4.

1 Development of Assessment Tools

Example of Standard Assessment Tools in the

Affective Domain;
1. Self – Report: the most common
measurement tool in the affective domain. It
essentially requires an individual to provide an
account of his attitude or feelings toward a
concept or idea or people. It is sometimes called
“written reflections”.
 4.1 Development of Assessment Tools

Example of Standard Assessment Tools in the

Affective Domain;
2. Rating Scales: a set of categories designed to
elicit information about a quantitative attribute
in social science. Common example is the 1 – 10
rating scales for which a person selects the
number which is considered to reflect the
perceived quality of a product.
 Examples of Rating Scales
1. Semantic Differential Scales – tries to assess
an individual’s reaction to specific words, ideas
or concepts in terms of ratings on bipolar scales
defined with contrasting adjectives at each end.
Good ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Bad
3 2 1 0 1 2 3
The position marked 0 is labeled “neutral”, the 1
positions are labeled “slightly” the 2 positions
“quite” and the 3 positions “extremely”.
 Basic Considerations Involved in SD
Methodology
• Bipolar adjective scales are simple, economical means
for obtaining data on people’s reactions. With
adaptations, such scales can be used with adults or
children, persons from all walks of life, and persons from
any culture.
• Ratings on bipolar adjective scales tend to be correlated,
and three basic dimensions of response account for
most of the co-variation in ratings. The three
dimensions, which have been labeled Evaluation,
Potency and Activity (EPA), have been verified and
replicated in an impressive variety of studies.
 Basic Considerations Involved in SD
Methodology
• Some adjective scales are almost pure measures of
the EPA dimensions, for example, good-bad for
Evaluation, powerful-powerless for Potency, and
fast-slow for Activity.
• EPA measurements are appropriate when one is
interested in affective responses. The EPA system is
notable for being a multi-variate approach,
applicable to any concept or stimulus, and thus it
permits comparisons of affective reactions on
widely disparate things.
 Basic Considerations Involved in SD
Methodology
• The SD has been used as a measure of attitude in a
wide variety of projects. Osgood, et al., (1957)
report exploratory studies in which the SD was
used to assess attitude change as a result of mass
media programs and as a result of messages
structured in different ways.
 Examples of Rating Scales
2. Thurstone and Likert Scales
Thurstone is considered the father of attitude
measurement. He addressed the issue of how
favorable an individual is with regard to a given
issue.
Example of Thurstone scale of measurement

Directions: Put a check mark in the blank if you agree with the
item.
___1. Blacks should be considered the lowest class of human
beings. (scale value=0.9)
__2. Blacks and whites must be kept apart in all social affairs
where they might be taken as equals. (scale value = 3.2)
__3. I am not interested in how blacks rate socially. (scale value =
5.4)
__4. A refusal to accept blacks is not based on any fact of nature,
but on a prejudice which should be overcome. (scale value = 7.9)
__5. I believe that blacks deserve the same social privileges as
whites. (scale value = 10.3)
 Examples of Rating Scales
2. Thurstone and Likert Scales
Likert Scales is also known as “method of
summated ratings”. The Likert Scales requires
that individuals tick on the box to report
whether they “strongly agree”, “agree”, are
“undecided”, “disagree” or “strongly disagree”,
in response to a large number of items
concerning an attitude object or stimulus.
 Examples of Rating Scales
2. Guttman Scalling.
Attitudes should be measured by
multidimensional scales, as opposed to
unidimensional scales such as those developed by
Thurstone and Likert. The major characteristic of
this scale is that the response to one item helps
predict the responses to other items. For instance,
if the individual responds negatively to the item “I
like oranges”, he is not likely to respond positively
to the item “Oranges are great for breakfast.”
 Checklists
• The most common and perhaps the easiest
instrument in the affective domain to
construct. Checklist consists of simple items
that the student or teacher marks as “absent”
or “present”.
 Steps in the Construction of Checklists

1. Enumerate all the attributes you wish to

observe relative to the concept being
measured.
2. Arrange these attributes as a “shopping” list
of characteristics.
3. Ask the students to mark those attributes
which are present and leave blank those
which are not.