: Attitude Measurement

Lesson Plan
1. Attitude, Ranking and Rating
2. Attitude measuring scale
3. Attitudinal questions and their
processing
 1. Attitude, Ranking and Rating

An attitude: an enduring disposition (outlook) to

respond consistently in a given manner to
various aspects of the world, including persons,
events, and objects. Conception of attitude is
reflected in brief statement. It consists of
• affective,
• cognitive and
• behavioral components.
.
 Contd..
Affective (emotional) component reflects an individual’s
general feelings or emotions toward an object. Such as, I
love my job; I hate this food, I respect Amartya Sen, etc.
 
Cognitive component represents one’s awareness of or
knowledge about an object. A woman is happy with her,
because she ‘believes he is getting big pay’; I like my job
because ‘working environment in the job is excellent’, I
respect Amartya Sen because ‘every one has access to him’.
 
Behavioral component includes buying intentions and
behavioral expectation.
 Difference between ranking & rating
Ranking: Respondents rank order a small number
of items on the basis of overall preference or some
characteristics of an object. Ranking of 5 boys in a
group as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, etc.
Rating: Respondents would estimate the
magnitude of a characteristic or quality that an
object possesses. Example: Ranking is the score
given by teachers to students on a specific course.
Based on the rating, ranking can be done. Rahim
obtains 85% marks on Research Methodology & he
gets the highest marks. Rating is 85% and ranking is
1st.
 2.Attitude Rating Scales

There are a number of common attitude rating scales in

Business Research. Some of them are:
Simple Attitude Scale: It requires an individual to agree
or disagree with a statement or respond to a question.
For example:
The December National Election of 2018 was
transparent. Answer can be Yes or No.
The girl is fascinating. The answer is Yes or No

Advantage: It is easy.
Disadvantage: it limits the type of mathematical
analysis that may be utilized with this basic scale.
 Contd..
Category Scale: Simple attitude scale is expanded
to give the respondent more flexibility in rating
task. It consists of several response categories to
provide the respondent with alternative ratings.
For example: How often is your supervisor
supportive to you?
Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often or Very often
How long do you wish to stay outside your country?
Less than 3 months
3 months to one year
More than one year
 Contd..

Summated Rating Method (or Likert Scale): developed by Renis

Likert, it is extremely popular among the researchers. It is a measure
of attitudes ranging from very positive to very negative to allow
respondents to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with
carefully constructed statements relating to an attitudinal object.
 
Statement: In Sonali Bank loan scamming some political high-ups
were involved. Probable answers are:
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Uncertain (neutral)
Agree
Strongly agree
 
 Contd..
Semantic Differentials: An attitudinal measure
consisting of series of seven-point bipolar rating
scales allowing response to a concept. Identification
of a company, product, brand, job, etc. It can be:
Fast ___ ___ ___ ____ ___ ____ ____ Slow
Intellectual Emotional
Contemporary Traditional
Busy Lazy
New Old
Progressive Regressive
Modern fashion Old fashion
 Contd..
Numerical Scales: Numerical scales have numbers
rather than ‘semantic space’ or verbal
description. Rating scale which is similar to a
semantic differential except that it uses numbers
instead of verbal descriptions.
Example:
Extremely
Satisfied 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely Dissatisfied
 Contd..
Stapel Scale: Similar to semantic scales. It places a single
adjective in the center of an even number of numerical
values, and the other values are close or distantly located
as shown below:
 
+3
+2
+1
Single adjective
-1
-2
-3