Ttitude Strength

Attitude Strength

Social psychologists have long recognized the possibility that attitudes might differ from one another in terms of their strength, but only recently had the profound implications of this view been explored. Yet because investigators in the area were pursuing interesting but independent programs of research exploring different aspects of strength, there was little articulation of assumptions underlying the work, and little effort to establish a common research agenda. The goals of this book are to highlight these assumptions, to review the discoveries this work has produced, and to suggest directions for future work in the area. The chapter authors include individuals who have made significant contributions to the published literature and represent a diversity of perspectives on the topic. In addition to providing an overview of the broad area of attitude strength, particular chapters deal in depth with specific features of attitudes related to strength and integrate the diverse bodies of relevant theory and empirical evidence. The book will be of interest to graduate students initiating work on attitudes as well as to longstanding scholars in the field. Because of the many potential directions for application of work on attitude strength to amelioration of social problems, the book will be valuable to scholars in various applied disciplines such as political science, marketing, sociology, public opinion, and others studying attitudinal phenomena.

Attitude

Item Response Theory

The measurement theories considered in this book fall into a sub-area of psychometrics. These theories are concerned with the specifications of rules for transforming individuals' responses to items on a psychological test or scale into estimates of the trait assumed to underlie the observable responses. Discussed is a particular class of measurement theories generally called item response theory or latent trait theory. This book is designed for those individuals involved in programs of applied testing and measurement whose efforts occasionally bring them into contact with the law and public policy.