A Mead Project source page

Originally published as:

L.L. Thurstone and E. J. Chave, The Measurement of Attitude: A psychophysical Method and Some Experiments with a Scale for Measuring Attitude toward the Church. Chicago: University of Chicago.

Editors' notes

We have included this monograph as part of the history of attitude scaling. It more completely documented the material that Thurstone introduced to the world in his controversial "Attitudes Can Be Measured."

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The Measurement of Attitude

L. L. Thurstone and E. J. Chave

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PREFACE

MEASUREMENT IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

SUMMARY OF THE MEASUREMENT METHOD

I. THEORY OF ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT

The Objective Description of Attitude
The Possibility of Measuring Attitude
The Attitude Variable
A Frequency Distribution of Attitudes
A Unit of Measurement for Attitudes

II. CONSTRUCTION OF AN ATTITUDE SCALE

Collection of Opinions for the Scale
List of Opinions about the Church
The Sorting Procedure
The Consistency of the Individual Subject

III. THE SCALE-VALUES

Graphical Determination of the Scale-Values
Reliability of the Scale-Values
An Objective Criterion of Ambiguity
An Objective Criterion of Irrelevance
Informal Criteria for the Selection of Opinions

IV. THE EXPERIMENTAL ATTITUDE SCALE

Description of the Scale
Method of Scoring
Reliability of the Score

V. APPLICATION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SCALE

Some Actual Distributions of Attitude
Alternative Forms of Frequency Distributions
Correlation between the Attitude Scores and Self-ratings
Summary of Applications

VI. FURTHER STUDIES OF VALIDITY

VII. SOME FURTHER PROBLEMS IN THE MEASUREMENT OF ATTITUDE

An Alternative Method of Constructing the Attitude Scale
The Validity of the Scale
Two Possible Types of Attitude Scale

Notes

No notes

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