The Construction of a New Type of Attitude Measure1

Abstract

Summary: A ttitude surveys are widely used throughout industry today, as modern management has become aware of the value of sampling employee opinion both in connection with changes of policy or procedure and with current conditions within the organization. It has been found that more harmony can be achieved within an organization and serious labor trouble sometimes can be averted if employee opinion is determined and potential problems rectified before they become serious. Most attitude surveys utilize words as the vehicles by which attitudes are expressed. The items may require that the employee decide which of a series of phrases best expresses his feelings about a designated topic or, alternatively, whether or not a given sentence is indicative of his attitude. It is felt that a certain amount of distortion is an invariable result of this process which necessitates the translation of one man's feelings into another man's words. Error creeps in, both in the interpretation of the meaning of the items by the respondent, and in the selection of the item which most accurately indicates the true feelings of the respondent on the topic in question. This is particularly difficult for persons of low verbal facility to achieve with any accuracy. The present paper is an account of the development of a qualitative or projective attitude scale. Two series of faces have been constructed which run the gamut of feeling from extremely positive to extremely negative. These faces have been quantified so that attitude scales in which they are used can be scored in the same manner as can any other form of attitude measuring device. They have, however, the advantage of eliminating the necessity for translating feelings into words. The respondent is required only to check the face which “looks like he feels” rather than verbalizing his feelings. It is felt that the resulting measure provides a more accurate measurement of attitudes than is otherwise possible.