Section 3b. Advantages and Disadvantages of Types of Attitude Measurement
Self Reports:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
Directly asking persons opinion | Lowered validity: May not tell the truth (outwit via bogus pipeline) |
Fixed response provides a range of suitable answers making it easy for the participant to chose | Some people are not aware of or able to express their attitudes clearly |
Free response allows depth of qualitative answers | Free responses are hard to interpret and time consuming to summarise |
→ Bogus Pipeline:
A technique that uses fake polygraph measure to reduce false answers that occur due to social desirability
The Person is told they are being monitored by a polygraph that detects if they are lying. Unknown to them, this polygraph is fake. Subjects reveal their true attitudes
Behavioural Counts:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
Objective measurements to infer a relationship between behaviour and attitude when these are consistent | The relationship between attitude and behaviour is not always consistent so measurement may not be accurate |
Identifies the attitude as positive or negative | Inter-rater differences / researcher bias |
Easy way to conduct research from a distance without directly asking the participants to complete a survey | Difficult to identify the strength of an attitude |
Implicit Association Test:
Measures the affective and cognitive bases of attitudes, not behaviour
A computer based measure that requires users to connect two concepts rapidly with a characteristic
→ male / female are the two concepts and ‘logical’ is the characteristic.
Easier pairings producing faster responses are interpreted as more strongly associated in memory than more difficult pairings with slower responses.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
Easy and quick to test online | Test-retest reliability is not high |
Researcher bias less likely (objective data) | IAT effects are smaller with picture rather than word stimuli |
Allows beliefs and values to be tested without as much social desirability bias | Decreased validity: Participant variables such as age, stress, tiredness can decrease speed of responses |
Self Reports:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
Directly asking persons opinion | Lowered validity: May not tell the truth (outwit via bogus pipeline) |
Fixed response provides a range of suitable answers making it easy for the participant to chose | Some people are not aware of or able to express their attitudes clearly |
Free response allows depth of qualitative answers | Free responses are hard to interpret and time consuming to summarise |
→ Bogus Pipeline:
A technique that uses fake polygraph measure to reduce false answers that occur due to social desirability
The Person is told they are being monitored by a polygraph that detects if they are lying. Unknown to them, this polygraph is fake. Subjects reveal their true attitudes
Behavioural Counts:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
Objective measurements to infer a relationship between behaviour and attitude when these are consistent | The relationship between attitude and behaviour is not always consistent so measurement may not be accurate |
Identifies the attitude as positive or negative | Inter-rater differences / researcher bias |
Easy way to conduct research from a distance without directly asking the participants to complete a survey | Difficult to identify the strength of an attitude |
Implicit Association Test:
Measures the affective and cognitive bases of attitudes, not behaviour
A computer based measure that requires users to connect two concepts rapidly with a characteristic
→ male / female are the two concepts and ‘logical’ is the characteristic.
Easier pairings producing faster responses are interpreted as more strongly associated in memory than more difficult pairings with slower responses.
Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
Easy and quick to test online | Test-retest reliability is not high |
Researcher bias less likely (objective data) | IAT effects are smaller with picture rather than word stimuli |
Allows beliefs and values to be tested without as much social desirability bias | Decreased validity: Participant variables such as age, stress, tiredness can decrease speed of responses |
