- rjf0303
- May 25, 2018
- 3 min read
Hello to everyone, today’s blog post is about my assignment for my ODU Persuasion COMM333 course.
The objective of this assignment is to analyze 2 of the 3 attitude scales from Module 3 (Semantic Differential, Likert, and Visually Oriented). I have to choose 2 attitude scales that I will be analyzing, defining and provide examples of.
I will be addressing other questions in my blog:
- What is the benefit of the scale in measuring attitudes?
- What is my main criticism of the scale in measuring attitudes?
- Use ELM & TRA to further analyze the 2 attitude scales that I will be analyzing.
I will also be reflecting on what I have learned from this assignment about: attitude scales, communication (persuasion theory: ELM, or TRA), and how this analysis might shape my future interactions with attitude scales.
My first attitude scale I will analyze is the Likert Scale. Rensus Likert was an American social psychologists; in 1932 he developed one of todays most generally and widely used attitude scale, which allows people to answer questions of interest, in order to measure their attitudes.
Likert Scale is a technique to measure complex concepts, such as attitudes, styles of media use, or satisfaction for aspects of life, and have become increasingly common for survey research into consumer behavior (Biolcati-Rinaldi, 2011).
Likert Scale, sometimes known as the 5-point Likert scale because it generally has 5 responses for people to choose from. The choices range from strongly agree (SA), agree (A), undecided (U), disagree (D), or strongly disagree (SD).
Some examples of a Likert scale are personality and attitude tests.
Likert Scale example:
1 strongly disagree | 2 disagree | 3 undecided | 4 agree | 5 strongly agree
1. I understand how to use Monarch OneSearch. 1 2 3 4 5
2. I understand the homework assignments. 1 2 3 4 5
3. My professor responds to my questions in a timely matter. 1 2 3 4 5
I don’t have any criticism of the Likert scale, I believe it is balanced and it gives the respondent a wide range of ways to answer questions.
Persuasion is typically defined as “human communication that is designed to influence others by modifying their beliefs, values, or attitudes” (Simons, 2001).
I have learned in this assignment through the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) that it can predicted how people will behave and act based on them having a pre-existing attitude and behavioral intention.
For my second attitude scale I will analyze is the Semantic Differential Scale. Charles Osgood, Percy Tannenbaum, and George Suci, in 1957 he developed the Semantic Differential Scale. Although like the Likert scale, respondents do not have a 1-5 scale to attribute an answer to.
The Semantic Differential Scale asks people to rate something with a multi-point rating option. It is a reliable way to get information about people’s emotional attitude about a topic of interest.
Semantic Differential Scale example:
Express your impression of how the below feature applies to your instructor and their teaching style and knowledge.
Good __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Bad
Strong __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Weak
Motivated __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Aimless
Difficult __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Easy
I believe that you would get less than accurate feedback from the Likert Scale than with the Semantic Differential Scale because it can measure a respondent attitude and concept towards people and events.
In measuring positive psychological constructs, Likert-based response formats may introduce an acquiescence bias. To reduce this, items usually are transformed into negations of the concept. Such transformations may introduce errors, as negations of positive constructs may appear contra-intuitive. A semantic differential response format may be an alternative to negations for reducing the acquiescence bias (Friborg, 2006).
Through this assignment I have become more aware of how through different scales like Likert, Semantic Differential and Visually Oriented information is gathered and processed. The thought process of creating how a specific question is asked and how you would like to receive a response takes time.
Biolcati-Rinaldi, F. (2011). Likert scales. In D. Southerton (Ed.), Encyclopedia of consumer culture (Vol. 1, pp. 866-867). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Friborg, Martinussen, & Rosenvinge. (2006). Likert-based vs. semantic differential-based scorings of positive psychological constructs: A psychometric comparison of two versions of a scale measuring resilience. Personality and Individual Differences, 40(5), 873-884.
Simons, H. W., Morreale J., and Gronbeck B. E. (2001). Persuasion in Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
