Encyclopedia of Sociology

ATTITUDES

a direct positive or negative statement about the
object, and the respondent indicates whether he
or she agrees, disagrees, or is unsure. Such a
measure is easy to score, but is not precise. A Likert
scale typically involves several statements, and the
respondent is asked to indicate the degree to
which she or he agrees or disagrees with each. By
analyzing differences in the pattern of responses
across respondents, the investigator can order
individuals from greatest agreement to greatest
disagreement. Whereas Likert scales assess the
denotative (literal) meaning of an object to a re-
spondent, the semantic differential technique as-
sesses the connotative (personal) meaning of the
object. Here, an investigator presents the respon-
dent with a series of bipolar adjective scales. Each
of these is a scale whose poles are two adjectives
having opposite meanings, for example, good–
bad, exciting–boring. The respondent rates the
attitude object, such as ‘‘my job,’’ on each scale.
After the data are collected, the researcher can
analyze them by various statistical techniques.

A variety of more sophisticated scaling tech-
niques have been developed. These typically in-
volve asking a series of questions about a class of
objects, for example, occupations, crimes, or po-
litical figures, and then applying various statistical
techniques to arrive at a summary measure. These
include magnitude techniques (e.g., the Thurstone
scale), interlocking techniques (e.g., the Guttman
scale), proximity techniques (e.g., smallest space
analysis), and the unfolding technique developed
by Coombs. None of these has been widely used.

Indirect Methods. Direct methods assume that
people will report honestly their attitudes toward
the object of interest. But when questions deal
with sensitive issues, such as attitudes toward mem-
bers of minority groups or abortion, respondents
may not report accurately. In an attempt to avoid
such reactivity, investigators have developed vari-
ous indirect methods.

Some methods involve keeping respondents
unaware of what is being measured. The ‘‘lost
letter’’ technique involves dropping letters in pub-
lic areas and observing the behavior of the person
who finds it. The researcher can measure attitudes
toward abortion by addressing one-half of the
letters to a prochoice group and the other half to a
prolife group. If a greater percentage of letters to

the latter group are returned, it suggests people

have prolife attitudes. Another indirect measure

of attitude is pupil dilation, which increases when

the person observes an object she or he likes and

decreases when the object is disliked.

Some indirect measures involve deceiving re-

spondents. A person may be asked to sort a large

number of statements into groups, and the indi-

vidual’s attitude may be inferred from the number

or type of categories used. Similarly, a respondent

may be asked to write statements characterizing

other people’s beliefs on an issue, and the content

and extremity of the respondent’s statements are

used to measure his or her own attitude. A third

technique is the ‘‘bogus pipeline.’’ This involves

attaching the person with electrodes to a device

and telling the person that the device measures his

or her true attitudes. The respondent is told that

some signal, such as a blinking light, pointer, or

buzzer, will indicate the person’s real attitude,

then the person is asked direct questions.

While these techniques may reduce inaccu-

rate reporting, some of them yield measures whose

meaning is not obvious or is of questionable validi-

ty. Does mailing a letter reflect one’s attitude

toward the addressee or the desire to help? There

is also evidence that measures based on these

techniques are not reliable. Finally, some research-

ers believe it is unethical to use techniques that

involve deception. Because of the importance of

obtaining reliable and valid measures, research

has been carried out on how to ask questions. This

research is reviewed by Schuman and Presser

(1996).

For a comprehensive discussion of attitude

measurement techniques and issues, see Dawes

and Smith (1985).

ATTITUDE ORGANIZATION

An individual’s attitude toward some object usual-

ly is not an isolated psychological unit. It is embed-

ded in a cognitive structure and linked with a

variety of other attitudes. Several theories of atti-

tude organization are based on the assumption

that individuals prefer consistency among the ele-

ments of cognitive structure, that is, among atti-

tudes and perceptions. Two of these are balance

theory and dissonance theory.