A Review of the Steps for Developing an Affective Instrument

Overview

In Chapter 1, we discussed the theoretical basis underlying selected affective characteristics. In Chapter 2, the conceptual definitions were opera-tionalized by developing belief statements, or, in the case of the semantic differential, bipolar adjective pairs. Chapter 3 described the standard techniques for scaling affective characteristics. Techniques described included Thurstone’s equal-appearing interval, latent trait, Likert’s summated ratings, and Osgood’s semantic differential. It was pointed out that all of the techniques share the common goal of locating a person on a bipolar evaluative dimension with respect to a given target object. For each technique, the scaling process resulted in a single affective score arrived at on the basis of responses to a set of belief statements. Similarities and differences among the scaling techniques were presented. Finally, Chapter 3 discussed the practical and psychometric differences between ipsative and normative measures.