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Simple Attitude Scales

In its most basic form, attitude scaling requires that an individual agree or disagree with a statement or

respond to a single question. For example, respondents in a political poll may be asked whether they

agree or disagree with the statement The president should run for re-election. Or, an individual might

indicate whether he or she likes or dislikes jalapeo bean dip. This type of self-rating scale merelyclassifies respondents into one of two categories, thus having only the properties of a nominal scale, and

the types of mathematical analysis that may be used with this basic scale are limited.

Category Scales

The simplest rating scale contains only two response categories: agree/disagree. Expanding the

response categories provides the respondent with more flexibility in the rating task. Even more

information is provided if the categories are ordered according to a particular descriptive or evaluative

dimension. Consider the following question:

How often do you disagree with your spouse about how much to spend on vacation?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often

This category scale is a more sensitive measure than a scale that has only two response categories. By

having more choices for a respondent, the potential exists to provide more information. However, if the

researcher tries to represent something that is truly bipolar (yes/no, female/male,

member/nonmember, and so on) with more than two categories, error may be introduced. Question

wording is an extremely important factor in the usefulness of these scales. Exhibit 14.1 shows some

common wordings used in category scales. The issue of question wording is discussed in Chapter 15. TheLikert Scale

A method that is simple to administer and therefore extremely popular is business researchers

adaptation of the method of summated ratings, developed by Rensis Likert.3 With the Likert scale,

respondents indicate their attitudes by checking how strongly they agree or disagree with carefully

constructed statements, ranging from very positive to very negative attitudes toward some object.

Individuals generally choose from approximately five response alternativesstrongly agree, agree,

uncertain, dis- agree, and strongly disagreealthough the number of alternatives may range from three

to nine. In the following example, from a study of food-shopping behavior, there are five alternatives:

Constant-Sum Scale

A measure of attitudes in which respondents are asked to divide a constant sum to indicate the relative

importance of attributes; respondents often sort cards, but the task may also be a rating task.

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A constant-sum scale requires respondents to divide a fixed number of points among several attri- butes

corresponding to their relative importance or weight. Suppose United Parcel Service (UPS) wishes to

determine the importance of the attributes of accurate invoicing, delivery as promised, and price to

organizations that use its service in business-to-business settings. Respondents might be asked to divide

a constant sum of 100 points to indicate the relative importance of those attributes:

Divide 100 points among the following characteristics of a delivery service according to how important

each characteristic is to you when selecting a delivery company.

____ Accurate invoicing

____ Package not damaged

____ Delivery as promised

____ Lower price

____ 100 points

Staple Scale

A measure of attitudes that consists of a single adjective in the center of an even number of numerical

values.

The Stapel scale, named after Jan Stapel, was originally developed in the 1950s to measure simul-

taneously the direction and intensity of an attitude. Modern versions of the scale, with a single

adjective, are used as a substitute for the semantic differential when it is difficult to create pairs of

bipolar adjectives. The modified Stapel scale places a single adjective in the center of an even number of

numerical values (ranging, perhaps, from +3 to3). The scale measures how close to or distant from the

adjective a given stimulus is perceived to be. Exhibit 14.5 illustrates a Stapel scale item used in

measurement of a retailers store image.