Measuring Attitudes and Expectancies

Lecture 5

Explicit Measure - Questionnaires

define problem - what questions addressing?

avoid:-

• lengthiness

• ambiguous questions → non-comparable answers

• leading questions → biased answers

• vague questions → vague answers

Questionnaire - Question Content

Ps need necessary knowledge + access to relevant info.

confine questions to single issue/idea.

simple language.

avoid longer timeframes in periodical questions.

Scaling Methods

Nominal (Likert) Scales - responses on continuum divided into specific categories.

Semantic Differential Scales (Osgood et al., 1957) - graphical rating scale w/ adjectives. Ps place mark to indicate opinion strength.

Social Desirability

Ps not forthcoming for sensitive/stigmatising topics:-

• fears

• prejudices

• undesirable behaviours

• embarrassment

solutions:-

• social desirability scale

• ‘lie’ scales

• implicit measures

explicit models can overlook non-conscious processes e.g. Nisbett & Wilson (1977).

Issues with self-report

may overlook processes related to unintended habitual/automatic behaviour.

43% daily activities classified habitual (Wood et al., 2002).

processing biases and automatic evals operate outside awareness; inaccessible to introspection.

Auto Attitudes - Implicit Association Test (IAT) (Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998)

implicit attitudes = memory assoc. between object and eval. object activated → strong association triggers eval.

two classifications using same keys, pos/neg. use keys to assign objects into categories. object + eval associated = faster response. category labels reversed.

likes flowers = faster assign flower with pos key.

IAT ‘D’ score = difference in responding.

IAT Considerations

De Houwer (2003) - measure many types association. large effect sizes = reliable.

test-retest reliability weaker -. may measure state not disposition (TM, Klauer & Sherman, 2010).

Karpinski & Steinman (2006) - cannot be used where no suitable comparison category. provides measure of eval relative to other object - pos. attitude to sweets does not mean neg. attitude to salad.

Sequential (Response) Priming

Ps respond to target stimulus. target primed with other stimulus (facilitate/inhibit responding). primes presented briefly.

prime and target share valence = responding quicker

valence differs = slower.

Sequential Priming Considerations

reliability low

screen image construction takes time - short latency presentations may need to be synchronised.

keyboards cannot give ms accuracy - use specialist equipment.