TY - JOUR AU - Hinckley, E. D. AB - THE INFLUENCE OF INDIVIDUAL OPINION ON CONSTRUCTION OF AN ATTITUDE SCALE* From the Psychological Laboratories of the University of Florida E. D. HINCKLEY I NTROD u CTIO N Until recently, all attempts to measure attitudes have taken the form of questionnaires or rating scales. Although in many cases such methods are sufficiently accurate for the purpose of the study, they do not present us with a refined technique for measure- ment. In the publication, “Measurement of Opinion” (6), Thurstone criticizes all previous studies as being contributions of merely bar- diagram representations, which in no case produce a mathematically sound and scientifically accurate scale for measurement. None of the studies has presented us with a yardstick on which the unit of measurement remains the same throughout the scale. Thurstone offers a new method of attack in his articles, “Attitudes Can Be Measured” (3) and “Theory of Attitude Measurement” (8) , basing. his technique on mathematical laws which he develops in the additional publications : “Psychophysical Analysis” (5), “Law of Comparative Judgment” (4), “Three Psychophysical Laws” (9), “Unit of Measurement in Educational Scales” ( lo), and “The Phi Gamma Hypothesis” (7). On the basis of this technique, three scales have been TI - The Influence of Individual Opinion on Construction of an Attitude Scale JF - The Journal of Social Psychology DO - 10.1080/00224545.1932.9919153 DA - 1932-08-01 UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/taylor-francis/the-influence-of-individual-opinion-on-construction-of-an-attitude-h349KfiaKv SP - 283 EP - 296 VL - 3 IS - 3 DP - DeepDyve ER -