Attitude-Scaling Methods
According to Oppenheim (1966: 120), “attitude scales consist of from half-adozen to two dozen or more attitude statements, with which the respondent is asked to
agree or disagree.” Their chief function is to divide respondents roughly into a 9
number of broad groups, with regard to a particular attitude. Such scales cannot, by
themselves, be expected to provide subtle insights in an individual case. Instead, they
are techniques for placing respondents on a continuum in relation to one another in
relative, not in absolute terms. However, we must not expect too much from the
respondents because attitude scales are relatively crude measuring instruments.