Introduction
The word “scale” comes from the Latin word scala, meaning a ladder of
steps, a scale represents a series of ordered steps at fixed intervals used
as a standard measurement. Attitude and composite scales are used to
assess the attitude or feelings of self concept . They show the person’s
positive or negative attitude towards a concept
Composite scale
It is a broader term referring to any scale created by combining multiple
individual measures to form a single, overall score, which can include
attitude scales as one component depending on the research question. A
“composite” refers to something made up of different parts combined
together. A composite can be created by combining multiple attitude scale
scores to get a broader picture of a person’s overall attitude towards a
complex issue for example A researcher might create a “job satisfaction
composite” by combining scores from multiple questions on a survey
about different aspects of a person’s job, like work environment, salary,
and workload.
Attitude scale
An attitude scale is a special type of questionnaire designed to produce
scores indicating and direction (for or against) of a person’s feelings about
an object or event
An attitude scale, is a tool prepared for the purpose of measuring people’s
attitude to an issue An attitude scale is designed to provide a valid, or
accurate measure of an individual’s social attitude .It is a specific type of
measurement tool used to gauge an individual’s attitude towards
something.
General guidelines
Write direct statements in clear, simple language
Use simple rather than complex sentences
Avoid factual statements or those that may be interpreted as factual
Avoid using universal words such as always, never, all or none
Restrict the use of words such as only, just, or merely, as much as
possible
Make each statement brief, preferably less than 20 words
Each statement should be one dimensional, that is it should be
related to only
single concept
Avoid statements that are likely to receive universal endorsement or
rejection
Randomly distribute the statements in the scale, making certain
that you do not have more than four or five positive or negative
items in sequence
Sensitive questions should be placed around the middle of scale
Types of attitude scale
Likert scale
Thurstone scale
Semantic differential scale
Likert scale
• It is the most popular type of attitude scale. It was developed
by American social psychologist RENSIS LIKERT in 1932 and is
commonly used in research questionnaires. It is a rating scale
used to measure opinions, attitudes or behaviours. It consists of
statement or a question, followed by a series of five seven
answer statement. Respondents choose the option that best
corresponds with how they feel about the question or
statement.
It is basically used to measure the attitudes, values, feelings of
people about specific concepts such as situations, places,
people, objects, practice
Characteristics of Likert scale :
Psychological measurement tool to assess the attitude, values,
feelings of people about specific concept
“Illustrative in nature” means something is designed to explain or
clarify a concept by providing examples or demonstrations,
essentially acting as a visual representation to help understand the
main idea.
Neutral statement without any bias of researcher
Related answers: Items should be easily related to the sentence’s
answers.
Scale type: The items must always have two extreme positions and
an intermediate answer option that serves as graduation between
the extremes.
Number of answer options: It is essential to mention Many options,
although the most common Likert scale is that of 5 items, the use of
more items helps to generate greater precision in the results.
Increasing reliability of the scale: Researchers often increase the
ends of the scale to create a seven-point scale by adding “very” to
the top and bottom of the five-point scales. The seven-point scale
reaches the upper limits of the reliability of the scale.
Using wide scales: it is recommend that it be better to use a scale as
wide as possible. One can always collapse the answers into concise
groups, if appropriate, for analysis.
Lack of a neutral option: By considering these details, scales are
sometimes curtailed to an even number of categories (usually four)
to eliminate the “neutral” possibility .
Types of Likert scale
Even Likert scale
Odd Likert scale
1.Even Likert scale.
4-Point Likert Scale for importance: This type of Likert
scale allows to include four extreme options without a
neutral choice. Here the various degrees of importance
are represented in a 4-Point Likert Scale.
8-Point Likert scale of recommendation: This is a variation
of the previously explained 4-point Likert scale, the only
difference being, this scale has eight options to collect
feedback about the likelihood of a recommendation.
( Adding very)
1.odd Likert scale
5-point Likert scale: With five answer options, researchers use
this odd Likert scale question to gather information about a topic
by including a neutral answer option for respondents to select if
they don’t wish to answer from the extreme choices in their
research design.
7-point Likert scale: The 7-point Likert scale adds two more
answer options at extreme ends of a 5-point Likert scale
question.
9-point Likert scale: A 9-point Likert scale is quite uncommon, but
you can use it by adding two more answers options to 7 point
scale
Advantages
It supplies more precise and definite response towards an issue.
Easy to construct ,can be performed without a panel of judges
Easy to administer since respondents only have to tick in spaces
Les time consuming
Informative and reliable
Disadvantages
The judgement on the basis of total score, which is estimated by
calculating the mean or median is not specific
Pre-planned answers -feelings of respondents may not be assessed
Based on assumption that attitudes can be measure
Thurstone scale
Thurston scale was the first formal technique for measuring an attitude. It
was developed by Louis Leon Thurstone in 1928, as a means of measuring
attitudes towards religion. The Thurstone attitude scale, however, consists
of statements which have a range of weights from high (usually 11) to low
(usually 1). Subjects select the attitudinal statements they agree with
most. In this scale a large number of statements are collected that relate
to the concept or construct being measured
Advantages
Assured survey reliability -This scale also gives the researcher the
monopoly to choose items that represent the desired range.your research
Allows to write as many statements as you want.
Disadvantages
The Thurstone scale is time-consuming.
The scale is complex.
There is no sure method of measuring attitude
It is expensive and effort is required to develop
Weakness of such scale is that values assigned to various
statments by the judges may reflect their own attitude
Semantic differential scale
This scale was developed by osgood suci
Its main objective is to examine the meaning of certain concepts. The
term Semantic differential scale refers to any collection of rating scales
anchored by bipolar adjectives. It is a very flexible approach for obtaining
measures of attitude of people
Normally, a semantic differential scale is based on a seven-point rating
scale for each of a number of attributes relating to the research topic. The
extreme point represents the bipolar adjectives with the central category
representing neutral.
In semantic differential scale only the extremes have names, the in
between categories either are blank spaces or represent numbers
Uses of semantic differential scale
•Patient satisfaction surveys
• Customer satisfaction surveys
•Employee surveys
•Marketing surveys
Advantages
It identifies particularly favourable or objectionable aspects.
Provides and overall response scale score
Attitude may be measured both in direction and intensity
Can be administered to more than one person at the same time
Disadvantages
Adjectives may have different meaning for different respondents
may choose not to answer some item, making it hard to achieve a
valid score
Only useful for questions involving bipolar opposites
Bibliography
1.Sharma K Suresh 2018.Nursing Research and Statistics,3 rd edition pg.
No.(309-314) Elsevier publishers.
2.Sodhi kaur jaspreet comprehensive textbook of nursing education,2 nd
edition,jaypee publications, page no.(220-221)
Yadav kumar Manoj,Text book of nursing research and statistics first
edition,lotus publications page no (337-339)
