2. What is a Semantic Differential Scale? Explain the steps in construction of the scale. When will you use this scale?
THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE
The term Semantic differential scale refers to any collection of rating scales anchored by bipolar adjectives. It is a very flexible approach to obtaining measures of attitudes. The, object that is rated is called the "concept" and almost anything can be rated including family planning, cosmetics, Shrikhand, political parties, etc. 107nally, a semantic differential scale is based on a seven-point rating scale for each of a number of attributes relating to the research topic. The extreme point represent the bipolar adjectives with the central category representing neutral. In the semantic differential scale only the extremes have names. The in-between categories have either blank spaces or sometimes a number. Some examples of the scale are as follows
Good ……………………………………………………………Bad
Honest ………………………………………………………….Dishonest
Progressive ………………………………………………………..Behind the times
The preparation of a semantic differential scale for a study requires expressing the things that could he used to describe the object, and thus serve as a bets for attitude formation, in terms of positive and negative statements. The negative phrase is sometimes put on the left side of the scale and sometimes on the right. This prevents a respondent with a positive attitude from simply checking either the left or right hand sides without reading the describing words.
The scale can be used for a variety of purposes. 11 can be used to check whether a respondent has a favourable attitude towards the object, which out of three neighborhood banks has the most appealing profile for housewives, etc.
It is possible to assign points to individual cells in the scale. Then one could arrive at the scores for comparisons of different objects. The Figure 1 gives an example based on image study of three neighbourhood banks among a sample of 100 housewives.
The semantic differential provides information on differences (“differential”) in word usage (“semantics”) in subjects. Osgood and Tannenbaum wrote the classic work on using the semantic differential, entitled
The Measurement of Meaning.1 The book is a detailed analysis of this powerful technique. We simply introduce the procedure here. Osgood and Tannenbaum isolated three major dimensions of word meanings through the use of factor analysis. These dimensions are evaluative (good or bad), potency (strong or weak) and activity (fast or slow). Their book contains hundreds of adjective pairs relating to these three dimensions. A subject is presented a sheet of paper with a single word or term at the top. Below this word are a number of adjectival pairs, separated by seven blanks. For example, the meanings associated with the term “my church” might be formatted like this: The first four adjective pairs measure the evaluative dimension; the next three measure potency; and the last three measure activity. The numbers shown above are not printed on the instrument, but are shown here to help clarify the scoring procedure. Pairs which are reversed should be scored in reverse, so that positive is always (1) and negative (7) regardless of which side of the scale they appear. Subjects check one blank between each pair indicating their opinion of the term on this scale. Blanks are scored 1-7, providing a numerical score for the meaning of the term in each dimension. Groups of subjects can then be compared on the three dimensions of meaning for any commonly used word. (Note: the numbering scale 1-7 is true only if the positive term is on the left; otherwise the scale is labeled 7-1). Results can be plotted in three dimensions — to provide a picture of semantic differences between two or more groups of subjects.
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