Page 124 - DSOC404_METHODOLOGY_OF_SOCIAL_RESEARCH_ENGLISH

Methodology of Social Research

notes 3. rating or intensity scales: through this kind of scales intensity of people’s thoughts, passion etc.
are measured. these scales prove more useful when regarding any subject there are not only two
opposing thoughts but between these two there are other options also. for e.g., regarding a manager,
passion of the people of his office may not only be good or bad but some people may consider him
to be very good, some people may consider him to be very bad and some may consider him to be
average. this liking or non-liking is arranged in an order on the basis of intensity like very good/
good/average/ bad/ very bad. then passion of various workers is known about this scale and on that
basis only it is found out that most workers like or dislike that manager to which extent or consider
him of average level.
4. ranking scales: in this type of scales, conditions or facts are presented in some scales and they
are kept in such order that from it, it is known that in comparison to one, how much do the people
like the any other.

15.5 Measurement of attitudes

Attitudes can also be measured and this possibility has made attitude a central study subject of
social psychology; because in science importance of exactness is more and measurement of which
phenomenon is possible, in it possibility of practicality is self-to-self. that is why much emphasis is
laid on measurement of attitudes. Also success or failure of many social improvements also depend
on the fact that we have a realistic knowledge of the attitudes of people. That is in social, financial,
political, business or other fields of life efforts are made to measure the attitudes and employ them. For
e.g. before standing in an election candidate must know that what the attitude of the voters towards
him and various problems is.

15.6 Difficulties in Measuring Attitudes

It is true that measure of attitudes is very important in psychological studies; still the task of measuring
attitude is not as easy as we generally consider it to be. its main reasons are as follows:
1. Personal difference are more in attitudes, which is why they cannot be measured realistically.
Not only this, difference in intensity is also seen in attitude in each person. some people may
hate dowry, but intensity of this hatred may be different in each person.
2. In this relation second difficulty is that attitudes are abstract and measuring abstract is very
difficult. What a person is thinking or experiencing, it can only be guessed and relying much
on a guess in not considered appropriate.
3. Attitudes are very complex. the reason for it is that people’s attitude towards any person or
problem is affected and changes by many causes. Measuring attitude by averting all these
causes or changes is difficult. At maximum, we may say that other conditions remaining
same, possibility of a particular attitude is found in a specified person.
4. One more difficulty in measurement of attitudes is lack of any correct and acceptable to
all scale. in material science, such instruments or scales are used much. Like heat can be
measured in degrees through a thermometer. Weight of air may be expressed in inches
through a barometer, power of an n electric meter in horse-power types of threads may be
expressed in numbers. But in relation to measuring of attitudes, lack of such perfect and
all-acceptable scales is always experienced.
But it does not mean that attitudes cannot be measured. Patiently using the scientific methods, attitudes
may be measured correctly. Now we will briefly describe those scales through which attitudes may
be measured.

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