Semantic Differential Technique Research Articles

Личностно обусловленный контент доброты в контексте межличностных интеракций

The relevance of the research is due to the fact that in the modern technogenic world, kindness requires special attention because of several reasons: first, kindness is a gift that contributes to the preservation of the humane in a human; second, it resists the devaluation and depersonalization of human individuality; third, it unites people on the basis of deep spiritual values; and finally, kindness helps people develop and improve themselves through the expansion of social ties and activation of prosocial behaviors. The objective of the research is to identify how kindness in interpersonal relationships is specific to a person depending on its dominant mode. Hypothesis: the subjective experience of receiving and showing kindness in interpersonal interactions determines its content and the specifics of verbal referents. Participants: students (N = 75) of Saratov State University (Saratov) aged between 20 and 22 years (M=21.48; SD=1.12), 83% female. Methods (tools): prototypical methodology for describing the structure of the social concept of kindness (P. Verges); semantic differential technique to characterize the semantic space of the construct “kind person” (Ch. Osgood); methodology of kindness modes to determine its dominant mode (D. E. Youngs, M. A. Yaneva & D. V. Canter); self-actualization test for the diagnosis of the self-actualization index (E. Shostrom adapted by A. Jones, R. Crandall); behavioral activity questionnaire to determine its type (L. I. Wasserman and N. V. Gumenyuk). Results: the research reveals the structure of the social concept of kindness, constructs the semantic space of the concept “kind person”, identifies the three groups that differ in relation to themselves and Others, in relation to the modes of kindness, ideas of kindness, behavioral patterns and the specifics of verbal referents. Conclusions. The research has worked out the invariant meaning of the concept of good and kindness in different languages; the study has emphasized intersubjective (caring for the Other) and intrasubjective (caring for oneself) psychological orientations of kindness, which are associated with the responsibility of the individual for the present and future of their own and of the Other’s; the research has identified the tendency to understand kindness one-sidedly reducing it to a helping behavior and identifying it with the proper care of the Other; the study has established that the subjective experience of receiving and showing kindness in interpersonal interactions determines the type of the kindness mode and the specifics of verbal referents. Practical significance. The results of the study can be used in counseling and psychological training.

Marketing sonified fragrance: Designing soundscapes for scent.

Auditory branding is undoubtedly becoming more important across a range of sectors. One area, in particular, that has recently seen significant growth concerns the introduction of music and soundscapes that have been specifically designed to match a particular scent (what one might think of as "audio scents" or "sonic scents"). This represents an exciting new approach to the sensory marketing of fragrance and for industries with strategic sensory goals, such as cosmetics. Crucially, techniques such as the semantic differential technique, as well as the emerging literature on crossmodal correspondences, offer both a mechanistic understanding of, and a practical framework for, those wishing to rigorously align the connotative meaning and conceptual/emotional/sensory associations of sound and scent. These developments have enabled those working in the creative industries to start moving beyond previously popular approaches to matching, or translating between the senses, that were traditionally often based on the idiosyncratic phenomenon of synaesthesia, toward a more scientific approach while nevertheless still enabling/requiring a healthy dose of artistic inspiration. In this narrative historical review, we highlight the various approaches to the systematic matching of sound with scent and review the various marketing activations that have appeared in this space recently.

Consumer Subjective Impressions in Virtual Reality Environments: The Role of the Visualization Technique in Product Evaluation

The availability and affordability of consumer virtual reality (VR) devices have fueled their adoption during the product design process. High fidelity virtual prototypes can be created more quickly and are more cost-effective than using traditional methods, but certain product features are still difficult to evaluate, resulting in perceptual differences when a product is assessed using different visualization techniques. In this paper, we report two case studies in which a group of participants evaluated different designs of a product typology (i.e., a watering can) as presented in VR, VR with passive haptics (VRPH) and in a real setting (R) for the first case study, and VR and R for the second case study. The semantic differential technique was used for product evaluation, and an inferential statistical method using aligned rank transform (ART) proceedings was applied to determine perceptual differences between groups. Our results showed that product characteristics assessed by touch are the most susceptible to being affected by the environment, while the user background can have an effect in some product features.

Self-Determination in Maths Education: How to Strengthen Students’ Positive Attitude to Mathematics and Develop Their Emotional/Social Competences

The aim of this study was to verify the effectiveness of the self-determination theory (SDT) in mathematics teaching methodology. In the experimental group, 62 fifth-graders had 10 months of maths lessons according to an original programme that prioritises three needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness.
 The following research questions were formulated:
 
 How did students’ attitudes towards mathematics change under the influence of methodological interventions aimed at satisfying the three SDT needs?
 Did the methodological solutions contribute to better emotional/social competences in the students?
 Did the intervention result in higher maths achievement, measured by a maths knowledge and skills test and grades in the subject?
 
 The findings included statistically significant differences in 1) positive attitude towards mathematics (measured by the semantic differential technique), 2) emotional/social competences (measured by the KA scale from the tool called TROS-KA) and 3) mathematical achievements (measured by a maths test and grades in school) in comparison to the control group (N = 59), where less positive attitudes towards mathematics, lower maths grades and no significant increase in emotional/social competences were observed.

Methods of studying the socio-psychological determinants of educational motivation and learning success of students of higher educational institutions

The possibilities of using questionnairesto study the influence ofsocio-psychological determinants on the educational motivation of university students are discussed. The effectiveness of closed-type questionnaires, which take into account the entire range of field behavior of students in the educational environment, is shown, and the possibility of using the semantic differential technique in questionnaires with a scaling procedure is considered, which makes it possible to objectify the self-assessment of the identified parameters of sociopsychological determinants of educational motivation. The learning motives proposed for analysis are objectified in terms of students’ assessment of the educational environment, as well as indicators of the success of mastering knowledge in the disciplines of humanitarian, natural science and professional training. The prognostic aspect of the application of methods lies in the plane of corrective educational and career guidance work with students at various stages of training and professionalization of the personality of a future specialist.

Эмотивная составляющая воздействия текста интернет-блога

The article focuses on application capabilities of the semantic differential experimental technique aimed at identification of the emotive component of the Internet blog texts impact on the recipients who belong to varied linguistic cultures. The confirmed hypothesis reveals the strongest impact on recipients of the blog texts in cases when the employed value categories coincide with their cultural reference. It means that the impact is nationally marked. The experiments, carried out at the initial stage of the long-time period extended research into Russian values system transformation, resulted in establishing the selected blog texts impact strength for the Russian and American groups of recipients. The natively stipulated character of the blog content impact was noted, since the articles offered for reading by each group of the experiment participants contained the material relevant to a particular linguistic culture and values. Their presence directed the respondents' perception and determined the quality of the response emotions and types of response. The phased presentation of the text of the article, positive and negative comments made it possible to establish the dependence of the reception process on the impact vector laid down by each object. This vector was proved to direct the transformation of the perception of the recipients. The article text reception accompanied by graphic objects and further comments reading as a combination of heterogeneous sign systems (text, photo) that complement each other and contributed to a better information assimilation by the recipients in the direction in which the Internet diary author wanted it.

Implicit Semantic Role of Material on the Quality of Living Space Using Semantic Differential Technique

Living spaces have been recognized as one of the functional spaces of housing. Materials and textures are regarded as some of the features of the space. The present study sought to analyze the components of the different materials (brick, stone, glass, metal, concrete, and wood) and their semantic role in living spaces. The materials’ characteristics were coded and then semantic differentials was conducted to quantify the measurement. The significant factors of materials were defined as acceptability, motivative, capability, and resistance for brick; persistence, admiration, and purity for concrete; creativeness, resilience, and capacity for wood; fatigue and limpidity for glass; strength and durability for stone; and minimal and interweaving for metal. The results of the present study indicated that the implicit meaning of acceptability in brick was based on nostalgia, traditionality, and warmth. Furthermore, the industriality, modernity, coldness, and artificiality of concrete represented the explicitness and transparency and the industriality of glass indicated limpidity. The resilience of wood was based on stagnation, strength, and solitude. Finally, the rigidity, beauty, and coldness of stone indicated the power and strength, while simplicity, solitude, and stress-induced demonstrated the tangle of metal that can affect the application and achievement of desired living space.

On the application of extended reality technologies for the evaluation of product characteristics during the initial stages of the product development process

Fast-growing global markets are forcing companies to continuously re-assess customer needs when designing new products. Product evaluation is a critical task to ensure success, but it can require significant financial and time investments. From an end-user standpoint, consumers must also evaluate multiple design options before purchasing a product, which is often a complex process, especially in online environments where traditional formats coexist with more sophisticated media. Modern extended reality technologies have become an effective tool for product assessment in professional design environments as well as a powerful mechanism for consumers during decision making activities. However, the modality used to view and evaluate the product may affect the perceptual response and thus the user’s overall evaluation. In this paper, we examine the influence of visual media in product assessment using different designs of a particular product typology. We discuss two studies where a group of participants used the semantic differential technique to evaluate four chair designs displayed in three different media. In our first study, participants used simultaneous evaluation to assess the products as presented in photographs, a non-immersive environment, and an Augmented Reality (AR) experience. In the second study, participants evaluated the product separately as viewed in non-photorealistic rendering, AR, and virtual reality (VR). We used the “Aligned Rank Transform” proceedings to find differences between groups for the semantic scales, the overall evaluation, the purchasing decision, and the response confidence. Our results show that visual media influences product perception. Certain characteristics in Jordan's physio-pleasure category are particularly significant as perceptual differences are more pronounced. Immersive media can highlight some product attributes and a joint evaluation can help minimize these differences.

Hand explorations are determined by the characteristics of the perceptual space of real-world materials from silk to sand

Perceiving mechanical properties of objects, i.e., how they react to physical forces, is a crucial ability in many aspects of life, from choosing an avocado to picking your clothes. There is, a wide variety of materials that differ substantially in their mechanical properties. For example, both, silk and sand deform and change shape in response to exploration forces, but each does so in very different ways. Studies show that the haptic perceptual space has multiple dimensions corresponding to the physical properties of textures, however in these experiments the range of materials or exploratory movements were restricted. Here we investigate the perceptual dimensionality in a large set of real materials in a free haptic exploration task. Thirty-two participants actively explored deformable and non-deformable materials with their hands and rated them on several attributes. Using the semantic differential technique, video analysis and linear classification, we found four haptic dimensions, each associated with a distinct set of hand and finger movements during active exploration. Taken together our findings suggest that the physical, particularly the mechanical, properties of a material systematically affect how it is explored on a much more fine-grained level than originally thought.

Correction: Gender differences in emotional connotative meaning of words measured by Osgood’s semantic differential techniques in young adults

Correction: Gender differences in emotional connotative meaning of words measured by Osgood’s semantic differential techniques in young adults

Evaluation of the NANDA International, Inc. diagnostic classification in Spain: Development and validation of the EVALUAN-I tool.

To develop and validate a tool to evaluate the NANDA International, Inc. diagnostic classification. The tool, EVALUAN-I, was validated in a non-probabilistic sample (N = 460) on Spanish Registered Nurses (September-December 2019) in two phases. First, design and construct the instrument in three steps: (1) literature review to define the construct focusing on the orientation toward nursing concepts and theoretical foundations, the level of scientific evidence, the structural configuration, the applicability, the nurses' clinical reasoning skills, and the attitudes toward nursing diagnosis, (2) substantiation of the questionnaire items and design according to the criteria for a diagnostic classification, (3) expert test to establish the face validity and content validity. The second phase revolved around (4) conducting a pilot test and measuring the temporal stability (test-retest) and Cohen's kappa coefficient; assessing psychometric properties by measuring (5) reliability (internal consistency using Cronbach alpha and interfactor correlation) and (6) construct validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis). The manuscript follows the STROBE checklist. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee with registration number 2019-190-1. EVALUAN-I displayed moderate test-retest stability, adequate construct validity, and excellent reliability. The confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence about the configuration of EVALUAN-I in relation to nine analytical dimensions: clinical competence, nurses' reasoning skills, attitudes towards nursing diagnosis, discipline's central concepts, classification's contents, physiopathological attributes, level of scientific evidence, diagnostic precision, and conceptual correspondence between terminologies. EVALUAN-I is a valid and reliable instrument, which can be used to improve the epistemological, normative, and intuitive configuration of NANDA International, Inc. in a structured, systematic manner. Comprehensive evaluation of NANDA International, Inc. in different clinical settings around the world using a validated instrument, like EVALUAN-I, would allow strengths and weaknesses to be identified and contribute to the classification's development and practical application.

Gender differences in emotional connotative meaning of words measured by Osgood\u2019s semantic differential techniques in young adults

Semantic differential techniques are a useful, well-validated tool to assess affective processing of stimuli and determine how that processing is impacted by various demographic factors, such as gender. In this paper, we explore differences in connotative word processing between men and women as measured by Osgood’s semantic differential and what those differences imply about affective processing in the two genders. We recruited 94 young participants (47 men, 47 women, ages 18–39) using an online survey and collected their affective ratings of 120 words on three rating tasks: Evaluation (E), Potency (P), and Activity (A). With these data, we explored the theoretical and mathematical overlap between Osgood’s affective meaning factor structure and other models of emotional processing commonly used in gender analyses. We then used Osgood’s three-dimensional structure to assess gender-related differences in three affective classes of words (words with connotation that is Positive, Neutral, or Negative for each task) and found that there was no significant difference between the genders when rating Positive words and Neutral words on each of the three rating tasks. However, young women consistently rated Negative words more negatively than young men did on all three of the independent dimensions. This confirms the importance of taking gender effects into account when measuring emotional processing. Our results further indicate there may be differences between Osgood’s structure and other models of affective processing that should be further explored.

Sleepy, tired, drowsy, and fatigue have different meanings for a university student sample.

This pilot study aimed to investigate differences in the semantic meanings that individuals attribute to the words "sleepy," "fatigued," "tired," and "drowsy." Ninety-six undergraduate students ranked the target words on 3 independent dimensions (evaluative, potency, and activity) to assess their meaning using the semantic differential technique. Participants also completed online questionnaires to assess their sleep difficulties and current states of sleepiness and fatigue. There were significant differences between all 4 words in connotative meaning on the evaluative dimension, P < .05 for all post-hoc comparisons, with the differences largest between "sleepy" and "fatigued." "Drowsy" was significantly closer in meaning to "sleepy" than to "fatigued," P = .04, and "tired" was not significantly closer in meaning to "sleepy" or "fatigued," P = .13. No significant association was found between insomnia severity index scores and "sleepy" ratings, r(s) = 0.08, P = .42, but a small effect was found with "fatigued" ratings, r(s) = 0.24, P = .02. These preliminary findings indicate that individuals consider these words as distinct concepts, relatively unaffected by the current severity of their insomnia symptoms. This adds to the argument for not using these words interchangeably, which we encourage sleep medicine researchers and clinicians to consider when employing these words in research and clinical practice. Long H, Scott H, Lack L. Sleepy, tired, drowsy, and fatigue have different meanings for a university student sample. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022;18(5):1235-1241.

Путь в психологию: о становлении экспериментальной психосемантики

The article presents the history of the creation and formation of experimental psychosemantics — a research approach developed by Viktor Petrenko and his colleagues and employees on the basis of the laboratory of communication psychology and psychosemantics of the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. This approach is developing within the framework of the methodological school of L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontyev and A.R. Luria based on the ideas of G.A. Kelly (personal construct theory) and C.E. Osgood (semantic differential technique). The events of the second half of the 1960s and 1970s which laid the foundation for the future research approach followed by the main stages of its develop-ment in the 1980s and 1990s as well as at present daysare described in detail. Psychosemantic methods are used to study the content of consciousness, ideas of a person in the field of politics, economics, law, ethics, art, his ideas about himself, other people; individual and ethno-social characteristics of categorization and con-struction of the image of the world in relation to the consciousness of both an individual subject and social, ethnic or professional communities and groups. In recent years, the focus of research work in the field of psy-chosemantics has shifted to the physical aspects of the categorization problem, methodological comparisons of the approaches of psychosemantics and quantum physics.

Соотношение субъективных характеристик и объективных критериев личностной зрелости студентов

The category of «personal maturity» is increasingly in the focus of scientific research including the ones imple-mented using experimental psychosemantic methods. The purpose of this work is to study the correspondence be-tween of subjective characteristics and objective criteria of personal maturity of students. The main hypothesis of the study is based on the assumption that subjective ideas of students about the level of their own personal maturi-ty do not coincide with its actual, objectively manifested level. While studying subjective ideas of students about the level of their own personal maturity, a specialized semantic differential technique was developed. The crea-tion of research tools of this type is carried out in several stages, including identifying of evaluation objects, iden-tifying of evaluation scales, testing of a specialized semantic differential. Empirical data obtained through appli-cation of a specialized semantic differential was processed by means of exploratory factor analysis. As a result, two factors «Subjective Position» and «Positive Attitude» were identified. Subjective characteristics of personal maturity are reflected through the position of the object «My present Self» in the semantic space of these factors. Ideas about personal maturity in students who perceive themselves as personally mature and immature are gener-ally identical as evidenced by a similar pattern of the location of most evaluated objects, however, the position of the object «My present Self» is different which allows us to distinguish two contrasting groups of respondents. According to the psychodiagnostic evaluation, students who perceive themselves as personally immature demon-strate a higher level of personal maturity: they are more responsible, independent, autonomous, etc. The presented algorithm for developing a specialized semantic differential technique can be useful for researchers studying un-conscious, latent, poorly instrumented psychological phenomena

Adaptation, validity, and reliability of the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale in Spanish population

Purpose To adapt the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale (IDP) into Spanish and examine its factor structure. Methods A forward and back translation of the IPD was performed by professional translators of scholarly articles. Spanish-speaking professional translators provided modifications in order to develop the final version of the scale. Participants filled in the Spanish version of the IDP, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Multidimensional Attitudes Scale toward persons with disabilities (MAS), and Semantic Differential Technique (SDT). Results A total of 523 persons (62.6% women), with a mean age of 29.22 (SD = 14.03) ranking from 18 to 81. The confirmatory factor analysis showed a reliable brief version of the IDP with adequate psychometric properties and two factors: (χ (19) 2=28.98, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.91, RMSEA (90% IC)=0.05 (0.01, 0.08), SRMR = 0.06). The first factor solution was Coping/Succumbing Framework and the second factor was Discomfort in Social Interaction. The internal consistency reliability for the first factor was 0.63 and for the second 0.66. Conclusions Our findings provide evidence of the psychometric properties of the IDP as a brief measure of attitude toward individual with special needs in Spanish population. Implications for rehabilitation The Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale (IDP) was successfully translated into Spanish language. The Spanish version of IDP Scale has a good acceptability, acceptable internal consistency, and high test–retest reliability. The Spanish version of IDP can been used to assist the clinicians, educators, and researchers in identifying the attitudes of the Spanish population toward persons with functional diversity in Spanish. Identifying the attitudes will permit to improve the inclusion polity and to design social programs toward greater inclusion.

Seeing colour through language: Colour knowledge in the blind and sighted

ABSTRACT We explored colour connotations in blind and sighted observers using the semantic differential technique. Participants rated colour terms on 17 semantic scales. At the group level, blind participants were similar to sighted on some scales, but had weaker colour associations on others, with significant individual differences. Two, in particular, produced ratings that were very similar to the sighted sample. We quantified individual differences amongst the blind participants by computing the difference between their ratings and the mean of the sighted participants for each colour on each scale. This “semantic similarity index” indicates how similar each blind participant was to sighted observers. The participants also rated dissimilarities between pairs of colour terms, which we subjected to multidimensional scaling. This also revealed large variability amongst the blind participants, with some producing colour spaces resembling those of the sighted. The semantic similarity index computed from the blind participants’ semantic differential data correlated strongly with the circularity of personal colour spaces derived from multidimensional scaling: observers who resembled the sighted on one measure tended to do so on the other. These observations provide strong, albeit indirect, support for the notion that semantics provide sufficient information for blind people to develop rich understandings of colour.

Affective Communication of Map Symbols: A Semantic Differential Analysis

Maps enable us to relate to spatial phenomena and events from viewpoints far beyond direct experience. By employing signs and symbols, maps communicate about near as well as distant geospatial phenomena, events, objects, or ideas. Besides acting as identifiers, map signs and symbols may, however, not only denote but also connote. While most cartographic research has focused on the denoting character of visual variables, research from related disciplines stresses the importance of connotative qualities on affect, cognition, and behavior. Hence, this research focused on the connotative character of map symbols by empirically assessing the affective qualities of shape stimuli. In three stimulus conditions of cartographic and non-cartographic contexts, affective responses towards a set of eight shape stimuli were assessed by employing a semantic differential technique. Overall findings showed that shape symbols lead to, at times, highly distinctive affective responses. Findings further suggest two particular stimulus clusters of affective qualities that prevailed over all stimulus conditions, i.e., a cluster of asymmetric stimuli and a cluster of symmetric stimuli. Between the intersection of psychology, cartography, and semiotics, this paper outlines theoretical perspectives on cartographic semiotics, discusses empirical findings, and addresses implications for future research.

Student Opinions about their Retirement Future

The paper aims to identify respondents’ attitudes to and awareness of the retirement age and social protection, as well as their expectations with regard to educational activities in this area. The research was carried out in 2018, using an anonymous PAPI type interview on a non-random sample of economics students (N = 703 people) who were either full-time or part-time students. The detailed objectives of the analysis were related to the following issues: – elementary knowledge of social insurance (an open question), – attitudes towards future retirement, care for the elderly, and social solidarity (semantic differential technique combined with the Likert scale), – expectations and opinions regarding the attractiveness and importance of social insurance as a subject of education (techniques as above), – the desire to deepen knowledge in this area (a dichotomous question).&#x0D; The conducted research has shown that despite a lack of expressive attitudes towards social and pension insurance, respondents were interested in deepening their knowledge in this area. This implies the need to create teaching programmes that would broaden this knowledge and build a new insurance awareness based not on demanding attitudes but on the conviction that the retirement future is created independently of the existing system and institutions

Text Creolization as the Way to Change the Text Perception

The article presents the findings of the psycholinguistic experiments based on the semantic differential technique. The experiments’ objective was to identify the effect of illustration on a verbal text perception. We compared the respondents’ assessment of verbal texts and illustrated texts (with illustrations in major and minor color schemes). The data analysis reveals seven factors: Assessment , Naturalness , Strength , Imagery , Romanticism , Dynamism , Commonality . We identified the illustrations parameters affecting the assessment of creolized texts: adding any illustration, the illustration color scheme matching the verbal text content, the color scheme naturalness, the illustration color scheme matching the text emotional and semantic dominant, the use of minor color scheme. The most pragmatic potential was identified in the parameter “(non)matching the color scheme with the semantic dominant of the text” (it is important for the assessment of five out of seven factors). We found that both conformity ( Strength factor assessment) and inconsistency (for Dynamism , Imagery , Romance , Evaluation factors assessment) can be significant. The text creolization increases its Imagery and changes Romanticism factors. The color scheme matching the image content increases the text Naturalness assessment, and an unnatural color scheme decreases it. There was a decrease in Assessment if a minor color scheme was used.