Abstract
judgments based on Thurstonian category method are linearly related to logar~rhm of geometric mean of magnitude estimation judgments. This relationsh~p has been obtained on a wide variety of nonmetric dimensions (Ekman, 1962; Stevens, 1966). These results imply not only that such scales are unidimensional but also that Thurstone's category method measures equal log ratios rather than equal distances. Thus a magnitude estimation scale, since it does provide a measure of distance, may well be a higher order scale which is readily applicable to subjective attitudinal dimensions. The present investigation was designed to determine whether expected logarithmic relationship between two scales would be obtained on a nonmetric dimension called sexual Forty undergraduate students (20 male and 20 female) were presented a list of 24 verbal statements,' each of which described a fairly specific act related to sexual behavior. (An example of an item representing mildly liberal behavior is one involving kissing on a first date; an example of a strongly liberal item is one involving premarital intercourse.) Each of 24 items was rated in terms of its seriousness or severity relative to the community code of sexual standards. Half of students (10 male and 10 female) made judgments based on a 9-point category scale ranging from extremely serious to extremely non-serious. The remaining 20 Ss made magnitude estimation judgments based on a standard item which was arbitrarily assigned a value of 10. The 24 mean category judgments were plotted against logarithms of 24 geometric means obtained from magnitude estimation judgments. The plot' revealed an unmistakable linear tendency with relatively small scacter. This logarithmic relationship between two scales suggests that attitudes regarding various sexual acts can be unidimensionally scaled by procedure of magnitude estimation.
Published Version
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