When people hear a message with which they agree rather than disagree, there is a relative increase in the EMG activity in a specific set of muscles, but a relative decrease in another set. Most of these changes cannot be seen with the naked eye.
The physiological measures of attitudes are not very often used in practice. One reason may be the above-mentioned insensitivity of most of the instruments, towards the quality of an attitudinal response. Another important reason, however, is the necessity of using technical devices, which are not easily applied in the field sittings. These methods derive attitude measures from the open, observable behavior patterns. In most of the behavior observation, the subjects know that they are being observed.
However, in the non-reactive measurement, the subjects are observed without their knowledge, or, even more indirectly, some of their behavior patterns are analyzed. These types of attitudinal measures are called behavior indicators, observation techniques and unobtrusive measures. For example, in one early study, the investigators measured the voting preferences by tallying the number of bumper stickers for a particular candidate on the cars in parking lot Wrightsman, The other researchers measured attitudes toward the competing brands of cola, by searching through the garbage cans.
The unobtrusive measurement procedures are less liable to conscious distortions, than the self-report methods; however, this advantage is gained at the cost of enormous ambiguities of interpretation such as the questionable validity of the attained measures and ethical problems. It is often difficult to determine what these objective indicators mean exactly, with respect to an attitude, and they are often determined by the motives or situational constraints, other than the attitudes.
The lost-letter technique is a good example of unobtrusive measurement. But, if she has some stamps and envelopes, she can try the lost-letter technique. This is what the researcher does: She addresses an envelope to someone with a foreign-sounding name at a local address. She puts a stamp on the envelope, and then drops it on a crowded street near the post office so that it can be easily found and mailed. As her baseline control, she drops a stamped envelope addressed to someone whose name does not sound foreign.
The procedure is repeated to collect a sample. This reflects the attitude towards the foreigners. In the recent years, a new test has been developed to tap our implicit attitudes, self-concepts and other important aspects of our cognitive system.
The term implicit refers to relatively automatic mental associations. Implicit attitudes are the attitudes that we hold, but are not aware of, so that we are not able to directly report that attitude. These implicit attitudes can only be measured by the indirect means. The IAT aims at determining the strength of the connection between the two concepts. For example, the IAT asked the test-takers to assign a stimulus, which can be word or pictures, as quickly as they possibly can, to a pair of target.
The IAT is an attempt to tap into our unconscious associations. It has been used to explore the unconscious bases of the prejudicial attitudes of all kinds. Linked In. Measurement of Attitude Types of Attitude Measuring Scales Attitudes are constructs which are not open to direct observation. What's this?
Attitude Surveys This is the most commonly used technique for measuring attitudes. Rating Scales Another kind of survey item is the rating scale, in which the respondents indicate the extent, to which they agree or disagree with a statement, by circling a number on a scale. The respondents do not know the values. A person with a terminal illness has the right to decide to die. People who commit murder should be hanged Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree 2.
Trial jury should be abolished Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree With this method, there is no requirement for the judges to categorize each statement, as the categorization is built into the scale.
The following is an example of a Guttman scale measuring the discriminative attitude: Would you marry a refugee? Would you accept a refugee as a close friend? Do you find refugees living in you neighborhood acceptable? Should refugees be allowed to live in the same neighborhood, as others? The scale asks the people, whether they would be willing to accept each group: As close relatives by marriage 1. The dimensions would typically be: 1. Pleasant ……………… Unpleasant 2.
Strong ………………… Weak 3. Fast …………………… Slow 4. Active ………………… Passive 5. To avoid the problem of social desirability, various indirect measures of attitudes have been used. Either people are unaware of what is being measured which has ethical problems or they are unable consciously to affect what is being measured. Indirect methods typically involve the use of a projective test. A projective test is involves presenting a person with an ambiguous i. The stimulus requires interpretation from the person.
However, projective tests only provide general information and do not offer a precise measurement of attitude strength since it is qualitative rather than quantitative.
This method of attitude measurement is not objective or scientific which is a big criticism. Although the picture, illustration, drawing or cartoon that is used must be interesting enough to encourage discussion, it should be vague enough not to immediately give away what the project is about.
TAT can be used in a variety of ways, from eliciting qualities associated with different products to perceptions about the kind of people that might use certain products or services. Figure drawings are projective diagnostic techniques in which an individual is instructed to draw a person, an object, or a situation so that cognitive, interpersonal, or psychological functioning can be assessed.
The test can be used to evaluate children and adolescents for a variety of purposes e. A projective test is one in which a test taker responds to or provides ambiguous, abstract, or unstructured stimuli, often in the form of pictures or drawings. While other projective tests, such as the Rorschach Technique and Thematic Apperception Test , ask the test taker to interpret existing pictures, figure drawing tests require the test taker to create the pictures themselves.
In most cases, figure drawing tests are given to children. This is because it is a simple, manageable task that children can relate to and enjoy. Some figure drawing tests are primarily measures of cognitive abilities or cognitive development.
In these tests, there is a consideration of how well a child draws and the content of a child's drawing. In some tests, the child's self-image is considered through the use of the drawings. In other figure drawing tests, interpersonal relationships are assessed by having the child draw a family or some other situation in which more than one person is present. Some tests are used for the evaluation of child abuse.
Other tests involve personality interpretation through drawings of objects, such as a tree or a house, as well as people. Finally, some figure drawing tests are used as part of the diagnostic procedure for specific types of psychological or neuropsychological impairment, such as central nervous system dysfunction or mental retardation.
Despite the flexibility in administration and interpretation of figure drawings, these tests require skilled and trained administrators familiar with both the theory behind the tests and the structure of the tests themselves. Interpretations should be made with caution and the limitations of projective tests should be considered. It is generally a good idea to use projective tests as part of an overall test battery.
There is little professional support for the use of figure drawing, so the examples that follow should be interpreted with caution.
The House-Tree-Person HTP test Buck, provides a measure of a self-perception and attitudes by requiring the test taker to draw a house, a tree, and a person. The HTP, though mostly given to children and adolescents, is appropriate for anyone over the age of three.
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