What is an Attitude?• “An organized predisposition to respond in

a favorable or unfavorable manner toward a specified class of objects” (Shaver, 1977)

• Position on a bipolar affective or evaluative dimension (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)

• Networks of interrelated beliefs that reside in long-term memory and are activated when the attitude object or issue is encountered (Tourangeau & Rasinksi, 1988)

Measuring Attitudes:Thurstone’s Equal Appearing Intervals (1928)

• Create pool of belief items (~100)

• ~300 judges rate favorability of items– Scale value of item = average rating– Exclude items with high variance

• Final scale: ~20 evenly distributed items

• Person checks items (s)he agrees with

• Score = median value of checked items

Measuring Attitudes:Likert’s Summated Ratings (1932)

• Create pool of belief items

• Decide how to score each (+ or -)– exclude neutral or ambiguous items

• Administer to relevant sample– bipolar SA (+2) to SD (-2) scale

• Criterion of internal consistency– item-total correlations & Coefficient Alpha

Issues with Likert Scales

• Ambiguity of SD responses– Women deserve same job opportunities as men– So use bipolar scales (“Women deserve…”)

• Scaling is compensatory– 5 SA + 5 SD = 10 N = 5A + 5D

• Include neutral midpoint?

• How many anchors?

Measuring Attitudes:Guttman’s Scalogram (1944)

• Create set of items that form a uni-dimensional hierarchy

• Score = “highest” item person endorses• e.g., attitudes towards gambling:

– Place bets with bookie– Gambling trips to Las Vegas– Bet on greyhounds/horses– Office football/basketball pools– Penny ante poker with friends– No-stakes wager with a friend

Measuring Attitudes:Osgood’s Semantic Differential Scale

• Subjects rate items on bipolar adjectives:– good…………………………………bad– favorable ……………………unfavorable– like……………………………….dislike

• Score = sum of responses to all items

• Most direct measure of evaluation/affect

What is Job Satisfaction?

• Spector:– “the degree to which

people like their jobs”

– “How people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their jobs”

Work characteristics

JobSatisfaction(s)

Simple Discrepancy Models

• Porter (1961): Need Satisfaction– Desired-Actual

• Minnesota Work Adjustment Model– 20 “reinforcers” (based on Murray’s 12 needs)

• Locke (1976): Values– “Job satisfaction results from appraisal of one’s job as

attaining…one’s important job values”

– provided these values are congruent with basic needs

Perceived characteristics

JobSatisfaction(s)

Objective characteristics

Needs/Values

Frame of Reference Models• March & Simon

– Evaluation of inducements/contributions ratio

– Labor market affects value of contributions

• Cornell Model: Outcomes vs. Expectations– Evaluations of outcomes are affected by Frame of

Reference (alternatives, past experience, economy)

• Hulin, Roznowski & Hachiya (1985)– Frame of reference influences both contributions and

inducements

Perceived characteristics

JobSatisfaction(s)

Objective characteristics

Needs/Values

Frame of Reference

Questioning the Situational View

• A chink in the armor: are perceptions veridical with objective reality?

• Social Information Processing model

• Dispositional View

Alternative Models of JS: Social Information Processing Model

• Social construction of attitudes vs objective characteristics) – Salancik & Pfeffer (1978)– Roots in Schachter & Singer (1962)

• Attitude statements based on:– Perception of affective components– Social context cues– Self-attributions about behavior

EventGeneralized

Arousal

Cues

JS

Alternative Models of JS: Dispositional Approach

• Staw & Ross (1985)– Surprising stability over time/situations

• Staw, Bell & Clausen (1986)– Childhood temperament predicts adult JS

• Arvey et al. (1989)– JS has hereditary component (30%)

Caveats re: Dispositional Approach

• General questions about behavioral genetics

• Gerhart (1987): Situation AND Disposition– Compared effects on current satisfaction of

prior satisfaction, pay, job complexity– Job complexity had strongest effect

• Why isn’t extrinsic satisfaction heritable?

• Why is JS heritable? A JS gene?

Temperament and Job Satisfaction

• Trait NA/PA may be key factor– Some reason to believe that it may have

biological basis, and thus inheritable

• Those high in NA are more likely to:– Notice negative stimuli– Evaluate stimuli in negative terms– Recall negative stimuli– Create interpersonal conflict dissatisfaction

Primacy of Affect or Judgment

Events Affect JS

Weiss & Cropanzano (1996)

Disposition Mood at work JS

Weiss et al. (1999)

Disposition Interpretations JS

Brief (1998)

Primacy of Affect or Judgment

DispositionInterpretations

JS

Brief & Weiss (2002)

Mood

Stress events

Strain

JS

Fuller et al. (2003)

Mood

SubjectiveNorm

Attitude:Act

BehaviorIntent

Behavior

Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)

Attitudes and Behavior

Evaluation

Behaviorbeliefs

Normativebeliefs

Motivation to Comply

SubjectiveNorm

Attitude:Act

BehaviorIntent

Behavior

Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)

Attitudes and Behavior

Evaluation

Behaviorbeliefs

Normativebeliefs

Motivation to Comply

SubjectiveNorm

Attitude:Act

BehaviorIntent

Behavior

Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)

Constraints

Attitudes and Behavior