Note how the statements below that are typically used to measure attitude are different from the items above in terms of the object being described:.
Affect is NOT the Same as Attitude By Dr. Gordon C. Bruner II, Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, & author of the Marketing Scales Handbook series -------------Something I noticed right away when I began my review of scales over 28 years ago and I have continued to notice it, is that many researchers confuse affect and attitude. The focus of this posting is to discuss this confusion and, hopefully, make it clearer how measurement of each construct should be different. Affect refers to an internal feeling state (e.g., Cohen, Pham, and Andrade 2008, p. 297, 298; Russell and Carroll 1999, pp. 3-4). It might be intense and linked to a particular stimulus (referred to as an emotion) or be of a lower intensity and lacking source identification (referred to as a mood). In any case, these are distinct from evaluating an object using affective terms. An attitude is an evaluation of an object. If one has a multi-component view of attitudes then usually one part is called the affective component but that does NOT refer to a person’s feelings. While we would expect there to be a relationship between one’s affective reaction to a stimulus and his/her attitude toward the stimulus, they are not the same thing. When using a scale to measure a person’s affective response to a stimulus, the respondent is describing what he/she feels whereas when measuring the person’s attitude toward an object the respondent is describing the object. So, to be clear, with one (affect) the focus is on self while with the other (attitude) the focus is the object. Here are some examples of both. Let’s imagine that a person watched a test commercial about donating to a charitable cause and sponsors want to know what respondents thought and felt. Here are some typical phrases that could be used to measure respondents’ affective reaction to the commercial: •
I am upset.
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I feel distressed.
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I feel guilty.
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I am sad.
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I am depressed.
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I feel uncomfortable.
Note how the statements below that are typically used to measure attitude are different from the items above in terms of the object being described: •
The commercial was sad.
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The commercial was likeable.
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The commercial was negative.
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The commercial was good.
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The commercial was effective.
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The commercial was interesting.
Not only should these constructs be distinguished (affect vs. attitude) but items for measuring them should not be mixed together. By that, I do not mean to imply that can’t be used in the same questionnaire but rather that they should not be part of the same multiitem scale. The reasons for this are many but suffice it to say that when you are measuring different things (constructs) you should use distinct measures which produce distinct scores for respondents. I will continue this discussion in the next posting in order to better describe alternative ways to measure attitudes. References: Cohen, Joel B., Michel Tuan Pham, and Eduardo B. Andrade (2008), “The Nature and Role of Affect in Consumer Behavior,” in Handbook of Consumer Psychology, Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Paul M. Herr, and Frank R. Kardes, eds., New York, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Russell, J.A. and J. M. Carroll (1999), “On the Bi-Polarity of Positive and Negative Affect,” Psychological Bulletin, 125(1), 3-30.
