Thurstone attitude scales
a direct attitude measure that involves generating a large set of statements designed to reflect varying levels of negativity or positivity toward an attitude object. A group of judges are then asked to rate how positive or negative each statement is, usually on a 9- or 11-point scale. The central tendency and dispersion of the judges’ ratings for each statement are computed, and a set of statements with low dispersions is selected. This set contains two statements reflecting each of the scale points on the rating scale (i.e., two statements having an average rating of 1, two statements having an average rating of 2, and so on) and makes up the final attitude scale. When the scale is administered, respondents are instructed to indicate which statements they endorse, and their attitude score is the median of the scale values for these statements. See also Likert scale; semantic differential. [Louis L.
Thurstone]