Study of factor structure of attitudinal measures of major social psychological constructs in an Irish sample

Abstract

Within social psychology, the study of attitudes has been a central concern since the first quarter of this century. In fact, some early theorists (e.g. Thomas and Znaniecki, 1918 and Watson, 1925) regarded attitude as so central a concept that they equated social psychology with the study of attitudes (McGuire, 1969; Davis, 1973). One consequence of the continuing and wide interest in, and study of, social attitudes has been a proliferation of attitude constructs as well as numerous scales designed to measure them. This presents the attitude researcher with much groundwork already laid; however, it also poses several problems. First of all, which constructs are more important to study than others? Secondly, which scales best measure these constructs? Thirdly, are the constructs unidimensional, as many, if not most, of the scales presume, and fourthly, are the scales developed in one culture transportable to another culture?