Can you measure attitude

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Question Format. Looks like you do not have access to this content. Measures of internal consistency, such as the Cronbach-alpha, are often used by attitude test developers Ferguson, Both the Test-Retest and Alternate Form techniques will yield a score between The higher the number, the more reliable the test.

Reliability coefficients above. Scores above. As with validity, the results of reliability estimation should be reported to the test's consumer Anastasi, ; Cronbach, ; Talmage, ; Henerson et a]. Conduct a pilot study. While it is possible to obtain validity and reliability data during the actual testing portion of the instructional activity, it is preferable to administer attitude instruments to a pilot audience before any formal use is undertaken.

This is done to obtain appropriate data, and to uncover minor and potentially troublesome administrative problems such as misspellings, poor wording, or confusing directions. A group of learners similar to those who are the target group for the attitude test should be given the measure.

Results should be used to revise the test and to determine validity and reliability information. Revise tests for use. Results of pilot testing are used to revise, and refine, attitude instruments.

Once problems are eliminated, the measure is ready to be used with its intended target audience. Summarize, analyze, and display results. After testing is completed, the resulting data should be interpreted. Attitude test results are handled similarly to any other quantitative test information. Attitude responses should be summarized, analyzed, and displayed in such a manner that results are easily and quickly understood by others.

Descriptive statistics should be reported about the attitude test results. Most often, means, standard deviations, and the range of scores should be reported. In experimental situations, tests of inference are often performed using the results of attitude tests. Most attitude test results can be analyzed using standard parametric tests, such as t tests and analysis-of-variance tests. However, attitude data about instructional method or content area are often useful even if they are only averaged and compared to other averages.

In other words, did the class average change for "Attitude Toward the Happiness of People in India" after viewing the video, or did the class react favorably to "The Importance of Wearing Seat-Belts" after participating in a hypermedia computer lesson? Displaying data is another effective method of analysis. Charts, graphs, and bar diagrams are examples of data display techniques that are useful in assisting the reader in developing an understanding of what test results indicate.

Whatever the process, the developer of an attitude test should make every effort to decipher the results of the measure and to explain apparent conclusions and implications derived from the test. Attitude measurement is certainly not an exciting topic, and may be of less interest than other issues discussed in this chapter.

However, attitude testing specifically, and identifying attitudes generally, are apparently not understood and probably not valued by many educational technology researchers. Certainly, the trend toward more qualitative approaches to investigation may convince some that attitude measurement, and even attitude identification, are irrelevant to the important issues of the field.

However, those who are still approaching research questions from an objectivist perspective will want to be sure that they are correctly following the accepted principles of measurement. AECT toll-free Search this Handbook for:. The Nature of Attitudes. Theories of Attitude Change.

Attitudes and Behavior. Measuring Attitudes. Attitudes and Instructional Media - The Literature. Basically, a quantitative approach to attitude measurement requires that measures be: Valid. The instrument must be appropriate for what needs to be measured. In other words, a valid test measures the construct for which it is designed.

A test of "attitude toward chemistry" will have items that deal directly with the concept of chemistry. The measure should yield consistent results. In other words, if people were to take a reliable test a second time, they should obtain the same, or nearly the same, score as they got the first time they took the test, assuming no changes occurred between the two testings.

Fairly simple to administer, explain, and understand. Generally, the measures that yield a single score of an attitude position epitomize the intent of this characteristic, although the single score may be deficient in meeting the intent of other characteristics of good measurement. Most tests of single attitudes have about 10 to 30 items, are valid, and have reliability estimates above. Someone else should be able to use the measure with a different group, or in a different situation, to measure the same attitude.

Replicable tests of attitude should be usable in a variety of situations. In other words, a test of computer anxiety should measure the existence of that construct in college students, parents, elementary schools students, and even stockbrokers. These approaches are: Self-reports, where the members of a group report directly about their own attitudes. Self-reports include all procedures by which a person is asked to report on his or her own attitudes.

This information can be provided orally through the use of interviews, surveys, or polls, or in written form through questionnaires, rating scales, logs, journals, or diaries. Self-reports represent the most direct type of attitude assessment and should be employed, unless the people who are being investigated are unable or unwilling to provide the necessary information.

Questions like "How do you feel about XT' where X is the attitude construct under investigation are often asked in self-reports. Reports of others, where others report about the attitudes of a person or group. When the people whose attitudes are being investigated are unable or unlikely to provide accurate information, others can be questioned using interviews, questionnaires, logs, journals, reports, or observation techniques.

Parents of children can be asked how their children feel about X, where X is the attitude construct under investigation. Sociometric procedures, where members of a group report about their attitudes toward one another. Sociometrics are used when the researcher desires a picture of the patterns within a group. Members of groups can be asked questions like "Who in your group fits the description of XT' where X is the attitude position being studied.

Records, which are systematic accounts of regular occurrences, such as attendance reports, sign-in sheets, library checkout records, and inventories. Records are very helpful when they contain information relevant to the attitude area in question. For example, when a researcher is trying to determine if a schoolwide program to develop a higher level of school pride is working, the school's maintenance records might give an index of the program's effectiveness.

If school pride is improving, then vandalism should decline, and maintenance costs should be lower. The amount of trash picked up from the school's floors might yield relevant information, too.

Students who have 'school pride are less likely to throw trash on the floor. Most commonly, attitude measurement is accomplished by one of the following techniques: Questionnaires and rating scales. Questionnaires and rating scales are instruments that present information to a respondent in writing and then require a written response, such as a check, a circle, a word, a sentence, or several sentences. Attitude rating scales are special kinds of questionnaires. They are developed according to strict procedures that ensure that responses can be summed to yield a single score representing one attitude.

A higher score indicates a positive attitude, and a lower score denotes an unfavorable attitude toward the attitude object. They are needed to show the amount of favorableness or unfavorableness toward the attitude object. Consumer respondents are then presented with a list of statements which usually do not have any numerical indication of their degree of favorableness or unfavorableness toward the object under consideration.

Subject respondents indicate their agreements or non-agreements with each of the statements. The researcher categorizes the extremely favorable statements as eleven and categorizes extremely unfavorable statements as a one.

Statements that the respondents consider falling in between these two ranges express intermediate degrees of favorableness or unfavorableness. Here, the researcher measures attitude changes over a period of time. He conducts subsequent interviews with the same subjects at various times on the same attitude object. By observing the overt behaviors of subjects, their attitudes may be understood.

Here, subjects are presented with a particular situation through a picture and asked to interpret it picture.