Attitude Scales Analysis

My name is Amy Cooper and I am writing this assignment for my COMM 333 Persuasion class. This past week, the material in our modules touched base on the 3 different scales used to measure attitudes in a person; Likert, Visual Oriented Self-Report, and Semantic Difference. Though all of these scales have their own attributes that makes them unique and interesting, I have decided to analyze the Likert and Visual Oriented Self-Report scales for this assignment.

The Likert scale is usually formatted as a number line, with numbers 1-5 or 1-10 plotted throughout the line (Wearerecurve.com, 2014), with the numbers being used to rate ones attitude towards something. An example of this scale can be found in places such as peer and professor evaluations when rating one’s experience with another. The Visual Oriented Self-Report scale is the more simplistic of the two, using images such as faces to demonstrate one’s attitude towards something. An example of this would be found in a hospital, where there are 5 different faces one can choose from to show how much pain they are suffering from (NHPCO.org).

I would first like to discuss the Likert scale more in depth, starting with its benefits when measuring attitudes. The use of a number scale like 1-5 gives users the ability to easily determine their response. This also makes it easy to construct the scale, which has led to the Likert scale being used widely throughout various businesses and even the government. I believe the Likert scale can be very beneficial in an evaluation process, such as during the hiring process for a business and also peer evaluations as mentioned earlier. My only criticism for this scale is the opportunity for users to give a response that results in a 50-50 response, such as a “neither agree nor disagree” answer. I feel like without giving a response that does not give a definite yes or no, the results of these tests can serve no purpose in the end. I also believe that the response to a Likert scale can be skewed by social desirability. For example if someone is filling out a Likert scale for one of their professors, a personal issue may lead to the student giving an over exaggerated bad rating. This over-reporting of negative comments can decrease the average the professor’s score.

On the other hand, the Visually Oriented Self-Report scale is equally as simple as the Likert, and in my opinion more geared towards the use by adolescents. The pain scale used in hospitals was mentioned earlier, and that is a perfect example of this scale which uses images and visuals to help the user easily depict their feelings or attitudes towards something. This scales simplicity is definitely a benefit, taking away the need to understand numbers and instead making answers based strictly on feelings. A criticism that I have about this is that sometimes ones feelings may not be able to be shown through one of the given visuals, making it hard for the subject to express their feelings. But with that being said I do not believe that the social desirability bias plays a role with this test.

This assignment has taught me a lot about attitude scales and exactly what their role is throughout the world of Communication. The Likert scale and the Visually Oriented Self-Report scale, along with the Semantic Difference scale, each have their pros and cons when it comes to expressing one’s attitude about certain things. If the proper attitude scale is used in certain surveys and assessments, there will be no errors when truly depicting one’s thoughts and feelings about the subject at hand.

Bibliography

1. NHPCO.org. (n.d.). Pain Scale [Example of visually oriented self-report scale]. Retrieved February 5, 2016, from http://www.nhpco.org/sites/default/files/images/wongbaker.gif

1. Wearerecurve.com. (2014). Likert Scale [Scale from 1-5]. Retrieved February 5, 2016, from http://www.wearerecurve.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/likert-scale.jpg?ed55ca