Attitude differentiation and evaluative scales of the semantic differential.

Abstract

ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT EVALUATIVE SCALES OF THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL MIGHT BE FRUITFULLY DIFFERENTIATED INTO A NUMBER OF DIMENSIONS, 220 UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS WERE ADMINISTERED 16 EVALUATIVE, BIPOLAR SCALES AND ASKED TO EVALUATE 2 ISSUES: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN VIETNAM, AND DRAFT DEFERMENTS FOR MARRIED STUDENTS. THE INTERCORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE 16 SCALES WERE FACTOR ANALYZED FOR EACH ISSUE AND 3 DISTINCT FACTORS WERE OBTAINED ON EACH ISSUE: (1) A FUNCTIONAL-UTILITARIAN FACTOR, (2) AN AFFECTIVE-EMOTIONAL FACTOR, AND (3) A MORAL-ETHICAL FACTOR. FACTOR 1 SUPPORTS THE UTILITARIAN FUNCTION OF ATTITUDES PROPOSED BY KATZ AND FACTOR 3 SUGGESTS A NORMATIVE BASIS FOR ATTITUDES. IT IS CONCLUDED THAT EVALUATIVE SCALES OF THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL DO NOT ALWAYS YIELD A GENERAL, EVALUATIVE DIMENSION, AND THE UTILITY OF DIFFERENTIATING SUCH SCALES IS DISCUSSED. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)