analyze an advertising campaign (could be a series of ads, or just a single ad; could be either print or television, or both) aand discuss the persuasion tools and methods the advertising
budora
attitude_measurement.pptxAttitude measurement
Chapter 6
MCM 380, Spring 2016
Overview
Why measure attitudes?
Attitude questionnaires date back to 1928
Article published by psychologist Louis Thurstone – “Attitudes Can Be Measured” (1928)
Proposed an elaborate procedure to assess people’s views on social issues.
Measurement techniques and methodologies for assessing attitude refined and developed by scholars
Writing attitude questions – principles of measurement, statistics, and cognitive psychology
Underlying belief, core assumption – one can measure phenomena by assigning numbers to objects on the basis of rules or guidelines
Overview
Why not simply ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions? (for e.g., do you approve or disapprove of ‘x’?)
Firstly, the agree-disagree scale offers people only two choices. It does not allow for shades of gray.
Second, it measures attitudes with only one item. This puts all the researcher’s eggs in one basket. If the item is ambiguous or the respondent misunderstands the question, then all hope of accurately measuring the attitude disappears. In addition, by relying on only one item, the researcher misses the opportunity to tap complex, even contradictory components of the attitude.
For these reasons, researchers prefer to include many survey items and to assess attitudes along a numerical continuum. Questionnaires that employ these are called scales.
Questionnaire Measures of Attitude
Three standard attitude scales:
Likert Scale
Guttman Scale
Semantic Differential
Likert Scale
Psychologist Rensis Likert refined Thurstone’s procedures, 1932
Likert recommended that researchers devise a series of opinion statements and ask individuals to indicate their agreement or disagreement with each statement along a numerical scale.
A Likert scale assumes that each item taps the same underlying attitude and there are significant interrelationships between items.
For example, on a 5-point (strongly agree, somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree) scale, researchers assume that the psychological difference between strongly agree and somewhat agree is the same as that between strongly disagree and somewhat disagree.
Likert Scale for Gender Roles
Please indicate whether you strongly agree (SA), agree (A), are neutral (N), disagree (D), or strongly disagree (SD) with each of these statements.
SA A N D SD
_____________________________________________
Women are more emotional than men.
Swearing and obscenity are more repulsive in the speech of a woman than a man.
When two people go out on a date, the man should be the one to pay.
When a couple is going somewhere by car, it’s better for the man to do most of the driving.
Society has reached the point where women and men have equal opportunities for achievement.
Women should be cherished and protected by men.
Many women have a quality of purity that few men possess.
Most women interpret innocent remarks or acts as discrimination and offensive.
Guttman Scale
Proposed by Louis Guttman, 1944
The scale progresses from items easiest to accept to those most difficult to endorse.
Those who get a high score on a Guttman scale agree with all items. Those with moderate attitudes agree with questions that are easy and moderately difficult to endorse. Those with mildly positive attitudes agree only with items that are easy to accept.
Guttman scales are hard to construct. They are not as easy to administer as Likert scales. However, they can be useful in tapping attitudes on sensitive topics like prejudice.
Guttman Scale for Gender Roles
________________________________________________
Least difficult to accept 1. Fathers should spend some of their leisure time helping to care for children.
2. Fathers should share in infant care responsibilities, such as getting up when the baby cries at night and changing diapers.
3. If both parents work, the father and mother should divide equally the task of staying at home when children get sick.
Most difficult to accept 4. If both parents work, the father and mother should divide up equally the task of raising the children.
Semantic Differential
Proposed by Charles Osgood and colleagues, 1957
Does not assess beliefs or agreement with opinion statements
Instead, explores the meaning that people attach to social objects, focusing on the emotional aspect of attitude.
Participants rate a concept using bipolar adjectives: One adjective lies at one end of the scale; its opposite is at the other end.
According to Osgood and his colleagues, people typically use three dimensions to rate concepts: evaluation (Is it good or bad for me?), potency (Is it strong or weak?), and activity (Is it active or passive?)
Semantic Differential for Gender Roles
__________________________________________________
Feminism
__________________________________________________
Good --- --- --- --- --- --- Bad
Pleasant --- --- --- --- --- --- Unpleasant
Strong --- --- --- --- --- --- Weak
Heavy --- --- --- --- --- --- Light
Active --- --- --- --- --- --- Passive
Wholesome --- --- --- --- --- --- Unhealthy
Valuable --- --- --- --- --- --- Worthless
Pitfalls in Attitude Measurement
Inaccuracies can result from factors such as:
(a) respondent carelessness in answering the questions
(b) people’s desire to say the socially appropriate thing rather than what they truly believe
(c) a tendency to agree with items regardless of their content
A key issue:
Format and wording of questions: the way the researcher words the question and designs the questionnaire can elicit from the respondents answers that may not reflect the individual’s true attitude. The manner in which the question is asked can influence the response the researcher receives.
Pitfalls in Attitude Measurement
Two key survey design factors that can influence (or bias) attitude responses
Survey Context
Questions occurring early in the survey can influence responses to later questions. This is because thoughts triggered by earlier questions can shape subsequent responses. The answers the individuals supply may relate more to the “context” of the survey rather than reflect their actual attitudes.
Wording
The way a question is worded can influence respondents’ evaluation of the issue (“preferential” versus “special efforts”)
Asking Good Questions
Use words that all respondents can comprehend.
Write specific and unambiguous items.
Avoid double negatives.
Pretest items to make sure people understand your questions.
If you think order of questions will influence respondents, ask questions in different sequences to check out order effects.
Avoid politically correct phrases that encourage socially desirable responses.
Write items so that they take both the positive and negative sides of an issue (to reduce respondents’ tendency to always agree).
Consider whether your questions deal with sensitive threatening issues (drugs, antisocial behavior, etc). If so, ask these questions at the end of the survey, once trust has been established.
Allow people to say “I don’t know.” This will eliminate responses based on guesses or desire to please the interviewer.
Include many questions to tap different aspects of the attitude.
Focus Groups and Open-Ended Measures
Why use focus groups and open-ended measures?
The main advantage of attitude scales – that they offer an efficient way to measure social attitudes accurately – is their main drawback. Scales do not always shed light on the underlying dynamics of attitudes – the rich underbelly of cognitions and emotions. These components can be measured through focus groups and open-ended techniques.
Focus Groups
A focus group is essentially a structured, systematic method to solicit collective information about attitudes towards a person, product, or issue.
It is defined as “a qualitative research method in which a trained moderator conducts a collective interview of a set of participants” (Jarvis, 2011, p. 283).
The strength of a focus group is the rich dialogue-based information it provides about the meanings people attach to social issues.
But its limitation is that it can yield subjective conclusions that depend on the personal interpretations of the analyst
However, in recent years, computer software programs have been created to analyze responses; this has helped in more reliable results
Open-Ended Measures
Open-ended measures are employed in more structured measurement settings
Open-ended measures complement the structured attitude scales, adding more nuance. Combining open-ended measures with traditional attitude scales increases the odds that researchers will tap attitudes accurately and completely.
Open-Ended Measures
Open-ended measures can be used for:
Assessing cognitive responses to communication: Individuals typically read or view a message and list their cognitive reactions (thoughts). For example, if you wanted to measure people’s cognitive responses regarding gender roles, you might have them view a gender discriminatory advertisement and ask them to write down the first ideas that come to mind. These responses could be subsequently categorized by researchers according to specific criteria.
Affect can also be assessed in an open-ended way. People can be asked to write down 10 emotions that they ordinarily feel toward members of a group, organization, or nation.
Indirect Methods to Measure Attitudes
Unobtrusive measure
Researchers can observe individuals unobtrusively or without their knowledge
Behavior is used as a surrogate for attitude
Unobtrusive measures can be useful in cases when it is not possible where it is not possible to administer self-report scales or one fears individuals will not accurately report attitudes
They can also be employed to document the impact of a major event on attitudes
Indirect Methods to Measure Attitudes
Physiological measurements
Can provide useful indirect assessments of attitudes
A physiological approach to attitudes has gained popularity in recent years as researchers have recognized that attitudes have a motor or bodily component
Tapping attitudes through physiological techniques
Galvanic skin response
Pupil dilation
Facial electromyographic (EMG)
Indirect Methods to Measure Attitudes
Physiological measurements
Physiological measures can be useful in tapping feelings that people are not aware they have, or which they might choose to disguise on a questionnaire
But unfortunately, they can, at times, tap responses other than attitudes
Sweating, pupil dilation, and facial muscle activity can occur because people are interested in or curious about the attitude object
Physiological reactions do not always provide a sensitive indication of the directionality (pro vs. con) of people’s feelings
It is also, at times, impractical or expensive to use physiological techniques
But the development of neuroscience techniques (such as MRI), in recent years, have supplemented traditional physiological measures
Neuroscience measures offer information about attitudes that can be difficult, if not impossible, to detect through conventional measurement strategies
Indirect Methods to Measure Attitudes
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Developed by Anthony Greenwald and colleagues (1998)
Assesses the time it takes people to indicate if they agree or disagree with a statement
Researchers do not focus on whether individuals are pro or con, or favorable or unfavorable, to the attitude object
Their primary interest is in how long it takes individuals to make their selection
The assumption is that the longer it takes people to access their attitude, the less well developed or strong the attitude is
Conversely, the more quickly people indicate their attitude, the stronger the attitude is presumed to be
Indirect Methods to Measure Attitudes
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Helpful in measuring deep-seated attitudes, particularly implicit attitudes that operate unconsciously
Such attitudes, especially when they involve prejudices, are very hard to uncover on paper-and-pencil questionnaires
People do not like to admit they harbor prejudices, or may not be conscious of their biases
The IAT can tap such prejudices because it involves a less obtrusive methodology
The IAT provides a measure of the strength of association between an attribute, and positive or negative feelings
Debates regarding the validity of IAT
Critics argue that it does not measure individuals’ attitudes as much as the cultural associations they have learned
Also, the computer test results do not always imply that the respondent harbors prejudices or deep-seated hostility
