Guttman scale
a type of attitude measure that consists of multiple verbal statements ordered to reflect increasing levels of positive evaluation. Endorsement of a particular statement implies endorsement of all statements less extreme than that statement. For example, Item 1 could state “I believe that education is valuable,” Item 2 could state “I believe that people who are educated are more productive,” and Item 3 could state “I believe that I would be more productive if I had more education.” A person who agreed with the third statement thus would also agree with the first and second statements. Although generally used to measure attitudes, Guttman scales can also be used to assess other properties of a target of judgment. Also called cumulative scale; scalogram. [first described in 1944 by Louis Guttman (1916–1987), U.S. experimental psychologist]