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Unit 26: Testing and Non-Testing Techniques: Psychological Tests

accommodates testing students on a local curriculum. The two types of tests can be used in a Notes
complementary manner.
26.1.4 Attitude Scale

Attitudes are expressions of how much we like or dislike various things. We tend to approach and
seek out to be associated with things we like, we avoid, shun or reject things we do not like. Attitude
represent our evaluations and performance towards a wide variety of objects, events, persons, and
situations. The defining characteristics of attitudes is that they express evaluations along the lines of
liking-disliking, pro-anti, favouring - disfavouring or positive - negative (Petty and Cacippo, 1981).
By restricting the term attitude to evaluation, we distinguish attitudes from beliefs or opinions.
Attitude includes certain aspects of personality as interests, appreciations and social conduct. Attitudes
are learnt, they are adopted. They have aspects as directions, intensity etc. In the following section
we will know how attitudes tested.
Types of Attitude Scales
Attitudes need to be tested because our social life depends on some desirable attitudes. The success
in certain vocations also depends on some attitudes. Attitudes can be tested through various
techniques. Various scaling techniques have led to the development of different types of attitude
scales which provide quick and convenient measure of attitudes. However, the ‘method of equal
appearing intervals’ and ‘method of summative ratings’ have been extensively used in attitude or
opinion research. The attitude scales which are developed using these scaling techniques consists of
a number of carefully edited and selected items called ‘statements’.

The method of ‘equal - appearing intervals’ was originally developed by Thurstone and Chave. The
attitude score of an individual obtained by this method has an absolute interpretation in terms of
the psychological continuum of scale value of the statements making up the scale. If this score falls
in the middle range of the psychological continuum, the attitude of the individual is described as
“neutral”. If it falls towards the favourable end of the continuum, it is described as “favourable”
and if it falls towards the unfavourable ends, it is described as “unfavourable”.
In the “method” of summated ratings developed by Likert, the item score is obtained by assigning
arbitrary weights of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 for Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Undecided (U), Disagree (D)
and Strongly Disagree (SD) for the statements favouring a point of view. On the other hand, the
scoring weights of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are used for the respective responses for statements opposing this
point of view. An individual’s score on a particular attitude scale is the sum of his rating on all the
items.
In addition to the above two scales, there some more techniques, such as, Error Choice Technique,
Free Response Technique, Paired Comparisons, Opinion Polling or Surveying, diaries, auto-
biographic etc. are used for testing attitude.
Attitude scales are used to measure the degree of positive or negative feeling associated with any
slogan, person, institution, religion, political party etc. Attitude scales are also used in public-opinion
surveys in order to make some important and crucial decisions. Educationists, for example, conduct
opinion surveys to find out how people feel about educational issues.
26.1.5 Personality Test
Often by persons use the term personality to indicate the physical make up of an individual. The
term “Personality” however, signifies much more than simply the physical looks of a person and
has a very broad meaning. It includes the emotional, motivational, inter-personal, attitudinal and
even moral aspects of a person. some researchers have included intelligence also as part of personality.
Personality refers to a unique combination of characteristics of an individual, which pre-disposes
the person to behave in a particular and consistent way. Personality testing is necessary to achieve
the following purposes.

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