Page 126 - DSOC404_METHODOLOGY_OF_SOCIAL_RESEARCH_ENGLISH

Methodology of Social Research

notes rules etc. Principle of thurstone method is that if a person accepts or denies a statement, then on its
basis, he can be provided a definite place on the scale of attitude. Hence, problem is of selection of
appropriate statements only on the basis of which a person’s attitude may be expressed realistically.
Hence, in the method of thurstone, a list of statements related to an object, subject or a problem, is
made from the articles published in newspapers, from the operations of Lok sabha, rajya sabha or
Vidhan Sabha or from the opinions of companions. In these statements, from complete acceptance to
complete denial, all kind of statements must be incorporated. As per this method, at least a collection
of 200-300 statements is necessary. After this these statements are edited, and those statement are
removed from the list which are not related to the study subject. these statements must be easy, short,
complete, definite and evident so that the person may easily accept or deny them. In collection and
editing of statements, person must try to be saved from personal bias. After this, these statements
must be arranged in a sequence from extreme favourable to extreme unfavourable. for this, by doing
the copy of statements, one copy each of each statement is sent to the experts or judges so that from
them each judge as per their decisions divide those statements in various ranks. those statements
that are most favourable, judges are asked to place them in 1 rank and those statements that are
st
most unfavourable judges are asked to place them in 9 or 11 rank and in between both these ranks,
th
th
other statements are placed from favourable to unfavourable. in this way all statements are placed in
sequence in 9 or 11 ranks. After this, from these statements, each statement is kept in the scale at that
place which is the average place given to it by the most judges, on the basis of public opinion statements
are placed in the sequence of scale. those opinions or statements are not included in scale regarding
which there is enough difference of opinion among the judges. At the end, scale is developed in such
a way, from the limited statements selected in an appropriate manner, that under the complete scale
various statements have got different places and statements or ranks are spread from maximum to
minimum or from most favourable to most unfavourable.
some special precautions must be taken in developing this scale. those statements that are kept in
the scales, their language should be easy, clear and meaningful; each statement from it must be prima
facie related to the person’s opinions, faith or attitude relating to any subject. such statements that
are double meaning or ambiguous, should not be used. Number of experts or judges should also be
sufficient. While investigating the statements, judges must remember that they do not give a wrong
place to any statement by being affected by any personal faith or attitude.

Task Which are the methods of measuring attitudes? Describe briefly.

15.10 Likert Method of Scale

in year 1932, Likert developed a little different and easier scale than thurstone and with the help of it
tried to know the imperialism of various groups, internationality and attitude towards Negros. Likert
scale is made in below mentioned way:
for developing the scale, many statements related to the object or subject are collected. After this
those people whose attitude has to be studied each of them is told that he expresses his degree of
attitude towards each statement from those statements in five different ranks, i.e. towards each specific
statement, each person expresses his strong approval, approval, indecisiveness, disapproval, strong
disapproval. These five ranks are provided in a sequence, numbers 5, 4,3,2,1. The statement that gets
more numbers is considered to be an indicator of favourable attitude. those statements are taken out
and separated which have no interrelation with the complete score of the person.
This method will be further clarified from the description of below given point-scales.

120 loVely professional uniVersity