Simple Attitude Scales In its most basic form, attitude scaling requires that an individual agree or disagree with

a statement or respond to a single question. For example, respondents in a political poll may be asked whether they agree or disagree with the statement The president should run for re-election. Or, an individual might indicate whether he or she likes or dislikes jalapeo bean dip. This type of self-rating scale merely classifies respondents into one of two categories, thus having only the properties of a nominal scale, and the types of mathematical analysis that may be used with this basic scale are limited. Category Scales The simplest rating scale contains only two response categories: agree/disagree. Expanding the response categories provides the respondent with more flexibility in the rating task. Even more information is provided if the categories are ordered according to a particular descriptive or evaluative dimension. Consider the following question: How often do you disagree with your spouse about how much to spend on vacation? Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often

This category scale is a more sensitive measure than a scale that has only two response categories. By having more choices for a respondent, the potential exists to provide more information. However, if the researcher tries to represent something that is truly bipolar (yes/no, female/male, member/nonmember, and so on) with more than two categories, error may be introduced. Question wording is an extremely important factor in the usefulness of these scales. Exhibit 14.1 shows some common wordings used in category scales. The issue of question wording is discussed in Chapter 15. The Likert Scale A method that is simple to administer and therefore extremely popular is business researchers adaptation of the method of summated ratings, developed by Rensis Likert.3 With the Likert scale, respondents indicate their attitudes by checking how strongly they agree or disagree with carefully constructed statements, ranging from very positive to very negative attitudes toward some object. Individuals generally choose from approximately five response alternativesstrongly agree, agree, uncertain, dis- agree, and strongly disagreealthough the number of alternatives may range from three to nine. In the following example, from a study of food-shopping behavior, there are five alternatives:

Constant-Sum Scale A measure of attitudes in which respondents are asked to divide a constant sum to indicate the relative importance of attributes; respondents often sort cards, but the task may also be a rating task.

A constant-sum scale requires respondents to divide a fixed number of points among several attri- butes corresponding to their relative importance or weight. Suppose United Parcel Service (UPS) wishes to determine the importance of the attributes of accurate invoicing, delivery as promised, and price to organizations that use its service in business-to-business settings. Respondents might be asked to divide a constant sum of 100 points to indicate the relative importance of those attributes: Divide 100 points among the following characteristics of a delivery service according to how important each characteristic is to you when selecting a delivery company. ____ Accurate invoicing ____ Package not damaged ____ Delivery as promised ____ Lower price ____ 100 points Staple Scale

A measure of attitudes that consists of a single adjective in the center of an even number of numerical values.

The Stapel scale, named after Jan Stapel, was originally developed in the 1950s to measure simultaneously the direction and intensity of an attitude. Modern versions of the scale, with a single adjective, are used as a substitute for the semantic differential when it is difficult to create pairs of bipolar adjectives. The modified Stapel scale places a single adjective in the center of an even number of numerical values (ranging, perhaps, from +3 to 3). The scale measures how close to or distant from the adjective a given stimulus is perceived to be. Exhibit 14.5 illustrates a Stapel scale item used in measurement of a retailers store image.