Scale Construction Technique

Scale Construction Technique Cumulative Scales  And Factor Scales

Scale Construction Technique Measuring attitudes of the people, we prepare Opinionnaire (or attitude scale) in such a way that the score of an individual responses assigns him a place on a scale.  We can measure the same by the following methods 1.

 Arbitrary Scale

2.

Thurston Scale

3.

Likert Type (Summated) Scale

4.

Cumulative (Guttman’s) Scale

5.

Factor (Semantic Differential) Scale

Scale Construction Technique Cumulative (Guttman’s) Scale  A Guttman scale if they can be ranked in some order so that, for a rational respondent, the response pattern can be captured by a single index on that ordered scale. In other words, on a Guttman scale, items are arranged in an order so that an individual who agrees with a particular item also agrees with items of lower rankorder. Example (1) "I am willing to be near ice cream"; (2) "I am willing to smell ice cream"; (3) "I am willing to eat ice cream"; and (4) "I love to eat ice cream".  Agreement with any one item implies agreement with the lower-

Scale Construction Technique Procedure for Guttman’s Scalogram 1. Lay down in clear terms the issue we want to deal. 2. Develop the number of items relating to the issue. 3. Pre-testing the items to determine whether the issues are scalable or not. 4. Total the score of the various opinionnaries, and to rearray them to reflect any change in order.

Scale Construction Technique Factor Scales Factors scales are developed through factor analysis or on the basic of inter correlations of items which indicate that a common factor accounts for the relationship of the items.

Factor scale are particularly “useful in uncovering latent attitude

dimension and approach scaling through the concept of  multiple-dimension attribute space.”

Scale Construction Technique Semantic Differential Scale 

This scale based on the presumption that an object can have different dimension of connotative meaning which can be located in multidimensional property space, or the semantic space in the context of S D scale.



Four to seven categories are ideal

Scale Construction Technique Procedure of Semantic Differential Scale 1.

Concept to be studied are selected, it is chosen by personal  judgments, keeping in view the nature of the problem.

2.

Scale the scale bearing in mind the criterion of factor composition and the criterion of scale’s relevance to the concept being judged.

To conclude, “the S D has a number of specific advantages. It is an efficient and easy way to secure attitudes from a large sample.”

Scale Construction Technique EXAMPLE SUCCESSFUL

UNSUCCESSFUL

SEVERE

LENIENT

HEAVY 

LIGHT

HOT

COLD

PROGRESSIVE

REGRESSIVE

STRONG

 WEAK

 ACTIVE

PASSIVE

FAST

SLOW 

TRUE

FALSE

SOCIABLE

UNSOCIABLE

3

2

1

0

-1

-2

-3