ABSTRACT
Attention need only be briefly drawn to one or two points that constantly recur in the present field, and that have relevance to some of our general arguments. Attitude measurement is usually distinguished from opinion-polling by the fact that the latter attempts merely to assess what proportion of the survey population verbally subscribe to a given opinion, whilst the former goes further and tries to measure the strength with which opinions are held or the more general attitude dimensions that they serve to indicate. Also to be drawn from the argument is the general point that in attitude research on moral ideologies a number of preliminary philosophical distinctions need to be drawn in order to permit more valid descriptions of the data and a sounder basis for theory. In view of the refinement of modern survey methods it is surprising how little systematic attention has been given to the important issue of question-wording.
