ABSTRACT
There are many situations in which researchers want to measure people’s attitudes. They may wish to explore a particular area to find out the variety of attitudes which exist - for example, people’s views on animal welfare. Alternatively, they may want to find out how people feel about a specific thing - for example, whether the government is doing a good job. Yet again, they may wish to relate attitudes to aspects of behaviour - for example, to find out how people’s attitudes to various forms of contraception relate to their use of such methods.
One way to find out people’s attitudes is to ask them. A number of techniques have been devised to do this. This chapter describes three attitude scales which you are likely to meet when reading research into attitudes: the Thurstone, Guttman and Likert scales. It explains why the Likert scale has become the most frequently employed measure of attitudes. In addition, it describes four other methods which have been used to explore what certain entities mean to people: the semantic differential, Q-methodology, repertory grids and facet theory.
