Chapter 11 Attitude Enduring an organization of motivational emotional perceptual and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of a person s environment Scaling Procedures for assigning numbers or other symbols to properties of an object in order to impart some numerical characteristics to the properties in question Undimensional scales Scales designed to measure only one attribute of a concept respondent or object Multidimensional scale Scales designed to measure several dimensions of a concept respondent or object Graphic rating scales Measurement scales that include a graphic continuum anchored by two extremes Scale A represents the simplest form of a graphic scale Scale B offers the respondent slightly more structure by assigning numbers along the scale Scale C has been used successfully by many researchers to speed up self administered interviews Itemized rating scales Measurement scales in which the respondent selects an answer from a limited number of ordered categories Noncomparative scales Measurement scales in which judgement is made without reference to another object concept or person Rank order scales Measurement scales in which the respondent compares two or more items and ranks them Comparative scales Measurement scales in which one object concept or person is compared with another on a scale Paired comparison scales Measurement scales that ask the respondent to pick one of two objects in a set based on stated criteria Constant sum scales Measurement scales that ask the respondent to divide a given number of points typically 100 among two or more attributes based on their importance to him or her Semantic Differential scales Measurement scales that examine the strengths and weaknesses of a concept by having the respondent rank it between dichotomous pairs of words or phrases that could be used to describe it the means of the responses are then plotted as a profile or image It is a quick and efficient means of examining the strengths and weaknesses of a product or company image versus those of the competition It suffers from a lack of standardization It is a highly generalized technique that must be adapted for each research problem There is no single set of standard scales hence the development of customized scales becomes an integral part of the research Disadvantage Halo effect The rating of a specific image component may be dominated by the interviewee s overall impression of the concept being rated Stapel Scale Measurement scales that require the respondent to rate on a scale ranging from 5 to 5 how closely and in what direction a descriptor adjective fits a given concept Primary advantage It enables the researcher to avoid the arduous task of creating bipolar adjective pairs The scale may also permit finer discrimination in measuring attitudes A drawback is that descriptor adjectives can be phrased in a positive neutral or negative vein and the choice of phrasing has been shown to affect the scale results and the person s ability to respond Likert Scale Measurement scales in which the respondent specifies a level of agreement or disagreement with statements expressing either a favorable or an unfavorable attitude toward the concept under the study Created by Rensis Likert to measure a person s attitude toward concepts e g unions activities e g swimming and so forth Likert could look at a summed score and tell whether a person s attitude toward a concept was postive or negative Purchase Intent Scales Scales used to measure a respondent s intention to buy or not to buy a product Combining definitely and probably is referred to as a top two box score One consumer goods manufacturer for example requires a box score of 80 or higher at the concept testing stage and 65 percent for a product to move from in home placement tests to test marketing Each scale point on a 5 point scale covers 20 of the scale That is uf we were generating completely random data to respond to this scale we would expect approximately 20 of the response to be 1 20 percent to be 2 and so on Balanced scales Measurement scales that have the same number of positive and negative categories Nonbalanced scales Measurement scales that are weighted toward one end or the other of the scale A Don t know option however can be an easy out for the lazy respondent Determinant attitudes Those consumer attitudes most closely related to preferences or to actual purchase decisions Direct Questioning Direct questioning Respondents may be asked to explain their reasons for preferring one product or brand over another Or they may be asked to to rate their ideal brand for a given product in terms of several product attributes so that a model profile can be constructed Dual questioning which involves asking two questions concerning each product attribute that might be determinant Consumers are first asked what factors they consider important in a purchasing decision and then asked how they perceive these factors as differing among the various products or brands Indirect Questioning Any interviewing approach that does not directly ask respondents to indicate the reasons why they bought a product or service or which features or attributes are most important in determining choice