The measure of human attitudes is extremely important with regard
to issues of equality in society. The attitude of the population influences law
makers, and voter decisions in regard to changes in equal rights of individuals
within the population. Historical data shows that the United States has faced
several key issues in regard to equal rights ranging from the dissolution of
slavery, race equality, and most recently, equal rights for LGBT couples to
engage in legalized marriage. Psychologists use attitude surveys to interpret
subjective attitudes of individuals into quantifiable empirical data.
Individual attitudes differ from personality traits and interests because
individual attitudes are commonly associated with a specific object or
situation (Hogan, 2007). Individual attitudes are complex becuase they are
composed of affective, behavioral, and cognitive actions, feelings, and
thoughts that an individual displays in reaction to, or result of a particular
object or situation (Hogan, 2007).
The format of the survey is built using a population-based
approach to attitude assessment surveys, which is considered the most reliable
method of obtaining general population information regarding attitude toward a
particular topic (United Nations Entity for Equality and Empowerment of Women,
2012). The survey will use the Likert
scale, which is the most common ordinal scale used by survey researchers, and
focuses on assessing individual opinions (Armstrong, n.d.). IN addition to the
Likert scale, the survey will include initial questions primarily used in
Interval or Ratio scales. This paper will discuss the various aspects of
design, administration, scoring, interpretation of the survey along with any
issues experienced during the development process.
Design
The target
audience for this survey is two-fold and focuses on registered voters in
various regions of the United States. The particular trait the survey is
designed to measure is the attitude of both age brackets hold toward same-sex
marriage equality. The survey should be administered via surveymonkey.com® to collect data and will use FaceBook® as the primary distribution medium. The decision
to use FaceBook® as the
distribution medium was made because FaceBook®
advertising process can be configured for absolute targeting of the desired
audience. The survey will be composed of ten items and should take no more than
one to two minutes to complete. The Likert scale is usually composed of a
minimum of five response categories that indicate how strongly the individual
responds to the item or question (Armstrong, n.d.). The Interval or Ratio scale
questions will be the first questions of the survey and are designed to acquire
personal information of the survey taker like age, education level, and
political and religious affiliation. This information is vital to the survey
because the issue of marriage equality varies between these particular
categories.
The second
set of questions will use the Likert scale to measure the individual’s attitude
toward the question or statement. The possible answers include strongly agree,
agree, undecided, disagree, and strongly disagree with corresponding scores of
-1, -2, 0, +1, and +2. These corresponding scores and demographic data will be
collected in an electronic survey report that will be used to correlate
individual scores and demographics into a descriptive format. The items are
considered to be the assertions and the responses are correlated using the
Likert scale; a process referred to as the method of summated ratings (Hogan,
2007). The Likert scale proposes that one single attitude construct is the
primary basis of all of the items in the survey. The statements or questions
used in the survey are designed to acquire demographic data, and attitude of
the various demographics toward marriage equality.
Administration, Scoring, and Interpretation
The survey
is to be administered via electronic placement on FaceBook®. This process is
accomplished using FaceBook’s advertising medium, which allows for drill-down
targeting to specific audiences. This method allows researchers to gather data
relevant to the survey, and minimizes potential for untargeted subjects to gain
access to the survey. This is accomplished when a user who meets the set
criteria logs into his or her FabeBook® account. On the side of the page, a box is displayed with
the header “How do You Feel About Marriage Equality?” That statement is a
hyperlink to the survey URL http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MF5VNPVthat is hosted by a well known Internet survey system,
surveymonkey.com. The results of the survey are indicated on a scoring basis.
The lower the score indicates that the individual displays lower favorability
for the topic, whereas the higher score indicates a stronger level of
favorability. The scores follow the same directionality, meaning the negative
score always indicates a lower favorability. The scores equate to the raw data
that is collected in mass distribution of the survey and compared to known
norms of similar surveys, which will help provide an accurate interpretation. For
example, if there is a known tendency to score a particular item very high, the
raw scores of the test can be interpreted to take this tendency into account.
Issues Experienced in Survey Creation
As the population-based approach applies to this survey,
the main goal of the survey is to ascertain the examinees demographics, and
perceptions of same-sex marriage in the United States. With this in mind, I
tried to design statements and questions to measure accurate demographic data
and attitudes toward same-sex marriage amongst the various demographics. This
form of data collection should provide a higher rate of validity of the
interpretation that the lower scores equal a lower perception of same-sex
marriage than the higher scores, and provide a cross-correlation between the
score rankings and the demographic data. This process should result in a data
set that shows how high or low marriage equality is favored amongst various
demographics of the general populous. The items and questions used should
provide a reliable gauge of observable behavior, previous feelings or belief
factors, and current opinion and attitudes across the various demographics
recorded. One of the most difficult factors was wording of the items and
questions as to not lead the examinee to a particular outcome or response.
Although I believe the questions are presented in a fairly neutral manner, I
tried to word them to reduce the potential for misinterpretation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the attitude survey regarding marriage
equality is created using the Likert scale method, and questions used in the
Interval and Ratio scale to record and interpret a general opinion of marriage
equality in comparison to various demographics within the populous. The survey
also attempts to measure the attitude toward marriage equality based on the
collected demographic data to validate different affective, behavioral, and
cognitive components associated with the various demographic data. Thus,
providing a validated comparison of attitude toward marriage equality amongst
people in different age, educational, political, religious, and sexual
preferences. A working version of this survey can be retrieved at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MF5VNPV
Hogan, T.P. (2007). Psychological
testing: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University
of Phoenix eBook Collection database.
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